Talent Scout

Warner Bros, 1937

Starring Donald Woods, Jeanne Madden, Joseph Crehan, and Fred Lawrence

Directed by William Clemens

Music by M.K Jerome; Lyrics by Jack Scholl

From the 1920's through the 1960's, the studios churned out "B" pictures to fill double bills on the big screen. These movies were usually shorter than the "main" film, sometimes as little as an hour, and often featured actors who were up-and-coming or hadn't quite made the big-time. We get a little both in this tale of a top agent (Woods) who brings his newest discovery to hit the Hollywood big-time. We get a little bit of both as we start on a bus with several lovely ladies taking part in Steve Stewart's (Woods) latest publicity stunt...

The Story: After the bus breaks down again, the head of Apex Pictures A.J Lambert (Crehan) fires Stewart and tells him to find his own way home. On his way back, he stops at a local burlesque and discovers Marry Brannigan (Madden), a sweet and gifted singer, performing at a burlesque. He sees real talent in her and takes her to Hollywood, where he tries to sell her to Lambert. Her stuffy old-fashioned screen test isn't a success, and she accidentally dumps her lunch into the lap of the studio's biggest star Raymond Crane (Lawrence). Steve finally gets the studio to notice her after she hits it big singing at a charity benefit, then promotes her as sweethearts with Crane. It works too well. She actually falls for him, to the consternation of his Crane's partner Bernice (Rosalind Marquis), and to Steve himself, who is also starting to fall for Mary.

The Song and Dance: Fast-talking Woods is a lot more interesting than anyone he promotes as the talent scout who can turn anyone, even a bland young singer, into an up-and-coming star. The supporting cast isn't bad, either, including Crehan as his blustery boss who doesn't know talent until it's literally staring at him and Mary Treen as his supremely sarcastic secretary gets in a few good lines. There's also a few amusing Hollywood stereotype gags, including the two writers who have been waiting to talk to Lambert for four months. 

Favorite Number: "I am the Singer, You are the Song" is the number Mary performs at the benefit that so impresses the studio brass. "No, No Senior," Bernice's big Mexican-tinged number with the chorus, is the closest this gets to a big number. Steve brings Mary and Raymond together in the end to perform two numbers to make up after a quarrel, "I Was Wrong" and "Born to Love" (the latter with the chorus).

What I Don't Like: Let's start with characters who are either obnoxious (Steve) or dull as dishwater (Mary and Raymond). The ladies are a very big problem. None of Steve's promotion can make the supremely boring Mary into an exciting find. She may sing prettily, but she has no personality. No wonder Madden only made two more movies after this. Fox doesn't do much better, coming off as annoying rather than passionate. The story is a mess of boring cliches you've seen in every movie about Hollywood to this day. And what happened to the women on the bus Steve starts out with? Did their transportation home ever arrive?

The Big Finale: No amount of build-up can make this small-time musical into something more than a mildly diverting time-waster if you ever run into it on TCM.

Home Media: Can occasionally be found on TCM and streaming in a few places like Sling TV.

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