Starring Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Mary Boland
Directed by Frank Tuttle
Music and Lyrics by various
Our next collegiate story is a bit more unique. Most of Paramount's college-set stories usually took place on the actual campus. This one varies the setting enough to take the kids on vacation to a fictional resort in trouble, with a bit of Busby Berkeley backstage mixed in. How does this strange combination of school, wacky comedians, and then-fashionable theories on human breeding look nowadays? This time, let's begin as those kids dance at their prom and find out...
The Story: Sylvia Smith (Marsha Hunt) is called from the dance by her father, who had a mental breakdown when he found out they might lose their California hotel the Casa Del Mar, thanks to his less-than-astute partner J. Davis Bowster (Benny). The mortgage is held by eccentric heiress Carola Gaye (Boland), who is given to obsess over whatever strange fad catches her fancy. At the moment, that's eugenics and ancient Greek history, thanks to Professor Hercules Dove (Etienne Giradot). Bowster promises her gorgeous college bodies for her eugenics mating program if she'll fund the college kids staying at the hotel. Bowster tells the kids they're there as entertainers, as he wants to raise enough money for them to put on a show.
The kids aren't happy when they discover that Hercules wants his "genetically perfect" daughter Calliope (Allen) to select who gets to pair off. Dick Winters (Leif Erikson) has been trying to find out Sylvia's first name ever since the dance, and he'd rather be with her than with Gaye. There's also Calliope's actual boyfriend George Hymen (Burns), who would rather avoid she check his measurements to find her Apollo, and the stagehand (Ben Blue) who tries to chase new student Daisy Scholggenheimer (Martha Raye), but has a hard time avoiding the fists she's been trained to use in order to ward off men. They all end up putting together a minstrel show in support of the hotel, and to show Hercules and Carola that true "perfection" is in the eye of the beholder.
The Song and Dance: While the story isn't much, even for a Paramount college musical, some of the individual performances do have merit. Jack Benny has fun firing off some hilarious lines, while Raye and her fists do even better playing off the adorably bewildered Blue. Boland and Dove are befuddled riots as the duo with more wealth than brains who actually believe his ridiculous theories. Allen and Burns have a blast too, especially when Gracie attempts to pair off everyone!
The Numbers: We open under the credits with everyone performing "The Sweetheart Waltz" at that dance. The California Collegians Glee club sings "The Maine Stein Song" on board the train going to the resort. Dick and Sylvia really get into their cute "A Rhyme for Love" tap routine at the back of the train. Bowster even joins in briefly near the end. Daisy wonders "So What?" when asked about men. Bowster also gets to conduct the Collegians singing "Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here" and plays (or tries to play) "Love In Bloom" during the minstrel show.
The ballad "Enchanted (I Love You)," performed by Sylvia and Dick with the chorus, is the big ballad in the minstrel show. Calliope, Ben, and George get into lavish colonial garb for an attempt at what they think is a dainty dance to the "Minuet In G." Martha Raye gets more into her blackface routine to "Who's That Knocking at My Heart?" with the Collegians.
What I Don't Like: Where to start with this one? How about eugenics has largely been discredited since 1936, making Dove's theories look even sillier now than they likely did then. Or how dull Erikson and Hunt are compared to all the loonies around them. There's also the finale revolving around a minstrel show. In 1936, it was quaint nostalgia from a rosy past. Nowadays, the blackface alone may make the final 20 minutes a slog for many people. Or the songs are cute but nothing special, with only the wordplay on "A Rhyme for Love" being even a mild stand-out. Or Raye and Blue seeming to have come from another world entire; Blue is dropped into the second half with little rhyme or reason.
The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of the star comedians.
Home Media: Once again, this can currently only be found on YouTube (admittedly in a decent copy taken from a TCM showing).
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