Starring Anna Neagle, Ray Bolger, John Carroll, and Edward Everett Horton
Directed by Herbert Wilcox
Music and Lyrics by various
Anna Neagle was one of the biggest stars in British cinema from the early 30's through the early 50's. She and her director husband Herbert Wilcox went effortlessly from epic historical drama to elegant comedies to frothy musicals without batting an eyelash. RKO was impressed with their two biographies of Queen Victoria and offered them a four-picture contract in 1940. This is the third of the four, and the second of the three musicals they did. Is it as charming as the original Marilyn Miller film and the Neagle/Wilcox version of Irene, or should it be left at the altar? Let's begin at the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans and find out...
The Story: Sunny O'Sullivan (Neagle) literally runs into millionaire Larry Warren (Carroll) at the Mardi Gras parade. The Queen of Hearts (Martha Tilton) and her entourage encourages Larry to give her a hug and kiss. He does, but she disappears shortly after. He wanders into a circus near where he met the lady. Not only are his sister Elizabeth (Frieda Inescourt), the family lawyer Harry Bates (Horton), and wealthy Juliet Runnymede (Grace Hartman) there, but so is Sunny. She's the premiere dancer and bareback rider and one of the circus' star attractions. He tries to get through to her, but she goes out with her old friend Bunny Billings (Bolger) instead.
They run across each other in the restaurant later that night. Larry convinces her to join him for a ride. They fall in love, and he proposes. She's ready to leave the circus, but his snobbish old-money family isn't ready to accept a bareback rider as a daughter-in-law. She does manage to win over tough Aunt Barbara (Helen Wesley), but Elizabeth still considers her to be beneath them. The circus people turn up on the day of Sunny's wedding to see her off. Elizabeth encourages them to perform, shocking and upsetting Larry. Sunny, furious with his behavior, takes off with the circus. With the help of Aunt Barbara, Larry now has to prove to Sunny that he loves her no matter who she is or what she does.
The Song and Dance: This wound up being a far better showcase for Neagle's talents than Irene. You get two major dance sequences, one with the truly great Bolger, costumes that are just as lovely (at least, what you can see of them in the terrible copies currently in circulation), and some great songs by Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein, and others. (Including the trio that were cut from the 1930 Sunny.) Wesley, Horton, and Bolger all have fun with their limited roles, especially Wesley as the tough-as-nails aunt who unexpectedly softens for Sunny.
The Numbers: After a montage of Mardi Gras parade sights and sounds, our first number is Queen of Hearts Martha Tilton and her entourage insisting that "The Lady Must Be Kissed." Bunny's first dance number lets him incredible splits and spins while executing slapstick falls. Bolger then sing-recites "Who" before we see Sunny with an enormous feather fan in a feather-bedecked gown and they do an elegant dance together. The title song is our first big chorus number as Sunny comes out on horseback to do her bareback tricks and dance with the horse while Carroll tries to flirt with her from the audience.
"Who" turns up again as Larry takes Sunny on a riverboat ride, sung first by the chorus, then sung by Larry and danced by Sunny. Bunny and Sunny are "Jack Tar and Sam Gob," doing a comic dance dressed as horny sailors. She sings the old folk song "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" at her engagement party, thinking she's impressing Aunt Barbara. She asks Larry "Do 'Ye Love Me?" after she explains things to Aunt Barbara. Dance team Grace and Paul Hartman (in their first of two appearances together onscreen) perform the comic "The Mohache" to the tune of Ravel's "Bolero" at Sunny's wedding. Bunny dances as the "Ringmaster" at the sold-out circus show. Sunny starts singing "Sunshine"when she comes out...before Larry joins in and she realizes he's her only audience. Larry sings "Forever and a Day" as he drives Sunny's trailer to the riverboat in the finale.
What I Don't Like: First of all, someone really needs to throw money at restoring this, too. This one is in even worse shape than the 1930 Sunny, with wonky sound and horribly scratched picture. Second, the wafer-thin story isn't really improved by the re-writing. Wesley's crotchety Aunt Barbara is a little bit more interesting than Sunny's father, but neither Bolger nor Horton have much to do other than Bolger's numbers. They do nothing with the New Orleans setting besides the opening at Mardi Gras, and only a little bit more with the circus folks than the first film. Dashing Carroll is also a bit of an improvement over the dull Lawrence Gray in the original, but he's still nowhere near Neagle's wattage.
The Big Finale: I did like this one a bit more than the 1930 Sunny or Neagle's first American picture Irene, but it's still mainly for her fans or fans of big 40's musicals.
Home Media: This is in the public domain, so it's easily found anywhere. It's currently on Tubi for free with commercials.
No comments:
Post a Comment