Starring Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Donald O'Connor, and Elizabeth Patterson
Directed by Wesley Ruggles
Music and Lyrics by various
We're honoring mid-spring holidays and events this week, starting for this horse racing yarn in honor of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. 1938 seems to have been a big year for musicals revolving around horse racing. We've already seen Going Places from Warner Bros and MGM's The Broadway Melody of 1938 at this blog, and there was A Day at the Races with the Marx Brothers. How does Paramount's entry differ from those? Well, for starters, we begin as the Beebe brothers escort their mother (Elizabeth Patterson) and oldest brother David's (MacMurray) girlfriend Martha Randall (Ellen Drew) to church...
The Story: David wants to marry Martha, but he's the only one in the family with a job. Joe (Crosby) can't hold steady work. He's always gambling or coming up with get-rich-quick schemes to swap something for something else. They occasionally play together with their younger brother Mike (O'Connor) as a trio, but David would prefer steadier and more lucrative work.
After he's fired from the local gas station and Martha rejects him when he tries to put the moves on her, Joe decides his ideas are too big for small town life. Los Angeles doesn't prove to be any more receptive to his ideas, until he hits on horse betting. He makes enough money to open a swap shop, then swaps it for a race horse, Uncle Joe. He sent for his mother and Mike, but while Mike is delighted to be a jockey, his mother is worried they'll be thrown out.
David's arrival throws things in a tailspin. Martha decides he loves his family more than her and leaves, but David does manage to get them secure employment singing for a local nightclub. Joe still has racing Uncle Joe on the brain. Mike's delighted when they do get the horse into a race...but when he agrees to lose to a thug and a competitor, it'll take a concentrated effort by all four Beebes to show just how important family and working together are.
The Song and Dance: This is one of Bing's more interesting vehicles. It may be the only movie of his I've seen where he didn't get the girl in the end, or any girl. Joe does make a play for Martha, but thankfully, they don't linger on this subplot for too long. The real focus is on the four Beebes, making this almost feel like an early sitcom or TV family drama at times. The small-town setting early-on and the relationship between the four brothers makes this fairly unique not only among Bing's musicals, but among musicals of the 30's period. Few 30's musicals get into the small-town setting and focuses on one family like this, and it's refreshing.
We also get a rare chance to see MacMurray show off his singing chops. He actually started as a musician and singer, and he's almost as good as Crosby. His chemistry with Crosby and the hilarious O'Connor is just about pitch-perfect, too.
Favorite Number: We start off at church with the brothers performing a real hymn, "Shall We Gather at the River?," for the townspeople at church. Joe's called on to sing "Don't Let That Moon Get Away" several times when he takes Martha out to a local nightspot. "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams" is the brothers' first number together when Joe drags them into working at a local spaghetti house for cash.
The big one here was the hit "Small Fry," and it gets a number worthy of it, too. Pa Crosby with his wooly fake beard and ever-knitting Ma MacMurray in drag scold little tough guy O'Connor in a number at the nightclub with a goofy fake cardboard shack behind them. Not only is it a really cute number, but it expresses both the affection between the brothers and how they feel about O'Connor....and how the youngest brother feels about his elders.
Trivia: Mickey Rooney and Don Ameche were originally supposed to star with Crosby, but they dropped out.
Filmed on location at the Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia, California, which Bing owned stock in at the time.
This was Ellen Drew's first movie under her stage name. She originally had bit parts under the name Terry Fry.
What I Didn't Like: And that brings us to our first problem. Drew is likable enough, but she doesn't have much to do beyond getting drunk when Joe makes a play for her. In fact, she disappears for the entire final third of the movie. The family is really what's important here; as Martha discovers the hard way, love interests take a backseat to the brothers and their attempts at independence.
Bing actually plays a fairly scuzzy character in this one. As someone said in a comment at the Internet Movie Database, Joe is really a bit of a screw-up. He gambles, makes an obvious play for his brother's fiancée, and constantly makes a mess of every idea he has in the name of easy money. By the end of the movie, when he's made his big gamble on Uncle Joe, you start to wish he'd get over himself already and just stick to something. There's also this being relatively small scale, especially for the era. Once again, the focus is on the family. No big chorus routines or dance numbers, or anything bigger than "Small Fry."
The Big Finale: This may be my favorite Bing Crosby vehicle. Some people complain about the relatively light plot or Bing's bad-boy character, but I like how unique it is and how well the ensemble cast works together. Highly recommended for fans of MacMurray, O'Connor, or those wanting to see Bing in a different light.
Home Media: DVD-only, as a solo Universal Vault release and as part of at least two collections.
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