Starring Gracie Allen, George Burns, Bob Hope, and Martha Raye
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Music and Lyrics by various
First of all, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will be going on vacation hiatus from September 22nd through the 28th. To make up for it, you'll be getting an extra review a week this month, starting tomorrow.
This week, we're taking four very different looks at musicals about education, starting with this wacky ode to colleges. George Burns and Gracie Allen are not the first people you'd associate with a musical about college life, but then again, this isn't your typical college. At least, not after Gracie gets her hands on it. Let's turn back the clock to 1738, as Gracie Alden (Allen) fails school for the 9th time, and find out just how this particular bit of big band blarney came to be...
The Story: Gracie's grandfather is so fed up with her inability to pass, he leaves the school to the first female of the family to graduate within 200 years. That brings us to the present Gracie Alden (Allen), who is being tutored by fast-talking teacher Bud Brady (Hope). To everyone's shock, she does manage to pass and inherit the school. She immediately does away with entrance exams and encourages Bud to hire wacky teachers like Madame Teresa Teresa (Raye), aka former singer Mable, and acrobatic phys ed teacher Ben Volt (Ben Blue).
Needless to say, none of this goes over well with the actual professors, especially woman-hating Hubert Dash (Edward Everett Horton). He pulls his nephew (John Payne) from school and sets up a second test for Gracie. Bud's determined she should pass this exam, even if he has to use underhanded means to do it.
The Song and Dance: The terrific cast alone makes this worth checking out. This is one of the rare times Allen and Burns get to be front and center, or at least, Allen is, and they run with it. Allen is adorable as the scatterbrained heiress who just wants to see everyone get a fair chance at an education, even her. Hope and Raye may be even funnier as the fast-talking pair who don't want to let Allen blow their opportunity to make big money. Look for future 20th Century Fox stars Betty Grable as a student and John Payne as Dash's handsome nephew Martin Bates.
Favorite Number: We open with the colonial children's choir in 1738 performing a traditional version of "The Old School Bell." One enterprising lad (Robert Mitchell) tries a little jazz scat, but Horton scolds him. Martin gets two sweet duets with dean's daughter Ginna Ashburn (Florence George), the romantic "I Fall In Love With You Every Day" and comic "What Did Romeo Say to Juliet?" George also gets to introduce the lovely "Moments Like This" early in the film after Martin serenades her during a fraternity initiation prank.
Raye and Hope get their own comic duet after he hires her, "How'd Ya Like to Love Me?," that ends with them literally walking through his office door. Allen joins Horton in his car on the way back from a nightclub that "You're a Natural" with ladies, then proceeds to dance a hilarious jig right on the dirt road to "Irish Washerwoman." Raye and Blue wonder "What a Rhumba Does to Romance" as they entertain faculty and students at the school dance.
The movie begins and ends with the title song. Betty Grable and her then-husband Jackie Coogan dance to it at the local soda shoppe "The Hangout" in the opening while big band leader Skinnay Ennis and his orchestra play alone. The huge finale has Raye singing with Ennis while the kids, Burns, Allen, Blue, and Horton dance along, then walk towards the camera.
Trivia: Filmed on location at UCLA in Los Angeles. Matte paintings of buildings and towers were added to backgrounds to make the college look larger.
What I Don't Like: The barely-there story exists for Allen and Hope to do their goofy and wiseguy shtick respectively. Once again, Allen is largely solo and barely interacts with George, though she does have a good scene with him as she takes the second exam. Grable and Coogan barely have anything to do beyond their numbers (Coogan doesn't even have a line), and though Payne does manage to show some of the charm he'd display in his 20th Century Fox musicals a decade later, he's still the designated love interest, complete with some very stiff dialogue.
The Big Finale: Worth checking out for the numbers alone if you love Burns and Allen, Hope, Raye, or swing music.
Home Media: Currently DVD-only via the made-to-order Universal Vault series.
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