The Naughty Nineties

Universal, 1945

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Henry Travers, and Rita Johnson

Directed by Jean Yarborough

Music and Lyrics by various

We celebrate the start of summer with some unique baseball history. Abbott and Costello had been performing their famous "Who's On First" bit, with Abbott as a baseball player trying to correct befuddled fan Lou, for years. It was so well-known, even then, Universal finally got it into one of their vehicles. This would also be the first of nine times the duo appeared, separately and together, in a historical or fantasy film. How does the movie that introduced their most famous routine look today? Let's start with the arrival of The River Queen, a show boat promoting wholesome entertainment in 1890, and find out...

The Story: Dexter Broadhurst (Abbott) is the leading man for the floating show boat troupe. His best friend Sebastian Dimwiddle (Costello) is the show's sound effects master and barker. They're both shocked when kindly Captain Sam (Travers) loses the River Queen to nefarious gambler Bonita Farrow (Johnson). She and her fellow gamblers Crawford (Alan Curtis) and Bailey (Joe Sawyer) got him drunk and pulled him into playing a rigged roulette table. They take over the River Queen and turn it into a rigged gambling den, pushing out Sam and his daughter Caroline (Lois Collier). Worried about their jobs and their friends, Sebastian and Dexter do a little gambling themselves to help the Captain regain control of his ship. Meanwhile, Crawford is also having second thoughts after he falls for Caroline.

The Song and Dance: The first appearance of "Who's On First" on film is unquestionably this movie's highlight, but it does have a few other virtues. Bud and Lou have a couple of other funny routines, including Costello trying to make his voice go higher or lower in response to Abbott moving scenery, Costello mistaking a real bear for his buddy in a bear suit, and Costello mirroring Bailey's movements to keep him from figuring out he's loose. Rita Johnson makes a terrific villainous gambling queen, too, all slinky and side-eyes, and Travers is a sweet steamship captain. 

The Numbers: Our first performance is "On a Sunday Afternoon." Caroline sings this until the local saloon-keeper says the river boat troupe is blocking his business. Crawford makes use of a gun to convince him otherwise, but Sebastian thinks he did it. That saloon is the Gilded Cage, where we hear "I'd Leave My Happy Home for You." Sebastian attempts "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" during the scene where Dexter's telling the men how to lower or raise the scenery. His voice and body go up and down as the scenery does, until he ends up on the floor. Rather appropriately, Dexter opens the "Who's On First" segment with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Caroline sings "I Can't Get You Out of My Mind," one of three songs written directly for the film, in the casino. The entire cast appears for a version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in the finale, including Sebastian on a flying cable as one of the most unlikely Little Evas in film history. 

Trivia: Bud Abbott and Lou Costello are the only non-baseball players to have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for their "Who's on First" routine. The segment from this film featuring the routine can be seen at the Hall of Fame building in Cooperstown, New York. 

If the "Who's on First" scene seems to come out of left field (so to speak), it was added into the film after the rest of it had been shot. The faint laughter you might hear in the background (if you're not too busy laughing yourself) is director Yarborough and his crew. After attempting numerous takes, Yarborough finally gave up and just left the laughter in. 

The show boat itself was originally built for the 1936 version of Show Boat. 

What I Don't Like: There's a reason "Who's On First" was shoved in at the last minute. This is not one of Lou and Bud's better comedies. Collier and Curtis are blocks of wood compared to the hams around them as the lovers. The new songs aren't terribly memorable...and the old ones were almost entirely written in the early 1900's, rather than the 1890's. Most of their routines in this film were done better elsewhere, including by the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers. There's also some brief blackface to contend with, notably in the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" finale. 

The Big Finale: This one is really for big fans of Bud and Lou. Everyone else would be advised to find some version of "Who's On First?" online. 

Home Media: The popularity of "Who's On First" is very likely the reason this is one of their only movies currently available individually on disc. 

DVD

DVD - The Best of Abbott and Costello Vol. 2

DVD - Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection 

Blu-Ray - Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection

Amazon Prime

Celebrating Juneteenth - Killer Diller

All-American, 1948

Starring Dusty Fletcher, George Wiltshire, Butterfly McQueen, and Nellie Hill

Directed by Josh Binney

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's celebrate Juneteeth, the day the slaves were freed in Texas, with a collection of black talent you won't see anywhere else. Race movies, B-films made for segregated black theaters, go back to the silent movie era. By the post-war era, they were wildly popular, and though there were dramas, mysteries, and non-musical comedies, the biggest of all were the all-black musicals. We saw two other race films from this era back in February. How does this one compare to those? Let's begin with theater manager Baltimore Dumdore (Wiltshire), as he tells his secretary Butterfly (McQueen) to find him a magician, and find out...

The Story: The magician Butterfly digs up is Dusty (Fletcher), and...well, he's not very good. He accidentally makes his girlfriend Lola (Hill) disappear after she walks into two disappearing cabinets. Trouble is, Dumdore just gave Lola a thousand-dollar pearl necklace that vanished with her. The police chase Dusty in and out of his cabinets...and all around the acts in the big variety show Dumdore wanted him for in the first place.

The Song and Dance: With a story that flimsy, the real attraction here is the variety show itself. Nat "King" Cole and his trio make some of their first movie appearances here, and we get a rare glimpse of a slightly watered-down version of Jackie "Moms" Mabley's infamously ribald stage act. Some of the dancing is pretty darn amazing too, especially from the quartet known as The Four Congaroos. 

The Numbers: Our first song isn't until we start the variety show, 15 minutes into a 75-minute movie, but it's the lively "Gator Serenade" by Andy Kirk and His Orchestra. Next, sassy Beverly White has too much fun admitting she loves being single in "I Don't Want to Be Married" and "It Ain't Nobody's Bizness What I Do." Rotund singing comics Patterson and Jackson are next with "I Believe" from It Happened In Brooklyn, a delightful tap routine by Patterson to "Ain't Misbehavin," and their imitation of the Ink Spots, "If I Didn't Care." Moms performs "Don't Sit On My Bed" twice, first after Patterson and Jackson. Later in the night, she's disrupted by Dusty and the cops and gets so fed up, she walks off. We next get another nifty tap routine, this one from the Lark Brothers. 

After that, it's our first Nat "King" Cole Trio number of the night. Cole's having a great time with the adorably charming upbeat ballad "Ooh Kickaroonie." Cole slows things down with the comic blues number "Now He Tells Me," then finishes with "Breezy and the Beat." The Four Congaroos really pick up the pace with their wild Lindy Hop to Andy Kirk and His Orchestra playing "Basie's Boogie." Kirk and His Orchestra stay for two more solo numbers. The variety show's finale features Kirk and his group performing "Apollo Groove" for the "Varietettes Dancing Girls," aka members of the Katherine Durham School of Dancing. 

What I Don't Like: Did I mention the flimsy plot? There's a few mildly funny moments with Dusty being chased by the cops and flirting with Butterfly, but they're mostly annoying and unnecessary. (And we never do get to see Dusty do his actual magic act in the show.) I really, really wish BET or someone else would throw money at restoring these, too. The copy on Tubi is awful, scratchy and blurry.

The Big Finale: Worth checking out for the acts alone if you're a fan of Cole or Mabley or the black orchestras and performers of the 40's and 50's. 

Home Media: Like most of the race movies, it's in the public domain and can be found on most formats. It's currently streaming for free with commercials at Tubi.

DVD

Tubi

Happy Father's Day! - Hearts Beat Loud

Gunpowder & Sky, 2018

Starring Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemmons, Toni Collette, and Sasha Lane

Directed by Brett Haley

Music and Lyrics by Keegan DeWitt

We're digging into the indie scene to honor Pride Month and Father's Day with this charming tale of a father and daughter who form an unlikely songwriting duo just as their lives pull them apart. Independent musicals go back to the start of the early talkie era, when even smaller production companies were bit by the musical bug. They started up again with their own lower-budget versions of Busby Berkeley in the 1930's. By the 1940's, Poverty Row studios like Monogram were making dozens of musicals mainly catering to the brand-new youth market or to soldiers overseas. Once the war ended, they tapered off...until the 60's, when the Beach Party movies made for drive-in double features suddenly made low-budget antics big again. Even today, low-budget independent musicals like Once continue to prove that you don't need big studio largess to make great music. How does this sweet, simple story fare? Let's begin at Red Hook Records in Brooklyn, where owner Frank Fisher (Offerman) is offending a customer by smoking inside, and find out...

The Story: Frank looks forward to playing music and writing songs with his daughter Samantha (Clemmons) every evening. It's one of the few things in his life that isn't changing for the worse. His landlady Leslie (Collette) just raised the rent on his record store, and he won't be able to keep it open for much longer. Sam insists that she's going away to medical college in California at the end of the summer, and that she's not starting a band with her father. He downloads a song they wrote on Spotify, calling themselves "We're Not a Band." While Frank rejects Leslie's ideas to expand the store with a cafe, Sam writes a song about her relationship with her girlfriend Rose (Lane). It isn't until the day Red Hook Records closes for good that father and daughter agree to play together again. Even though they'll be on separate coasts, they now understand that when they play each other's music, they're never far from each other's heart.

The Song and Dance: This is such a sweet movie. Though Collette as the landlady with an interest in Frank and Ted Danson as Frank's bar-owning best friend have good moments, it almost entirely belongs to Offerman and Clemmons as the fractious father and daughter. He in particular puts in a terrific performance as the doting dad who fears change and hopes that posting their music and getting her to play in a band with keep her from leaving. Some nice cinematography in the real Brooklyn, too, especially as Sam and Rose go on dates throughout the borough. Their relationship is also genuinely charming, even if it doesn't get the screen time that Sam and her father do.

The Numbers: We open with Frank watching "Summer Noon" on his laptop and ignoring a fussy customer who insists that he not smoke inside. We first hear the embryonic form of "Hearts Beat Loud" during a father-daughter jam session. Sam adds lyrics to it later, which her father then uploads to Spotify without telling her. She writes "Blink (One Million Miles)" about her relationship with Rose. He writes "Shut Your Eyes" and "Everything Must Go," the latter on closing the store. They play "Hearts," "Blink," and "Everything" on the final day of the store's operation. She reprises "Hearts" at an open mic night in California alone.

Trivia: The songs were performed live on-set, much as they would have been in real life.

What I Don't Like: Did I mention this is a small-scale, low-budget musical? It's not for someone who wants huge Busby Berkeley spectacles and big stars, or a more complicated story. It's just a father, a daughter, and how they deal with the changes in their lives. Those looking for something more lavish or typical will have to go elsewhere. I also kind of wish we could have seen a little bit more of the girls' relationship and how Rose handled their separation. 

The Big Finale: Small-scale charmer has a lot to love for those who just want to watch something sweet and small with their own dads this Father's Day.

Home Media: Easily found on all formats, including for free on streaming with commercials.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

Cult Flops - Viennese Nights

Warner Bros, 1930

Starring Vivienne Segal, Alexander Gray, Bert Roach, and Walter Pigeon

Directed by Alan Crosland

Music by Sigmund Romberg; Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein III

Warners hadn't had much luck with film operetta before this came out. Though The Desert Song was a hit, it didn't go over that well with the critics. Song of the West went over even worse, and then there was the infamously offensive Golden Dawn. No amount of fancy songs or jungle capers could put that one over with anyone, even then. By 1930, they were getting more creative. They hired Oscar Hammerstein III and Sigmund Romberg to create music for four original operettas, three of which made it out just as musicals fell out of favor. This is the only one of those three still existing today. It didn't go over well in the US in 1930, which was still reeling from the start of the Great Depression, but is this brittle confection worth checking out over 90 years later? Let's begin in the 1870's in old Vienna at the time of the Austrian Empire, as three close friends and students sing of good times to come, and find out...

The Story: Those three friends are Otto Stiemer (Gray), wealthy Franz von Renner (Pigeon), and plump, jolly Gus Sascher (Roach). The three join the Austrian army, but only Franz proves suited to it. Otto's heart is forever with his beloved symphony. Otto falls for the lovely cobbler's daughter Elsa Hofner (Segal), but her father (Jean Hersholt) wants her to marry a man with money and discourages their romance. She eventually agrees to marry Franz after Otto gets drunk when her father tells him Elsa is more in love with money than him.

Otto and Gus move to New York with Gus' girlfriend Gretl (Louise Fazenda). Otto gets small jobs with Broadway pit orchestras, but it's not enough to put food on the table. His shrill wife Emma (Virginia Sale) demands that he get a job in Gus' pickle factory and give up music. One night at the show, he sees the now-wealthy Elsa with the Hungarian ambassador (Bela Lugosi). They go for a ride after the show, and though she admits she still loves him, she doesn't run away with him after she discovers he has a son (Freddie Burke Fredrick) he adores. 

Forty years later, it's now 1930. The elderly Elsa is preparing her granddaughter Barbara (Alice Day) to marry a wealthy man, but Barbara truly loves a poor composer (Gray). Despite her grandmother's protests, she finally gets her to hear her sweetheart's music...which sounds a lot like that symphony his grandfather never completed. Elsa is forced to confront her feelings for Otto and just how much he meant to her, even after all these years.

The Song and Dance: It's too bad this one isn't better-known today. What a truly lovely film! I'm so glad the color is intact here. The frothy pastels of two-strip Technicolor add enormous charm and sparkle to the proceedings. Segal and Gray overcome some slightly stiff dialogue with gorgeous performances of some of Romberg and Hammerstein's best film music. "You Will Remember Vienna" was the hit and the promise. Fazenda and Roach have their own fun as Elsa's chatty best friend and Otto's rotund business-minded pal. Hammerstein and Romberg had control over not only the music, but every set and costume, which explains the gorgeous production and why the music bonds so well with the romantic story. 

The Numbers: In fact, we open with Otto, his two friends, and Franz's father Baron von Renner (Phillpp Lothar Mayring) singing "You Will Remember Vienna" in the young men's cheap apartment. "Goodbye My Love" is our first chorus number at the Dritte Cafe. The second is "Oli Oli Oli" as the students enjoy their time with the ladies and the soldiers join them. Gus convinces Elsa to reprise "Vienna" at the Cafe. It turns into another chorus number as the other soldiers join in, including an enchanted Franz. Franz joins in with his own song to woo her, "If I Were a Gypsy." "Here We Are" is performed by Elsa, Otto, and the students and their girls at the cafe. We also hear "The Regimental March" twice, both times as a lively chorus number in and outside of the cafe.

Gretl reminds the besotted Elsa what happens "When You Have No Man to Love" while they're discussing her suitors. Otto reprises an instrumental "Vienna" on his violin at the conservatory, to Elsa's delight. He tells her "I Bring a Love Song" in the other hit from this score. "Here We Are" is heard again after the announcement of Franz and Elsa's engagement, but Otto is heartbroken as he reprises "Vienna." 

Years later, we cut to New York, where Otto plays "I Bring You Bad News" for a Broadway operetta of the time. He hears Elsa singing "Vienna" again in his mind, drowning out his obnoxious and unappreciative wife. "I'm Lonely" laments the singer (June Percell) in the show Otto plays for, before he encounters Elsa again. We get a jazzier reprise of "Here Are We" for Barbara, her sweetheart, and the Biltmore Trio in 1930. "Poem Symphony" is the concert number in the finale, the variation on "Vienna" that Otto had worked on for so long. We end with another reprise of "Vienna" as Elsa's spirit walks off with the now-late Otto.

Trivia: If your neck starts to itch when you see Elsa in the box at the Broadway operetta, yes, that is Bela Lugosi playing the Hungarian Ambassador next to her, almost a year before he became a star in Dracula. 

What I Don't Like: Not only is the story standard operetta melodrama, it sounds like Noel Coward's Bitter Sweet (which debuted in London the year before) and the 1937 MacDonald-Eddy version of Maytime, and can occasionally be heavy going. Roach and Fazenda are so cute when we see them, I almost wish she in particular had more to do than a few catty comments and her one comic number. 

The Big Finale: If any movie could benefit from being in the public domain, it's this one. I hope this exquisite candy box of an operetta finally gains the far wider audience it so richly deserves.

Home Media: Legal problems kept it off legitimate disc and streaming...but thanks to it entering the public domain this year, it's now all over YouTube.

YouTube