April Showers

Warner Bros, 1948

Starring Jack Carson, Ann Sothern, Robert Ellis, and Robert Alda

Directed by James V. Kern

Music and Lyrics by various

Shine On Harvest Moon was far from the last time Jack Carson appeared in an early 20th-century-set vaudeville tale in the 40's.  While this wasn't technically a biography, it had a lot in common with the early years of comedian Buster Keaton, who did start out in vaudeville with his parents and helped put their act over and make it a success. How does this translate into the story of a performing family who want to stay together at all costs? Let's start at the theater, as Joe (Carson) and June (Sothern) Tyne are about to receive a surprise guest, and find out...

The Story: That guest is their son Buster (Ellis), who ran away from boarding school to be with them. Turns out he's incredibly talented. When they go from the Two to the Three Tynes, the act becomes a smash success in California and on the West Coast. They're all thrilled when they're asked to join a Broadway vaudeville bill, but it turns out that laws for child actors are far stricter on the East Coast than out west. Joe and June try to pass Buster off as a midget, but it doesn't wash and they go back west humiliated. 

Joe takes to drink after they flop, so much that the act becomes unemployable. He sends June and Buster off with smooth singer Billy Shay (Alda) to replace him. The act is a hit, but June and Buster miss him. Billy tries to get June to marry him, and Joe claims he wants a divorce...but their agent Mr. Curley (SZ Sakall) knows that all they want is to be together and performing again.

The Song and Dance: Carson was one of the most versatile actors at Warners in the 30's and 40's. He could do straight comedy, musicals, and even melodrama, as we see with his intense performance here. Southern matches him well as the strong-willed lady who loves show business almost as much as her husband. Ellis also has some fine comic moments, does fairly well with the drama, and really does dance better than his screen parents. The intimate black-and-white production gives us a glimpse of the gritty life of vaudevillians in the early 20th century - traveling from town to town, never knowing where your next meal or gig will be, the joy of moving to a better theater, the agony of flopping and being sent back down several rungs. 

Favorite Number: We first meet Shay doing an act surrounded by beautiful girls in skimpy costumes as he sings a medley of "Pretty Baby" and "Every Little Moment." The Tynes kick off with doing "April Showers" as a duo...and they end it as a trio in a big West Coast show, with all three of them in their baggy-pants clown costumes surrounded by the chorus in more fanciful ruffles and tulle. Joe and Buster sing together about how their wife and mother is "The World's Most Beautiful Girl." Later, when Joe's leaving, Buster asks him for a song he used to sing him to sleep to, "The Little Trouper."

What I Don't Like: Oh boy, does this one ladle on the melodrama in the second half. Once they leave New York and their careers go downhill, so does the movie. Joe's descent into alcoholism is too sudden and really pretty ridiculous and kind of annoying. Alda's oily Shay is such an obvious villain, even his family thinks it's amazing he wants to send them off with him. They keep throwing in cliché after cliché, and they're handled with all the subtlety of a clown slapstick to the rear. 

It's also pretty obvious this is a lower-budget production than Shine On Harvest Moon or other big musicals of the time. There's no really big numbers until the end. Other than Shay and his girls and the big finale, it's mainly the Tynans or an act singing. It's also very surprising this is filmed in black and white. The vaudeville era cries out for rainbow colors. 

The Big Finale: Pleasant enough time-waster if  you run into it on TCM and love the leads or 40's musicals, but nothing you really need to seek out. 

Home Media: DVD only from the Warner Archives.

DVD