Bright Lights (1930)

First National/Warner Bros, 1930

Starring Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, Noah Beery, and Frank McHugh

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Music and Lyrics by various

I know I said two weeks ago that I would cover The Magic of Lassie, but I thought a cozy family film felt more suitable for next month. We're bumping that in favor of something slightly darker from the early talkie era. Dorothy Mackaill started out dancing in the chorus in her native England and in Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic revue before moving to Hollywood. By 1930, she was one of the top stars at First National, having made a smooth transition to sound the year before in The Barker. Warners was also still trying to push veteran master of ceremonies Frank Fay as a leading man after their revue Show of Shows. How well do he and Mackaill do with this unique blend of backstage numbers and murder mystery? Let's begin on opening night of the Broadway show Bright Lights outside of the Savoy Theater and find out...

The Story: Louanne (Mackaill) is on the verge of marrying wealthy Emerson Fairchild ( instead of the man she really loves, her co-star in the show Wally Dean (Fay). She tells all the reporters there to interview her, including very drunk Fish (McHugh), the story of her life...or claims she does. In reality, she started out as a singer and dancer in a low-class cafe until Portuguese smuggler Miguel Parada (Beery) attacked her. Wally manages to save her from a riot. He gives her a job dancing the hula in his side show act and once again saves her life. 

Miguel turns up at the theater, still leering at her and claiming he has "unfinished business." Wally turns up, pretending to have a gun. Trouble is, Manuel has a real one, and he's not messing around. Wally's friend Connie (James Murray) is supposed to watch him, but Manuel turns the gun on him instead. When he's killed in the ensuing brawl, Wally, Louanne, Connie, and Fish have to do some quick thinking in order to convince the police that Miguel's death was nothing more than the suicide of a criminal.

The Song and Dance: For all the song and dance, this is actually a fairly dark story for the early talkie era. It's definitely one of the more original early backstage tales. Mackaill shows why she was able to transition easily into talkies with her decent dancing and charming slightly British accent (even if her singing isn't the best). McHugh has some good moments as the reporter who questions her story and may not be quite as drunk as he appears at first. There's at least one good song, too, Fay's jaunty ballad "Nobody Cares If I'm Blue." 

The Numbers: We see the audience arriving for the big opener "Wall Street." In some ways, this almost seems like a run-up to the finale of "42nd Street" a few years later. Inez Courtney taps, fake money flies through the air, and we even get some overhead dance formations at one point. Louanne tells the reporters that she was interested in "wildlife" as a child...and then we see the wildlife that really interested her, an audience of leering South African traders eagerly ogling her as she performs the bluesy "Song of the Congo." Wally gets the film's best number as his solo at the low-down club, "Nobody Cares If I'm Blue." 

Louanne's friend Peggy North (Inez Courtney) gets "Every Little Girl He Sees," an odd tribute to college musicals with the chorus in letter sweaters and pulling out college pennants. The African motif returns for the big chorus routine "I'm Crazy for Cannibal Love," complete with chorus girls hauling spears and shields in huge feathered headdresses. The chorus girls kick behind Wally during "All the Pretty Girls I Know"...which is interrupted by the sound of a gun shot backstage. Louanne starts out in a top hat and cane dancing with chorus girls in "Man About Town," but she eventually comes back in a gown to dance with chorus boys. 

Trivia: This was originally filmed in Technicolor, but only a fragment of the original color exists. Current copies (including the ones on Tubi and on the Warner Archives DVD) are in black and white.

What I Don't Like: Other than "Nobody Cares If I'm Blue," most of the songs are up tempo dance routines that pretty much blend into one another. Fay is a problem. He does do well by "Blue," but otherwise is nowhere near Mackaill or Beery's levels and frankly comes off as whiny and annoying. Courtney doesn't have that much to do besides her numbers until she joins the others in lying to the police to save Louanne in the end. There's the loss of the color, too. It makes everyone look like over painted figurines, especially the men.

The Big Finale: Mackaill and the relatively unique story makes this worth checking out for fans of early talkie musicals or backstage yarns.

Home Media: On Warner Archives DVD paired with another Dorothy Mackaill late 20's-early 30's feature, The Reckless Hour. It being in the public domain means it's now all over streaming, too.

DVD - Dorothy Mackaill Pre-Code Double Feature: The Reckless Hour/Bright Lights

Tubi

Family Fun Musicals - So Dear to My Heart

Disney/RKO, 1948

Starring Bobby Driscoll, Beluah Bondi, Burl Ives, and Luana Patten

Directed by Harold D. Schuster and Hamilton Luske

Music and Lyrics by various

First of all, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will be going on hiatus next week for vacation. Reviews will resume October 8th with another lesser-known family film, The Magic of Lassie. 

With that out of the way, let's get to our last review before vacation. So Dear to My Heart was dear to Walt Disney in many ways. Its Midwestern setting reflected his own early 1900's childhood in Missouri and brought back happy memories on his family's farm with his brother. He wanted it to be fully live-action, but RKO, his distributor at the time, insisted Disney was too associated with animation. The short cartoon sequences here wound up being the compromise. It was a hit at the time, but how does it look today, when less rosy Disney films - in live-action and animation and both - have come and gone? Let's begin as so many fully animated Disney films do, with a beautiful old book opening. This one is found in a musty, dusty attic, and it's not a storybook, but a scrapbook that once belonged to young Jeremiah Kincaid (Driscoll) filled with all his dreams and hopes as a young lad growing up in early 1900's Indiana.

The Story: One of those hopes is to someday own a champion race horse like Dan Patch. His practical Granny (Bondi) would rather he focus on his chores in the here and now. Jerry thinks he's found a way to make his dream come true when he adopts a black lamb that was rejected by its mother. He even names him Danny. He wants Danny to win a blue ribbon at the county fair, but his grandmother and Uncle Hiram (Ives) don't have the money for a train. He and his friend Tildy (Patten) do manage to find honey to sell for the tickets, but then Tlldy gets lost and Danny runs away. 

Granny scolds Jerry for putting the awards he could win with Danny over the welfare of his friend and his pet. She finally realizes how much he loves Danny when he does find him and claims he'd be ready to give up his dreams to find his pet. Even after they make it to the fair, Danny's still making trouble...but it's the judge at the fair (Harry Carey) who realizes just how special the little lamb is, whether he's black, white, or any color in between.

The Animation: Looks pretty much like the package films released in the late 40's. It's colorful, the owl moves well, and the animation does at least somewhat resemble the cut-out "scraps" in Jerry's book. It's not the most lavish animation they ever did, not even to the degree of their previous live action/animated hybrid Song of the South, but it works with the film. 

The Song and Dance: I don't know why Disney doesn't pay more attention to this one. This is such a charming movie! As adorable as the kids are, Bondi and Ives are the real stand-outs as the crusty old woman who wishes her grandson would focus on practical matters and her laid-back brother. They have so much fun with "Lavender Blue" and dancing with the kids afterwards, no wonder "Blue" was nominated for an Oscar. 

The Numbers: We begin with our first animated sequence, which illustrates the seasons John Beal croons about in the title song via the scraps in Jerry's book. Uncle Hiram briefly sings "Ol' Dan Patch" as he drives the kids home in his wagon after seeing the famous race horse. Our first of three animated sequences with the Old Wise Owl who illustrates sayings is the catchy "It's Whatcha Do With What You Got." The Owl assures the animated Danny by reminding him David once toppled giants despite being smaller. 

Hiram attempts to put his sister in a better frame of mind about the fair with the lovely ballad "Lavender Blue." Granny joins him for "Where Have You Been, Billy Boy?" (in a far more attractive voice than you might think), and they grab the kids for a hilarious square dance around the cabin. When Granny still won't let him go to the fair, he once again imagines Wise Old Owl singing stories. This time, he talks about men with "Stick-it-Tivity" like Christopher Columbus and Robert Bruce. Wise Old Owl also joins the animated bird chorus to herald their arrival at the "County Fair." The film ends with a reprise of "It's Whatcha Do With Whatcha Got." 

Trivia: Last film of Harry Carey. The movie was filmed in 1946, but he was long gone by the time it finally made it into theaters early in 1949. 

First feature-length film to run on The Disney Channel, which is how I heard of this in the first place. I remember it ran a lot on The Disney Channel in the 80's and early 90's. 

What I Don't Like: This is a very sentimental and nostalgic story.  If you don't feel the same way Walt did about sentiment or the rosy past, you probably won't be into this. I don't know how much young kids would be into it today, despite the cute lamb. The animated sequences are cute for what they are, but too brief. Song of the South did far more with its animated characters. The movie also pushes its religious convictions and Danny being an outsider because of his black wool a bit hard, and both might be a tiny bit uncomfortable for some audiences nowadays. 

The Big Finale: A sweet underrated gem from Disney that really should be better-known nowadays. If you think your kids can handle the slow pace and the storm sequence, give this one a try.

Home Media: Alas, to date, the only way you can get this one in North America is on streaming (and surprisingly, not on Disney Plus). The discs were released exclusively through the Disney Movie Club and can be hard to find today.

Amazon Prime

YouTube

Cult Flops - Dancing Pirate

RKO/Pioneer Pictures, 1936

Starring Charles Collins, Steffi Duna, Frank Morgan, and Luis Alberni

Directed by Lloyd Corrigan

Music by Richard Rodgers; Lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Now for one of the most peculiar cult flops I've ever seen. It's not scary, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or inherently offensive or badly made, like Golden Dawn. In fact, it's history. This was the second feature-length film made in two-strip Technicolor after the comedy Becky Sharp in 1935, and the first musical. In a way, this odd little film could be thought of as the ancestor of all those MGM and 20th Century Fox Technicolor extravaganzas set in the past that flooded theaters in the 40's and 50's. How well does the story of a dancing teacher in 1820's Boston who ends up literally teaching dance to Spanish ladies to save his life look nowadays? Let's begin in Boston, as dancing master Jonathan Pride (Collins) teaches the well-to-do of the city how to dance the scandalous waltz, and find out...

The Story: Jonathan is supposed to be on his way to visit a relative, but he's shanghaied by pirates and is forced to work for them. He manages to escape off the coast of Spanish California, where the overly anxious residents of a small town think he's a pirate and they're being invaded. It doesn't help that he ends up in the home of the town's mayor Don Emilio Perena (Morgan) and Perena's niece Serafina (Duna) thinks he's after her. 

Don Emilio and the town jailer Pamfilo (Alberni) order him hung, until he shows them what he can do. Serafina insists on waltzing lessons. She protests how close they are at first, but gradually falls in love with Jonathan. Trouble is, she already has a suitor, the wealthy Captain of the Guards Don Balthazar (Victor Varconi). What they don't know is Don Balthazar was fired from the Army and is looking to loot the town with his men. Jonathan rounds up the local Native population, using a war dance to convince them that the best way to get what everyone wants is to clear out this phony before he marries Serefina and his men take over the town.

The Song and Dance: There's a lot to like here. For one thing, I'm glad they found the color in 2015 after it was lost for 80 years. The color copy currently on Tubi is stunning, a decent restoration with colors that really pop. For another, this is one of the most unique musicals I've ever seen. You just don't see a lot of movies, let alone musicals, that combine pirates (briefly), Native uprisings, swashbuckling heroics, big chorus numbers, bandits, mistaken identity, and a historical setting that doesn't often turn up outside of the Zorro franchise. The dancing genuinely is that good, especially Jonathan's solos. 

The Numbers: We open in Jonathan's Boston dance studio with his students doing awkward waltzing to a tinkling music box. Jonathan does a solo to an instrumental "Yankee Doodle" to show them how it's done. He literally dances for his life to prove that he's a dancing teacher on the noose platform as the mayor and jailer want to hang him just for some excitement. Serefina performs "Are You My Love?" outside Jonathan's door and in her room as they both prepare for the dancing lesson. Jonathan is so impressed with her flamenco solo to a Spanish-language song that he wonders why she needs to learn dance from him. 

He does teach her the waltz using his music box, but the moment he touches her waist, she thinks he's being improper, and he ends up back in jail. She finally works on it with her servant and realizes that it's dancing, not impropriety. He sings "When You're Dancing the Waltz" to her in a moonlit courtyard...and they're so lovely, everyone in the town joins in and turns it into a huge production number. Jonathan's "War Dance" is contrasted to the pious Spanish hymn the townspeople perform as they enter the church for Serefina and Don Balthazar's wedding. The move ends with another lavish, cape-flourishing chorus number to "When You're Dancing the Waltz." 

What I Don't Like: This can get a little too unique at times. It feels like a mish-mash of ideas someone just threw together that would look nice in color. Despite the title, the pirates appear for all of five minutes in the beginning of the movie. We have the townspeople continually insisting that Jonathan is a pirate, despite his protests to the contrary, Jonathan teaching the ladies to dance, and when Don Balthazar and his men show up in the second half. That would be enough for three normal historical musicals, and none of those stories really have much to do with one another. 

Not to mention, for a movie called Dancing Pirate, there could have been a lot more music. There are only two Rodgers and Hart songs, both of which are far from the team's best work, two major chorus numbers, and three solos, two for Jonathan, one for Serefina. There's also the simple fact that I can understand why Collins would only do a few more films after this, and only one with any kind of starring role. He is a wonderful dancer and is charming enough, but he's also kind of dull for a man whose dancing sparks a Native uprising.

The Big Finale: Interesting curiosity if you want to learn more about color and dance on the screen, but nothing you need to go out of your way for.

Home Media: It's in the public domain, and both color and black and white versions are easy to find. (The color version at Tubi is missing a few minutes, for some reason, but the copy is decent.)

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi - Color Version

Tubi- Black and White Version

Back to School Again - High School Hero

Monogram, 1946

Starring Freddie Stewart, June Preissler, Noel Neill, and Jackie Moran

Directed by Arthur Dreifuss

Music and Lyrics by various 

Let's go back to school with the Teen-Agers in this B-comedy. Drive-in fodder for teens goes back way further than the Beach Party films. Monogram created this series directly for this new breed of consumer. The war years gave teens a life of their own, with their own language, clothes styles, and culture, which exploded in the late 40's and 50's along with the population. This would be the third of four films in this series. We covered the first, Junior Prom, back in 2022. How does the football season at Whitney High look nowadays? Let's begin with that fateful game and find out...

The Story: Actually, Whitney's team is terrible. They lack a star player like Fairview's Jimmy Forrest (Jackie Moran) and keep losing to their rivals. Not only that, but the school's newspaper may shut down due to lack of circulation, and Professor Townley (Milton Kibbee) wants to replace the student performers with professionals at the school bazaar. Freddie goes to Jan Savitt (himself) and his singer Chi-Chi (Lita Baron) for help. Jan thinks he's there to be his next singer and convinces Chi-Chi to make him fall in love with her. 

Meanwhile, Freddie and his best friend Lee Roberts (Warren Mills) sees Freddie's girl Dodie (Preissler) knock every guy on the field over when she thinks he's two-timing her and convinces her to join the team and play in his place. This works until Dodie's reporter sister Betty (Neill) gets photos of her, of Freddie with Chi-Chi, and of the governor with all of them and reveals the deception. Now Dodie and all of the kids have to figure out how to win the big game against Fairview without Dodie, convince the governor (Pierre Watkin) that they mean no harm, and get them all back into that big student show, before they all end up expelled.

The Song and Dance: For all that the so-called "kids" are way too old for their roles, there's still a lot of talent to be found here. I do like that a girl ends up saving the football team and comes up with the idea that wins the game in a plot that pre-dates the college football comedy Necessary Roughness by almost 50 years. Preissler has way too much fun off and on the field, especially shoving all those guys aside to get to her man! Anne Rooney as the youngest Rodgers sister gets her own mildly amusing subplot spouting half-baked psychology theories after she falls for her psychology teacher (Leonard Penn). 

The Numbers: We open with "Fairview March" as Fairview High celebrates its big win over hapless Whitney and its big star Jimmy Forrest. Freddie Slack and his Orchestra play the jivin' instrumental "Southpaw Serenade" after two kids put a nickel in the jukebox and dream about him and his musicians. "Football Frolics" pits the girls against the boys in a mock dance football game. (Girls win, by the way.) Freddie sings "You're Just What I Crave" to Dodie when they're out on a date at the Teen Canteen. Chi-Chi sings and wiggles her hips in a glittery dress to "Mi Caballo" with Jan Savitt's band. The majorettes perform a brief march and toss the batons routine to "Whitney Victory March," which becomes a number for the football team when they use their dance moves to confuse Fairview. The film ends with a reprise of "Whitney Victor March" and "Fairview March" as both schools celebrate Whitney's win together in a last big chorus number at the bazaar.

What I Don't Like: Uh, yeah, this is about as cheap of a B-movie as you can get. None of the kids look remotely like high schoolers or football players. (I'm pretty sure Frankie Darro was pushing 30 by this point, though at least he has less to do in this movie than he did in Junior Prom.) The story is even skimpier than the student body elections in Junior Prom. The subplot with Chi-Chi just seems stuffed in to get a nightclub routine and a little more glamour than most teens could provide in there.

The Big Finale: Ehh, same deal. Recommended for a few catchy numbers if you need a way to pass an hour after school or background noise on while your kids are doing homework. 

Home Media: To my knowledge, the Teen-Agers films are currently streaming only.

Tubi

Happy Labor Day! - Wake Up and Live

20th Century Fox, 1937

Starring Jack Haley, Alice Faye, Ben Bernie, and Walter Winchell

Directed by Sidney Lanfield

Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Mack Gordon

We celebrate journalists, gossip columnists, and those who work on the radio to keep us entertained and informed this week as we head into Labor Day. Comic rivalries, real and fictional, abounded on radio in the 30's and 40's as people listened in to hear just how long two opposites could keep tossing quips at one another. In real life, orchestra leader Ben Bernie and gossip hound Walter Winchell were close friends, but they started up a fictional feud on the radio. Not only did it net them both more attention, but it got to be so huge, it outgrew the airwaves. Fox finally made this movie based on their ongoing feud not only to bolster them, but as a showcase for their newest singing star, Alice Faye. How does this farce about a nervous young singer who gets more help overcoming mic fright than he bargained for look nowadays? We open at the nightclub belonging to Ben Bernie (himself) and a barrage of mildly insulting quotes from his buddy Winchell (himself) on a poster outside, then move inside to find out...

The Story: Eddie Kane (Haley) and his partner Jean Roberts (Grace Bradley) arrive in New York to audition for the radio. Unfortunately, Eddie's rejected when he develops severe fear of the microphone. Jean forms her own act, and Eddie gets a job as an usher at the station. He befriends Alice Huntley (Faye), the host of the self-help show Wake Up and Live, in order to conquer his fear of the mics. 

One day while alone in a studio, he sings into what he thinks is a dead mic. Turns out this microphone is very much live...and Eddie's golden voice ends up going out over the airwaves. He's a sensation as everyone wants to know who this "Phantom Troubadour" is, especially Bernie and Winchell! Alice figures it out and tells the radio station she'll set up broadcasts of his voice for a bigger salary. Trouble is, first, Eddie and Alice fall for each other, then a lot of people who are a lot less pleasant than even dogged Winchell and Bernie get involved with trying to find this unknown singer, including Jean and her manager Gus Avery (Walter Catlett) and Eddie's sister and Winchell's secretary Patsy (Patsy Kelly) and Winchell's dour assistant Steve (Ned Sparks).

The Song and Dance: This is a lot more fun than you might think from the goofy premise. Haley's adorable as the sweet singer whose golden voice causes all the trouble, and Faye plays off him nicely as the motivational speaker whose kind encouragement hides a will of steel. Bernie and Winchell do get a few good quips in, naturally at each other's expense, and Patsy Kelly has nearly as much fun trying to help them figure out what's going on here. Revel and Gordon's music is lovely; "There's a Lull In My Life" became a jazz standard. 

The Numbers: We open at Bernie's club with an instrumental number featuring some nifty fast tap dancing from the Condos Brothers. We hear "Oh, But I'm Happy" the first time when Jean and Eddie attempt their audition and Eddie suffers from his attack of mic fright. Jean ends up singing "I'm Bubbling Over" with two other young ladies on her own at a nightclub. Alice performs the title song for the first time as theme song of her radio show. Ben Bernie and his male singers give us a commercial jingle for "Red Seal Malt" before the Condos Brothers return with another fast tap routine, this time sitting down. 

The song that Eddie inadvertently performs for the entire listening audience is the ballad "Never In a Million Years." Bernie trots out a masked singer to reprise "Never In a Million Years" on his show, but Winchell figures out it isn't the real deal almost immediately. Eddie sings "It's Swell of You" for Alice...which is when she realizes he's the Phantom Troubadour. Eddie reprises the title song with her as it goes out over Bernie's show. Eddie sings "Camptown Races" with the audience as Eddie brings the man next to him up to Winchell...who turns out to hardly be a singer. 

Joan Davis does a hilarious Spanish spoof number "I Love You Much Too Much Muchacha" at Bernie's club with the chorus, and then basically flings a partner around with a filmy scarf. Alice gets to introduce the big hit from this one in an attempt to get Eddie back, the gorgeous ballad "There's a Lull In My Life." Eddie finally reprises the title song when he manages to get into the club. The movie ends with Eddie and Alice briefly reprising "Never In a Million Years," Jean telling Gus that she's not really "Bubbling Over," and Patsy trying to charge Steve's batteries with "There's a Lull In My Life," and Bernie and Winchell finally singing "It's Swell of You." 

Trivia: Haley was dubbed by crooner Bobby Clark.

There was a semi-sequel also featuring Bernie and Winchell later in the year, Love and Hisses. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, why was Haley dubbed? He was a genuinely good singer. Second, as you may have noticed, the story is pretty silly, and not the strongest in the universe. It's also very topical. If you don't know who Bernie and Winchell were or know anything about their radio feud or old time radio in general, you might not get as much out of this. 

The Big Finale: For all of Winchell and Bernie's sniping at each other, this ended up being surprisingly adorable. Highly recommended for fans of Faye, Haley, old-time radio, or the big Fox musicals of the 30's and 40's. 

Home Media: Alas, the only place you can currently find this one is on YouTube. 

YouTube

A Salute to Dolly Parton - Blue Valley Songbird

Lifetime, 1999

Starring Dolly Parton, John Terry, Billy Dean, and Beth Grant

Directed by Richard A. Colla

Music and Lyrics by Dolly Pardon and others

We salute one of the true originals of country music with this down-home musical drama. Lifetime began in 1984 as a merger of two earlier cable channels, carrying health and medical-related programming. They switched to talk shows after a year, and by the late 80's, were the home on cable for women-related programming. Parton made this movie with them in 1999, when they were at the height of their popularity as the place for movies and programming with women and their lives in mind. While Dolly wasn't as successful as she had been in the 1980's, she continued to steadily release albums and had even been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame that year. How does she do in this melodrama inspired by the title song off her album Hungry Again? Let's begin with singer Leanna Taylor (Pardon) flirting with a cop as she rushes to a concert and find out...

The Story: Leanna has been playing with her band and her manager and boyfriend Hank (Terry) for fifteen years. Hank is jealous and controlling, refusing to let Leanna chose anything from her songs to where she plays. She's been falling for her guitarist and fellow songwriter Bobby Grissom (Dean), who was working on a number with her. Hank's not thrilled when he sees their chemistry onstage and fires Bobby. 

Meanwhile, Leanna is also coming to terms with the death of her father (Bob Morrison) and her mother Ora (Peggy Walton-Walker) not having responded to her letters. Leanna's father was abusive and domineering, refusing to let her sing for anyone but him. She wouldn't even go to his funeral. It's not until Hank's friend Ruby (Grant), who owns the restaurant where Leanna plays frequently, talks to a major producer Leanna once knew that she begins to realize how much she's let Hank take over her life, and where hear heart really lays.

The Song and Dance: Parton and her music are really the only reasons to see this southern-fried melodrama. Even with her strange orange-ish hair, Parton always gives 100 percent to even the corniest lines. There are some nice songs here, and with her producing as well as starring in this movie, it goes without saying that the music comes across well. I also like Kimberly Kates as a band member's pregnant wife who constantly worries he'll stray on the road. 

The Numbers: Our first number takes us onstage at Ruby's, with Leanna and her band performing "I Hope You're Never Happy." She and Bobby first work on "We Might Be In Love" at her home. They perform the traditional "Angel Band" onstage while remembering how she first sang it in her church in Blue Valley as a teen. It's when Leanna and Bobby perform "We Might Be Love" onstage that Hank realizes his lady is in love with someone else. Unfortunately, her zither version of "Wildflowers" onstage is cut off before we hear all of it. She performs "My Blue Tears" onstage a little later and a bit of "Amazing Grace" when she finally brings herself to see her father's grave. She and Bobby duet on "Runaway Feeling" after he returns to the band. We hear her recording the title song in the finale.

What I Don't Like: Parton and her music are really the only things that stand out. The cliches run hard and heavy, especially in the second half, when she's trying to come to terms to losing a father she wasn't even sure she loved. Neither Dean nor Terry are especially compelling or interesting, making you wonder why Leanna would stay with either of them. The production is obviously a cheap cable movie; the songs are pretty much a matter of Dolly bringing her own recent material. 

The Big Finale: This dull melodrama is for true fans of Dolly and Lifetime romance movies only. 

Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming, the latter often free with commercials.

DVD

Tubi

Musicals On TV - Camp Rock 3

Disney, 2026

Starring Liamani Segura, Hudson Stone, Sherry Cola, and Malachi Barton

Directed by Veronica Rodriguez

Music and Lyrics by various 

The Camp Rock movies were among the biggest musicals ever on the Disney Channel, probably just under the High School Musical films. Talk of a third movie had been tossed around since the second was a massive success in 2010, but Demi Lovato ran into scandal and the Jonas Brothers fell out of popularity. One way or another, plans for the third film were pushed aside until the film was formally announced in September 2025. Is the new generation of campers just as talented as the previous one, or should this camp finally be closed for good? Let's start with excited new camper Sage Scott (Segura) and her brother Desi (Stone) as their parents drive them to the camp and find out...

The Story: Sage is thrilled to be at the camp where rock legends like the now-major star Mitchie Torres (Demi Lovato) first made their mark. She's determined to become a great singer, leaving the band she had with Desi to join a prestigious music school. Desi's resentful and angry at Sage for what he sees as her abandoning him. His sister is just excited to be among fellow music-lovers like goofy drummer Cliff (Casey Trotter), sweet cellist and classical-music lover Rosie (Lumi Pollack), upbeat dancer Callie (Brooklyn Pitts), and Fletch (Barton), who has a bad boy reputation after he arrives in a cop car. There's also social media influencer Maddie (Ava Jean) and her two back-up dancers, who think they run the camp.

Rock group Connect 3 (the Jonas Brothers) have reunited for a tour, but they need an opening act after their original choice broke up. Their manager Lark (Cola) holds a contest at the camp, with the winner joining Connect 3 on the tour. As the kids take part in three challenges leading up to Final Jam, Sage grows to know each of them better. She grows especially fond of Fletch, who writes love songs and isn't the bad kid everyone assumes he is. Maddie, furious after Sage bumps her and gets her out during the second challenge so Desi can move on, does everything she can to discourage the finalists, from destroying their most prized possessions to filming them on a bus during the last challenge when the kids aren't supposed to have a phone at the camp. It's Sage who learns the lesson, though, when she hurts Fletch to save her career, then realizes that her new friends are more important than any contest.

The Song and Dance: First and foremost, this one gets points for kids who are a lot more likeable than the ones in the original film. Sage may be focused on her career, but she's not a bad kid and genuinely shows that she cares, especially in the second half once she apologizes to her brother. There's also references to the original films, from bits of songs to Sage finding Mitichie's original song notebook. The musical numbers remain the stand-outs, with the chorus numbers in particular awash in energy.

The Numbers: We open with Sage performing "Brand New Day" as the kids arrive at Camp. "Come On Over" shows Connect 3 filming a music video...and reveals that they're no longer getting along. The Camp Rock kids have more fun with "One Beat Away" in a high-energy chorus routine after the contest is announced. "Play My Music" is a montage of the campers playing the song as the first challenge, in every style from Rosie's classical cello to a salsa dancer to a hip-hop performer and even a young Sinatra imitator. "Tomorrow" is Fletch's sweet acoustic ballad that he writes after interviewing Sage for the songwriter's workshop. 

Fletch and Desi have a brief jam session that ends with Desi joking about Fletch's interest in his sister. "Start the Party" is the second challenge. The kids are supposed to show how well they can dance, but it ends with Sage bumping Maddie out to keep Desi, who doesn't dance, in. Angry, Maddie covers their most loved items in sequins and paint, leading to them throwing paint around to the tune of "It's On." Furious after the mess incident, Lark makes the last challenge having to live in a camp bus for 24 hours. The kids aren't happy at first, but the forced confinement turns into their group number "Echo." Desi and Sage finally reconcile singing "Rhythm's Only Right." 

The first number at the final jam goes to Cliff, who does a comic drum rap solo to "My Own Drum." Rosie's cello number is artier, until she breaks out the black-clad dancers and silver halter to "Play It My Way." Callie helps Desi and his dancers with the upbeat "Get Ready."  Fletch doesn't need dancers to reprise a now-longer "Tomorrow." Sage encourages Connect 3 to choose the other kids before singing "Work In Progress" without a band. The other kids eventually join her as they admit they may not be perfect, but they're looking forward to growing, as people and musicians. Connect 3 and the kids join for "We Rock" in the finale. The five finalists, Callie, and Maddie and her dancers perform "What It Takes" over the end credits.

What I Don't Like: The kids may be likable, but they're also bland. This manages to be even more cliched than the previous two movies. You can pretty much figure out what's going to happen with the contest way before the kids and Connect 3 do. Conflict is settled way too easily, especially after Maddie pretty much sells out Fletch to Lark over the song leak to save her career. Maddie and her back up dancers don't have nearly enough to do other than ruining their stuff. They probably should have been left in a little longer, or even made the final group. 

In fact, a lot of threads are picked up and dropped. There's a side plot with Callie teaching Desi to dance that's ignored when Callie vanishes mid-way through the film and isn't acknowledged again (even when Callie returns for the finale), and another one with Cliff having a crush on Rosie. Rose's transformation from demure classical cellist to artsy hard-rock performer is a little too abrupt, too. Wish we could have seen more of how that changed happened. 

The Big Finale: In the end, I suspect this franchise is just too bland for me, no matter how many stars it produces. For those who were huge fans of the original films or are in the appropriate 8 to 14 age range.

Home Media: This is a Disney Plus exclusive at the moment.

Disney Plus