The Desert Song (1929)

Warner Bros, 1929

Starring John Boles, Carlotta King, Myrna Loy, and Johnny Arthur

Directed by Roy Del Ruth

Music by Sigmund Romberg; Lyrics by Otto Haurbach and Frank Mandel

This week we dive into the romantic, swashbuckling world of operetta, where every romance is a rhapsody, every duel a symphony. The Desert Song, inspired by the actual Riff tribe uprisings in North Africa, was a huge hit on Broadway in 1926. Warner Bros thought it would be perfect for their first all-talking, all-singing film and pulled out all the stops. There's lavish costumes and scenery, then-up-and-coming John Boles as the Red Shadow, most of those gorgeous songs recorded onto live Vitaphone discs, and originally, blazing two-strip Technicolor. While the color prints don't survive, how does the rest look in black and white today? Let's begin with "The Riff Song," as we see the tribes riding in the desert, and find out...

The Story: The Red Shadow (Boles) is the mysterious Robin Hood-like leader of the Riffs. He is in reality Pierre Birabeau, the son of the French General Birabeau (Edward Martindel) who came to Morocco in an attempt to impress Margot Bonavalet (King), a girl at his father's outpost. He took over the Riffs and now pretends to be a weakling in order to hide his secret identity. Margot is engaged to the General's dashing right-hand man Captain Fontaine (John Miljan), but she yearns to be romantically swept into the arms of some desert sheik.

She gets her wish when the Riffs attack the outpost and take her, Pierre's friend Benny Kidd (Arthur), and Benny's female friend Susan (Louise Fazenda) to their camp. Susan and Margot are quite surprised when the Red Shadow treats them with every Western courtesy. Margot eventually falls for the Red Shadow, while Benny dresses as a woman to escape and get help. The General comes to rescue Margot and challenges the Red Shadow to a duel, but Pierre can't harm his own father. Meanwhile, Captain Fontaine is told the location of the Riffs by jealous dancing girl Azuri (Loy), and Benny and Susan end up having their own fun when they get lost in the desert.

The Song and Dance: Oh boy, this was fun. The archaic stiffness of most early operetta is replaced by some of the hammiest acting I've ever seen in a major film musical. It's clear everyone knew darn well they were in a hoary old melodrama and just ran with the lunacy. Boles might be a little bit better as supposedly spineless Pierre than the dashing Red Shadow, but he and King do more than justice to their songs. Check out King's incredible high note on "The Sabre Song!" Some of the supporting cast works too, including Loy as the traitorous Azuri and Roberto E. Guzman as the Red Shadow's second-in-command Sid El Kar.

The Numbers: We open with "The Riff Song" as they explain who they are and why they follow the Red Shadow. "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "French Military Marching Song" are Margot and the women of the barracks' lament that their men are perpetually away fighting. Margot has modern dreams of romance, but Pierre's are more courtly. "Then You Will I Know," he tells her after she explains her dreams of being swept off her feet. "Why Waste Your Time?" The Red Shadow wonders, before he and Margot go into the rapturous title song. One of his men, Sid El Kar, sings "Soft as a Pigeon Lights Upon the Sand" as Azuri and her girls dance in traditional Arabian garb. Margot and The Red Shadow reprise the title song when she's being abducted to end the first half.

The second half starts with Spanish dancers performing "My Little Castagnette." Clementina, the lead Spanish dancer, also performs "Song of the Brass Key." Head of the Riffs Ali Ben Ali (Jack Pratt) tells the Red Shadow to "Let Love Go." This goes right into Sid's big ballad, "One Flower Grows Alone In Your Garden." Red Shadow counters with one of the big standards from this, the ballad "One Alone." The Red Shadow insists to Margot when she complains about the desert that "I Find the Simple Life Entrancing." "The Sabre Song" is Margot's soliloquy as she wonders about the Red Shadow and who he really is. "You Love Me" Margot and the Red Shadow declare before going into another reprise of the title song. The Red Shadow sings "One Alone" before going off into the desert...and it's how Margot knows it's really him when he sings it in the finale.

Trivia: Though this was completed in late 1928, it was held back until May 1929 due to Warners' release schedule at the time. It was a hit when it came out, but critics thought it stilted compared to movies that had been released in the interim like The Broadway Melody. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, though this is probably the most complete version of this show on film or TV, there's still a few songs missing, notably Margot's solo "Romance" and Benny's two comedy numbers. Second, Warners really needs to take a crack at restoring this, even if they can't find the color. The black and white copies on YouTube are horribly blurry. Third, this is not for those who want their musicals quieter or more subtle. This is a romantic adventure drama where everyone shouts their lines to the non-existent balconies. 

King sounds better than she acts. She's stiff as a board in the first half unless she's singing, until she really gets into "The Desert Song" and "The Sabre Song." There's this being an early talkie, too. People do stand around and just sing a lot. We also have all your attendant Arab stereotypes, mixed in with your obvious gay stereotypes with Benny (how he ultimately ended up with Susan I will never know). 

The Big Finale: Great for early talkie enthusiasts and operetta and action fans like me who may be willing to sit through some of the baked ham to enjoy some truly fine singing. 

Home Media: Best place to find this one is on YouTube. 

YouTube

Pointed Heels

Paramount, 1929

Starring Fay Wray, William Powell, Phillip Holmes, and Helen Kane

Directed by A. Edward Sutherland

Music and Lyrics by various

First of all, after today, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will be going on hiatus for vacation. Reviews will resume October 7th with the early talkie revue Paramount on Parade. 

Speaking of Paramount and the early talkie era, MGM was far from the only studio where backstage shenanigans came to the fore. Even the smallest studio dove head-first into backstage stories that could make use of music and sound without actually having to to weave them into the plot. Paramount was no exception to this. Pointed Heels was their big attraction for Christmas 1929. It seems to have done well enough then, but has time been kind to this tale of a producer who chases the chorus girl wife of a poor songwriter? Let's begin at a theater with a rehearsal in progress and see...

The Story: Chorus girl Lora Nixon (Wray) is leaving the show to marry wealthy songwriter Donald Ogden (Holmes). His mother is so heartbroken over the marriage, she cuts the newlywed couple off without a cent, forcing them to live in a tiny New York apartment. Donald's too devoted to writing his jazz symphony to take regular work, so Lorna returns to the show. Producer Robert Courtland is still interested in her and invites her to his penthouse. Donald thinks Courtland is what she wants, but the producer knows that's far from the truth.

The Song and Dance: For a last-minute replacement, Wray is lovely as a chorus girl who marries for love, then wonders why. Richard "Skeets" Gallagher and adorable Betty Boop inspiration Helen Kane have their moments as Donald's brother and his wife, Eugene Palatte gets a few good lines as Courtland's partner, and William Powell is delightfully and impossibly suave as the charming producer who understands love a lot more than Lorna does. The other stand-out here is the production. We have some really nifty Art Deco sets, especially in the theater, and gorgeous late 20's gowns and dance costumes for Wray and the ladies. 

The Numbers: Our first, brief number is in a restaurant, where Kane really gets into wiggling along with the music played by wandering musicians at their table. We also get a brief bit by Donald, playing a lovely bit of his "jazz symphony." Gallagher and Kane give us the sweet "Ain'tcha" while he plays the piano at their apartment. Their idea of being "refined" in the dress rehearsals is singing "I Have to Have You" with him in a tux and her in a blonde wig, carrying a huge feather fan. They reprise it in the actual show, this time with him doing goofy drunk dances and her in a much shorter, lacy outfit and doing her Betty Boop "boop-a-doop." 

Trivia: The 2-strip Technicolor "Versailles Ballet" with Wray, the Albertina Rasch Dancers, and the chorus does exist and has been seen recently in museums but is not included in older copies currently on YouTube.

If Fay Wray seems like almost as strange of a choice for a musical as Powell, she was a last minute replacement for, among other women, Esther Ralston and Mary Eaton. 

What I Don't Like: Other than Powell being urbane and some mildly racy Pre-Code moments, this isn't anything you haven't seen in dozens of backstage musicals before and after. Losing the ballet means most of the songs are performed by Kane and Gallagher. They can be funny, but are usually best taken in small doses. Holmes is especially dull, seeming more like a robot than any kind of musician.

The Big Finale: Nothing you haven't seen in other, better backstage films. Only for the most ardent fans of Wray or Powell. 

Home Media: Streaming only. I watched it on YouTube.

YouTube

Cult Flops - It's a Great Life

MGM, 1929

Starring Vivian and Rosetta Duncan, Laurence Gray, and Jed Prouty

Directed by Sam Wood

Music by Dave Dryer; Lyrics by Ballard MacDonald

We're going backstage this week at the dawn of the early sound era. After the wild success of The Broadway Melody, MGM pretty much used that as a template for all of its theater-set musicals from 1929 through 1932. Vivian and Rosetta Duncan were the inspirations and original casting choices for the sister act in Broadway Melody. Their close-harmony comedy act had been captivating audiences in vaudeville, the stage, and on silent film since 1911. MGM figured it made sense to star the sisters in their own Broadway Melody variant about a small-time sister act who breaks up when one gets married. How does it look now, over 90 years later? Let's begin at a department store, where the head manager (George Periolat) is getting ready to lead the clerks in song, and find out...

The Story: Diminutive Casey Hogan (Rosetta Duncan) and her slightly ditsy younger sister Babe (Vivian Duncan) get into trouble when Casey does comedy when she's just supposed to be dancing in the store's annual talent show. That doesn't put her over with Jimmy Dean (Gray), the piano player in the sheet music department who is in love with Babe and is directing the show. Jimmy tries an act with Babe, but it doesn't really work until Casey joins in, too. That puts it over better...until Babe and Jimmy claim they want to get married. Casey is devastated, and they break up the act. Casey is ready to marry David Parker (Prouty), the department store manager who has been in love with her for years...until Jimmy tells her that her sister has collapsed. She's delirious...and will respond to no one but her sister.

The Song and Dance: The first half of this one, when they're at the department store and doing vaudeville together, is actually kind of fun. Vivian's bland and a bit annoying, but Rosetta can be a riot, especially playing off the combative Gray. The movie is surprisingly fast-paced for the era. Wood gives a real sense of bustle to the early scenes, especially at the botched talent show and when the trio are on their vaudeville tour. It's rare for a film of this vintage to still have its color scenes. Apparently, those were rediscovered in the 90's. That fashion show in particular doesn't look too bad today. 

The Numbers: We open with the store song, "Smile, Smile, Smile," during a meeting. Casey finds it to be more than a little maudlin and goofs off and makes wisecracks throughout the entire number. Our first Technicolor sequence is "Fashion Through the Day," the fashion show sequence that goes awry when the girls get in the wrong order and come down when the singer isn't talking about their costumes. The movie returns to black and white for a rather dreadful tenor murdering "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella." He sounds whiny and can't even remember the lyrics. Babe attempts a solo, "The Sweetheart's Song," but she has an attack of stage fright, and Casey saves the number by turning it into a comedy. Casey and Babe do better by their simple, sweet close harmony number, "I'm Following You." 

The Hogans reprise this in their vaudeville act, climbing out of Jimmy's piano. This is actually rather charming, showing us what vaudeville acts like the Duncans meant to their audiences. The two of them dressing in goofy Spanish costumes and singing "It's an Old Spanish Custom" and "If I Love You"as an exaggerated Victorian lass and gentleman is a little stranger. The movie ends with Babe's Technicolor fever dream...and considering the wild Art Deco sets, it's almost literally one. The Hogans start out by singing "Hoosier Hop" with bad back-up dancers in gingham bonnets. They end things by having the chorus girls slide down silvery "sunbeams" in "Sailing On Sunbeams."

What I Don't Like: Yeah, I can see why this was such a flop, the Duncans never made another feature-length film. It starts out pretty cute, but the bottom drops out pretty quickly once Jimmy and Babe get married. The melodrama is dull, silly, and annoying. Some of Casey and Jimmy's bickering gets obnoxious to the point of being plain nasty. No wonder Babe got so sick. Jed Prouty is supposed to be Casey's love interest, but he's such a nonentity, you understand why Casey ran back to her sister. (Oh, and Warner, the color on the copy currently at YouTube could stand for some restoration, particularly in "Sailing On Sunbeams.")

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of the Duncans, vaudeville, or the early talkie era. Everyone else would be better off looking for the Technicolor numbers solo online.

Home Media: It's on DVD from the Warner Archives, but like most 1929 titles now in the public domain, you're better off streaming this one.

DVD

YouTube

Back to School Again - So This Is College

MGM, 1929

Starring Robert Montgomery, Sally Starr, Elliot Nugent, and Cliff Edwards

Directed by Sam Wood

Music and Lyrics by various

First of all, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews will be on hiatus from September 27th through October 5th for vacation. I'll be doing an extra review every week this month to make up for the ones I'll miss then. 

That said, we're going back to school this week with our first three reviews. School-set musicals go much further back than most people realize. College students were cheering football heroes and tossing water balloons on their friends in the silent era. Sound gave dimension to the pep rallies and school dances, and indeed the late 20's and early 30's saw a wave of college-set musicals. Prompted by the success of Good News on Broadway, the studios capitalized on their popularity with movies like this one, featuring two of the most unlikely collegiates in the history of film. How does college life in 1929 look almost a hundred years later? Let's begin with the arrival of Eddie (Nugent) joining the high-spirited pranks at real-life college USC, and find out...

The Story: Football heroes Eddie and Biff (Montgomery) swear that nothing will ever break up their life-long friendship, including women. This changes very quickly when co-ed Babs (Starr) dances into their lives. Their pranks as they attempt to keep the other from seeing her start out as harmless, but eventually come close to rupturing their friendship and their football prowess. Eddie initially steps aside when he discovers that Biff wants to marry Babs, but then they learn the truth about her at the big game...and finally come to the conclusion that being pals and good sports is more important than any girl. 

The Song and Dance: Nice to know some things haven't changed on college campuses in almost 100 years. The wild dances, the water in the bags gag in the beginning, the football obsession...yeah, that's stuff you can still see kids doing. Cliff Edwards handles the majority of the musical chores as the campus musician Windy. Starr is so adorable as Sally, you can understand why the two nearly give up their football careers for her. MGM spared no expense on this one. We have glittering low-slung 20's flapper outfits for the ladies, letter sweaters and tuxes for the guys, and shooting on the real-life USC campus (including real footage of an actual college game in the end). 

The Numbers: We open with the guys singing their school song "Cardinal and Gold" as Eddie arrives. Cliff Edwards sings about those "College Days" with the students later, and the students say they'll stay together "Until the End." Starr joins Edwards to sing about those "Campus Capers." Biff initially admits to Babs that "I Don't Want Your Kisses If I Can't Have Your Love." Eddie picks it up later, then we hear it at the prom. Speaking of the prom, Windy sings a whole number about how important it is to the students, "Sophomore Prom." The students claim they'll "Fight On!" at the pep rally. We get a medley of traditional songs performed by the students at the rally as well, including "How Dry I Am," "There's No Place Like Home," "Ring Around the Rosie," and "Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here."

What I Don't Like: First of all, this really isn't all that different from dozens of school musicals that came after it, from College Humor to High School Musical. All the attendant school cliches run just as hot and heavy here, though it is kind of refreshing that neither Biff nor Eddie end up with Babs in the end. It's their relationship that really matters. Second, Starr is probably the only actor who is even remotely close to the right age for college. Montgomery, though not a horrible singer, is really uncomfortable in a musical, too, and Edwards is basically there for the songs and has little to do otherwise. Not to mention, this is an early talkie. There are stretches where people are just standing and talking.

The Big Finale: Cute if you're a fan of early talkie or pre-code musicals, nothing you really need to go out of your way to see otherwise. 

Home Media: DVD only via the Warner Archives.

DVD

The Singing Fool

Warner Bros, 1928

Starring Al Jolson, Josephine Dunn, Betty Bronson, and Davey Lee

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

Music and Lyrics by various

The Jazz Singer was a big enough hit for Warners to rush Jolson into another tale of heartbreak. This one would be even bigger, with more pathos, more drama, and far more Jolson. Jolson was now the biggest star on the planet...and it's part of the reason that this movie, far more than The Jazz Singer, wound up being the reason the studios decided sound film was here to stay. How does the monumental blockbuster hit of 1928 look now? Let's begin at that most 20's of gathering places, the speakeasy, where waiter Al Stone's (Jolson) life is about to change, and find out...

The Story: Al's been trying to get into the big time for years. He finally rates notice when he performs a song he wrote for lovely but superficial Molly Malone (Dunn) and is spotted by a Broadway producer. Molly claims to fall for Al right there and then, but she's more interested in his success than him. 

Al does become a huge Broadway star, but his marriage with Molly is empty. She's more interested in her affair with the more traditionally handsome John Perry (Reed Howes). Al's only true loves are performing and his child Sonny (Lee). Fed up with him being more interested in his career and the kid than her, Molly takes Sonny to Paris and gets a divorce. Al loses his job and becomes a bum, until he returns to Blackie's Cafe and is encouraged back into the limelight by sweet Grace (Bronson), who has always really loved him. His big comeback is hounded by tragedy, but it's Grace who reminds him that, even when those we love can only be there in spirit, we can still sing for them.

The Song and Dance: Some of Jolson's best song performances can be found here. "Sonny Boy" would prove to be such a phenomenon, it launched a series of equally melodramatic sob stories and sad songs performed by similar nervy entertainers in early talkies. Jolson comes across much better on more vibrant songs, especially the opening "It All Depends On You." His interaction with Davey Lee really is genuinely sweet; they do seem like a fond father and son, making his reaction when he loses him totally understandable.

The Numbers: Our first sound sequence has Al admitting to Molly and the speakeasy audience that "It All Depends on You." After he's spotted by the Broadway producer, he sings about how "I'm Sittin' On Top of the World." His first Broadway number gets him into a tuxedo for "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder." The massive hit "Sonny Boy" first turns up as a lullaby for Sonny after Al argues with Molly and we see her indifference to husband and son. He sings it again twice more, when Sonny is in the hospital, and in the finale in blackface while his heart is supposedly breaking. 

Trivia: There was originally another number for Jolson, the Mexican-tinged ruffles-and-castanets routine "The Spaniard Who Blighted My Life." The song's writer Billy Merson claimed that he made his living singing the song, and Jolson's version would diminish his. The song was cut from UK prints of the film...which are currently the only prints to survive today.

What I Don't Like: Hooo boy. At least The Jazz Singer had Warner Oland as Jolson's concerned father and Alan Crosland's inventive direction going for it. All this one has is an overheated soap opera plot that's as distasteful as it is silly. The histrionics are way over Jolson's head, making him look less like a jazz singer who just lost his kid and more like the fool of the title. No one comes remotely close to his scenery chewing. Dunn is bitter but doesn't have much to do, and Bronson barely appears and fades into the woodwork when she does. The blackface is saved for the last ten minutes or so, but he does still wear it, and there's also his treatment of his slightly stereotypical black valet.

Also, there's the entire problem of it being a part-talkie. The sound lurches in and out. One minute, everyone is emoting in silence; the next, Jolson is blaring "Keep Smiling at Trouble" to the room. It's disconcerting, to say the least. They should have either gone full-talkie (which they would for Jolson's next vehicle, Say It With Music) or left it silent. 

The Big Finale: This may have been what convinced the studios to take a chance on sound film, but nowadays, it's only of interest to the most ardent fans of Jolson and film historians.

Home Media: DVD only from the Warner Archives.

DVD

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Warner Bros, 1927

Starring Al Jolson, May McAvoy, Warner Oland, and Eugenie Besserer

Directed by Alan Crosland

Music and Lyrics by various

Come with me this week, and explore the very first musicals on the silver screen. Experiments with melding film and sound go back almost to the dawn of cinema, but they weren't well-received until the 1920's. Warner Brothers took a chance on a series of sound short subjects. When those were successful, they added background scores and sound effects to feature-length films, using their Vitaphone process where the sound is recorded on a record, then played with the movie. This would be one of the first feature-length films with actual dialogue. Jolson wasn't the first choice for this tale of how a Jewish performer reconciles his culture and his love of popular music, but it's hard to see anyone else in this now. How does this look almost 100 years later? Let's begin with silent title cards explaining the central dilemma and find out...

The Story: Thirteen-year-old Jakie Robinwitz (Bobby Gordon) runs away when his strict orthodox cantor father (Oland) forbids him from singing popular music in beer gardens. Over a decade later, he's now Jack Robin (Al Jolson), a singer in local cafes. He's discovered by dancer Mary Dale (McAvoy), who insists on him appearing in the show where she's currently working, April Follies. He's a big hit, prompting him to return to his mother...but his father still disdains his singing "jazz" music. It isn't until his father's dying that Jack realizes where he belongs, and that he can be wholly Jewish and revel in his own kind of music, too.

The Song and Dance: The roots of The Jazz Singer go far deeper than it being one of the catalysts for getting dialogue on the big screen. You can see the foundation for everything from big star dramas like the many versions of A Star Is Born to biographies like last week's I Saw the Light in an embryonic form here. No wonder most critics praised Jolson's performance. While he's no actor, he is a personality. The screen lights up whenever he's there. The "Blue Skies" sequence, where he sings the Irving Berlin standard to his delighted mother, and the infamous "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" number near the end may be the best examples of his considerable talent. 

The Numbers: We open 13-year-old Jakie Robinwitz (Bobby Gordon) singing "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" and "My Gal Sal," at the beer hall. The numbers so horrify the head of the temple's council (Otto Lederer) that he tells Jakie's parents what he's doing. The traditional Jewish song "Kol Nidre" is performed twice, by Cantor Rabinowitz (dubbed by a real Cantor, Rosenblatt) when he realizes he's lost his son, and later by Jakie when he realizes how much his religion is a part of his life. 

"Dirty Hands, Dirty Face" is his big number in the nightclub. The teary ballad prompts Mary to call him one of the few jazz singers who can elicit a tear along with a sigh. He's even more dynamic on his next number, leaping into "Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye" with relish. The sequence where he talks to his mother while singing the Irving Berlin standard "Blue Skies" is likely the most famous now as the first dialogue sequence. He sings "Mother of Mine, I Still Have You" at the dress rehearsal and "My Mammy" at the actual performance in the Winter Garden.

Trivia: Jolson wasn't the studio's original choice for Jakie. The part was intended for the star of the original Broadway play George Jessel, but he wanted too much money and Jolson stepped in.

That's the real Winter Garden Jakie performs at during the finale. The Winter Garden still very much exists today, and in fact briefly became a movie theater shortly after this movie debuted. A revival of Mamma Mia! will be opening there this fall.

What I Don't Like: For all its influence, the melodramatic story hasn't really dated well at all. All of the actors pale besides Jolson and Oland as his strict father. Besserer doesn't have much to do besides look maternal (other than her slightly forced dialogue during the "Blue Skies" sequence), and McAvoy has even less as the lady who helps Jack become a success. It can all be a bit too much for many modern audiences, who may wonder what the fuss was about. 

There's also Jolson performing in blackface to contend with. Yes, it's history, it's part of Jolson's act, and it goes back to his days playing with minstrel troupes. That doesn't make it any easier to take for audiences today.

The Big Finale: No matter how dated this is or isn't, it's still history. Necessary viewing for cinema historians, musical fans, and major fans of Jolson and early talkie musicals.

Home Media: Easily found in all formats, including Tubi for free with commercials. The DVD is a three-disc set that also includes many sound shorts of the era. 

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

The Dance of Life

Paramount, 1929

Starring Hal Skelly, Nancy Carroll, Dorothy Revier, and Charles D. Brown

Directed by John Cromwell and A. Edward Sutherland

Music by Richard A. Whiting; Lyrics by Sam Coslow and Leo Robin

We celebrate Women's History Month with two early film musicals revolving around female-focused stories. The Dance of Life started out as Burlesque, a hit Broadway play with music in 1927. Barbara Stanwyck had her first major exposure as the feisty wife of an alcoholic stage star, but she wasn't even considered for the film. Carroll was one of the biggest stars of the late 20's and early 30's. She was pretty, smart, tough, and versatile, easily moving from comedy to drama to musicals at the drop of a hat. Paramount cast her alongside original stage star Skelly, along with several lesser-known character actors. How well do they do with the dark and gritty story? Let's begin backstage at a vaudeville house, as Bonny King (Carroll) tries to audition and find out...

The Story: Bonny's audition isn't a success, but she did impress Ralph "Skid" Johnson (Skelly), a comic with the show who was fired when he complained about her treatment. After hitting it off over a Bunsen burner at the train station, they decide to work together and get a better job at a burlesque company in Milwaukee. Not only are they hired, but they eventually fall for each other. Skid asks Bonny to marry him, but his alcoholism comes between them on their wedding night. Not to mention, comedienne Sylvia (Revier) is also in love with Skid and tries to get between them.

Skid is offered a job in a big Follies show, but Bonny isn't asked to join him. She encourages him to take it anyway. Unfortunately, the show's success drives him to the bottle and Sylvia's arms. After Bonny catches him in a speakeasy kissing Sylvia, she walks out and threatens divorce. Rancher Harvey Howell (Ralph Theodore) wants to marry her, but Skid isn't doing nearly as well. His drinking is effecting his performances, and he's back in burlesque. His newest show may not go on if Bonny can't get there in time to sober him up and remind him how much they mean to each other.

The Song and Dance: This wound up being a bit of a surprise. Carroll and Skelly are excellent as the faithful wife and loser of a comic in this searing look at the seamier side of show business. Though the grotesque dancers and low comics form something of a family for the duo, they also blatantly encourage Skid's drinking and Bonny's reliance on him. Burlesque as seen here is not a pretty place. From realistically corny numbers to grimy, sweaty dressing rooms, we get the full-on darker side of show business. Even the fact that Skelly is a bit on the plain side is pretty realistic, making it even more heartbreaking when this everyman comic goes on his downward slide. Sutherland apparently had to wring a good performance out of recalcitrant Carroll, but whatever he did worked. She's a decent dancer and does so well as the faithful, tough little Bonny, you can't help but feel she deserves so much better in the end.

The Numbers: We open with Bonny's attempt at what looks like a Charleston, but the pianist apparently doesn't play the song right. Bonny and Skid do a little dance routine in the train station, proving they do have chemistry. Our first chorus number is "King of Jazzmania." Not only is it barely-heard on the terrible copy at Tubi, it's also not very good. The ladies can't sing in harmony or stay in step. Skid does better when he literally tumbles down to the stage for his rubber-legged solo. Bonny does "Cuddlesome Baby" among the men in the audience, but Skid isn't happy when one of those men get a little too grabby for his and Bonny's liking. 

The best number goes to Skid. He sings "Tru Blu Lou," a sweet but corny ballad about a faithful lady and the man who didn't appreciate her laying right before the camera. The intimacy as Skid smokes and relates the song gives it an almost elegant feeling that makes it very different from some of the noisier numbers in the early talkies era. "Ladies of the Dance" is the big Follies routine, with chorus girls in towering headdresses parading before the camera. The lavish costumes lose something without the color, but they're still pretty impressive. Marjorie Kane comes out at the end to introduce "The Flippity Flop" with Skid and the chorus. Skid's rubber-kneed comic dance is almost as impressive. 

Bonny sings the sad ballad "In the Gloaming" for her ex-husband and fiancee, but her heart certainly isn't in it. Skid tries to pep up the proceedings, but he's clearly drunk and hiding it. Skid is supposed to be "The Mightiest Matador" in the burlesque finale, but he can barely stand. Bonny encourages him to stay with the number and reprises their dance to "Swanee River" in the finale, as they did early-on when they were talking about getting married.

Trivia: The Follies numbers were originally filmed in 2-strip Technicolor. While a bit of the color is said to survive, current prints are only in black and white. 

The name The Dance of Life was actually taken from a then-daring book on sex.

Burlesque would be remade twice, as Swing High, Swing Low in 1937 with Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray and When My Baby Smiles at Me in 1948 with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey.

What I Don't Like: First of all, while this moves pretty well for the time period, we do get occasional reminders of this being an early talkie whenever people are standing and talking, or they start a dance number and it's filmed from the front, with barely any movement. That's fine for Skelly's low-key "Tru Blu Lou," but it just makes the chorus numbers look static. The loss of the color means that the Follies numbers are blurred and indistinct, occasionally making it hard to tell what anyone is.

Carroll and Skelly's strong performances don't mask the heavy cliches here. This has been borrowed from over and over again since the original play debuted, including the two official remakes mentioned in the trivia section. The up and down story isn't anything you haven't seen before or won't see again from the 20's onwards. And...to tell the truth, I can't help thinking that nowadays, Bonny would either go back to the rancher or strike out on her own. She deserved a lot better than a man who didn't want to be changed.

The Big Finale: Worth seeing if you're a fan of Caroll, backstage melodrama, or want to check it a really good early talkie drama. 

Home Media: Not officially available on disc at press time. It's in the public domain, so it can be found easily online, though the prints are usually not the best quality.

Tubi

Internet Archive

Back to School Again - Sweetie (1929)

Paramount, 1929

Starring Nancy Carroll, Stanley Smith, Helen Kane, and Jack Oakie

Directed by Frank Tuttle

Music by Richard Whiting; Lyrics by George Marion Jr.

First of all, Musical Dreams Movie Reviews is going on vacation hiatus from September 22nd through the 30th. Reviews will resume October 1st. To make up for that, you'll be getting an extra review on Wednesday every week for the rest of the month.

Second, we kick off Back to School week with one of the oldest college-related film musicals. Movies with college settings go back to the silent era, complete with football games, homecoming dances, strict deans, and flappers chasing only slightly reluctant class presidents. College musicals had become especially popular in the late 20's, thanks to the success of the Broadway show Good News. This is Paramount's answer to that rush. How does the story of a chorus girl who inherits a university look nowadays? Let's enter the campuses of The Pellham School and Miss Twill's School for Girls in North Carolina and find out...

The Story: Barbara Pell (Carroll) is shocked when she inherits Pellham from a deceased uncle. Her former boyfriend Biff Bentley (Smith) was going to marry her, but he opted to stay at Pellham and finish out the football season instead. He's one of the reasons they're having their best season ever. Barbara's furious with him. She quit her Broadway job to be with him and was dumped back in the chorus when he left her. 

She first gives him tests on football days, then claims she'll sell the college to their rival school and let him knock it down. Even her Broadway buddy Tap-Tap Thompson (Oakie) knows that's pushing things too far. While Biff tries to prove to Barbara that she means as much to him as football does, Miss Twill's student Helen Fry (Kane) is up trees shooting boys in the rear, especially Biff's fellow football player Axel Bronstrup (Stuart Erwin). 

The Song and Dance: Carroll and the supporting cast are the standouts here. Kane shows the feisty cooing that made her the inspiration for Betty Boop, and Oakie has a fine time hamming it up as the dancer who ends up deciding he might actually like higher education. Carroll also has some good moments, especially early-on when she drops Biff after he claims he wants to finish the season. Paramount really jumped into this one, with lovely gowns and suits for the homecoming dance and a genuine field for the guys to play that all-important game on in the end. It honesty moves pretty fast for an early talkie film, with more vitality than most of them.

Favorite Number: Our first song is "Bear Down, Pellham." This sentimental fight song is what convinces Biff to stay at school and on the football team, after he hears his fellow team members singing it, looks into a mirror, and remembers what it feels like to be a football hero. Jack Oakie and the chorus girls have an instrumental tap routine at a Broadway theater after Barbara returns to the chorus that she's having a hard time keeping up with. 

Biff and Barbara perform the ballad "My Sweeter Than Sweet" on a simple piano as the school decorates for the homecoming dance. Helen boop-oop-a-doops through the only standard from this score, "He's So Unusual," looking every inch like a live-action Betty Boop. She and Oakie teach the kids decorating the lively routine "The Prep Step" for the dance. Oakie sings the goofy Al Jolson parody "Alma Mammy" at the school dance. All of the kids eventually join in for the closest thing this gets to a big dance routine. Helen tries to explain to Erwin when he climbs a ladder to her window that "I Think You'll Like It." The students briefly reprise "Alma Mammy" at the big game in very strange blackface masks that are probably supposed to represent Jolson. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, Smith is so dull, especially compared to hams like Kane and Oakie, that you wonder why Barbara wanted revenge on him to begin with. Though she does eventually rescind on her plans when she realizes how important football is to the school, Barbara's scheme to shut down an entire college just because her boyfriend dumped her for 8 months seems annoyingly petty. 

And yeah, this is an early talkie school musical. The story is cliched other than the angle of Barbara inheriting the school, only "He's So Unusual" stands out among the songs, and though the copy currently on YouTube is in surprisingly decent shape for the era, it still occasionally slows down and shows scenes of people sitting and talking.

The Big Finale: Mainly for fans of Carroll, Kane, Oakie, or the movies of the pre-Code late 20's and early 30's. 

Home Media: To my knowledge, this can only be found at YouTube at the moment, but the copy is in surprisingly decent shape.

YouTube

Greenwich Village (1944)

20th Century Fox, 1944

Starring Vivian Blaine, Don Ameche, Carmen Miranda, and William Bendix

Directed by Walter Lang

Music and Lyrics by various

After our vacation down in Argentina, how about a trip to downtown New York in the Roaring 20's? Miranda was at her height of popularity around this time as well as Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy resulted in an explosion of Latin American culture and themes in American films of the late 30's and 40's. Greenwich Village was still considered to be the spot in New York for artists even in the 40's, but in the 20's, it was a real melting pot. a place where Art rubbed against Commerce, and starving artists could be discovered by the great stage impresarios and publishers. 

It was also about the time composers like George Gershwin started taking popular music more seriously and wrote classical pieces with the zip and pizzazz of jazz. How does the arrival of hopeful composer Kenneth Harvey (Ameche) and his attempt to get his music noticed look now? Let's start with Kenneth stepping off the bus at the heart of Greenwich Village in 1922 and find out...

The Story: Kenneth steps right into a speakeasy owned by tough guy Danny O'Mara (Bendix). He wants to put on a major revue to rival Ziegfeld downtown starring his girlfriend Bonnie Watson (Blaine). His other headlining performer is "Princess" Querida O'Toole (Miranda), who does a fortune teller act between shows. She thinks Kenneth is rich after he flashes money around, but it turns out that's all the money he has on him. Danny doesn't like Bonnie's interest in Kenneth, but he still convinces Danny to write music for their show.

Kenneth is excited when violinist Hofer (Felix Bressart) claims the great producer Kavosky (Emil Rameau) wants to hear his music. Hofer, however, isn't as well-known in the classical music business as he claims, and Danny still wants to use Kenneth's music in the revue, whether he likes it or not. Kenneth now thinks everyone in New York is out to exploit him and his music, and ending up in jail with bootleg liquor doesn't help matters. Bonnie, Querida, and his friends in Greenwich Village, however, won't let him or his music go so easily.

The Song and Dance: Miranda and Ameche dominate this look at how popular music began to be taken more seriously in the 20's, with Bendix getting in as the jealous but well-meaning Danny. Ameche has one of his better musical performances as the hopeful composer, while Miranda is a riot as the South American lady with an eye for men with big wads of cash. There's also lovable con-man Bressart and B.S Pully as Danny's none-too-bright bouncer. The sets and costumes burst in utterly stunning Technicolor, some of the best from this decade. Everything pops, whether it's the get-ups in the costume ball mid-way through or Miranda's flowing jewel-toned tropical confections.

Favorite Number: We kick off with the most unique rendition of "I'm Just Wild About Harry" on film as Miranda gives it her signature touch, backed by a pirate combo on part of a ship. Blaine and Ameche go "Swinging Down the Lane" in a charming duet, which is cut off by the arrival of Danny and a massive party. Ameche, Bendix, Pully, and Bressart form their own brief but adorable barbershop quartet for "When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose." Dancers Sally and Tony DeMarco join the chorus outside of their deli as they declare to all of Greenwich Village that "This Is My Lucky Day." The entire cast gets in on "It's All for Art's Sake" that they're involved in debauchery during that colorful costume ball. 

Miranda's "I Like to Be Loved By You" is actually a leftover that was cut from Springtime In the Rockies, and it does seem a little spliced-in. The actual 20's ballad "Whispering" is performed at least three times by Blaine, including in Danny's apartment in the beginning and near the end at the revue. Black group The Four Step Brothers give the middle of the movie a lift with their awesome jazzy rendition of "It Goes Down to Your Toes." The movie ends with Miranda claiming "Give Me a Band and a Bandanna" as she rhumbas her way through segments from other songs. The DeMarcos turn up again with their lively number to "June Night." 

What I Don't Like: First of all, while the costumes are gorgeous, they're not historically accurate. Nor is the music, even the songs that really were written during the 20's like "Whispering." It looks and sounds like 1944 for the entire film. Danny won't even allow the constantly-mentioned bootleg whiskey in his place. The flimsy plot can even come off as a bit mean-spirited when Hofer takes Kenneth for a ride and Danny allows it; even Bonnie calls Danny on it. Speaking of, this was not Blaine's first film, but she never did develop the down-to-Earth flare that Grable and Faye did and comes off at best as good-natured and at worst as bland. 

The Big Finale: Lighthearted fun for fans of Miranda, Ameche, or the 20th Century Fox Technicolor extravaganzas of the 1940's. 

Home Media: DVD only as part of the Marquis Musicals series and The Carmen Miranda Collection. 

DVD

DVD - The Carmen Miranda Collection

Happy 4th of July! - Sunny Side Up (1929)

Fox Film Corporation, 1929

Starring Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Marjorie White, and Frank Richardson

Directed by David Butler

Music and Lyrics by B.G DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson

Happy 4th, everyone! Let's jump back to Independence Day in New York 94 years ago, where tenements held massive block parties with dancing, music, recitations, and food from many countries, and the wealthy gathered in Long Island estates for for elaborate soirees with cocktails and elegant garden shows. This is a historic film in many respects. It was one of the first truly original film musicals that wasn't based on a  previous stage show or a backstager that stuffed the songs between the story. 

DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson worked on the songs and the book, assuring that the Cinderella story of a New York shop girl who falls for a playboy was unusually well-integrated for the time. How does it look now? Let's join the camera in roaming across the Manhattan tenement where Molly Carr (Gaynor) and her best friend Bea Nichols (White) live and find out...

The Story: Molly's latest crush is Jack Cromwell (Farrell), the handsome son of a wealthy Long Island family. She's been ogling his picture in the society pages, but the last thing she expects is for him to turn up in her apartment on the 4th of July. Jack got drunk at his parents' party when his fiancee Jane Worth (Sharon Lynn) preferred flirting to setting the wedding date, crashed his car, and stumbled into Molly's apartment.

He's so enchanted by her performance at the block party and her kindness to him afterwards, he encourages her, Bea, Bea's boyfriend Eddie (Richardson), and Eric Swenson (El Brendel), the owner of the grocery store on the bottom floor of their building, to come out to his Long Island mansion and perform at the big charity show his mother (Mary Forbes) is putting on. Jack dresses Molly in fine clothes and tells his mother she's a society lady and the others are her servants. He's hoping to make Jane jealous, but the last thing he expects is to fall for her. His ruse works too well when an angry Jane passes it around that Molly is a kept woman. Molly runs back to Manhattan, but Jack isn't going to let her go so easily...

The Song and Dance: If your only exposure to the early sound era is backstage fluff like The Broadway Melody or Al Jolson's soppy melodramas, have I got a treat for you. This utterly adorable romantic comedy remains delightful today, thanks to its two leads, a decent supporting cast, and how well the charming songs bolster the plot. Gaynor may sound like the Disney Snow White and sing like she's on helium, but she's utterly convincing as the naive shop girl who finds herself courted by a millionaire. White and Richardson have a terrific time as the supportive best pals, and even Brendel's Swedish hayseed gags are more tolerable than usual. 

They're backed by a terrific production, especially for the early sound era. David Butler would make a career out of directing sweet fluff like this for everyone from Bob Hope to Doris Day. His unique opening depicts the residents of Molly's tenement and how they celebrate the 4th of July, roaming from room to room, giving us snippets of their daily lives. The cinematography is gorgeous for the early sound era and even includes some relatively complex outdoor shooting. 

Favorite Number: Molly sings the sweetly simple ballad "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?" three times. The first and last time, she's at home, dreaming of Jack. The second performance is at the charity show, behind a curtain of spouting water, after she thinks she's lost him. This one is much slower and a lot more heartfelt. By contrast, Jane's big song is the jaunty "You'll Find the Time and I'll Find the Place" at the Long Island mansion, her admittance that she's willing to go along with whatever guy comes along. Bea and Frank twit each other in the goofy vaudeville dance routine "You've Got Me Pickin' Pedals off of Daisies" as they literally pick flower crowns. Molly leads the crowd at the block party into a big sing-along for title number

The charity show begins with the totally outrageous "Turn on the Heat." Lynn and the chorus girls begin in furs and igloos...but as the song continues and their wriggling grows wilder, palm trees sprout, the ladies shed their furs, and even the set burns up in the frenzy! It's campy, insane fun of the type Busby Berkeley would perfect in the 30's and early 40's. Gaynor and Farrell appear in the other big number, the hit "If I Had a Talking Picture of You." The song is cheerful and bouncy, but their childish voices don't do it justice, and they sound more like five-year-olds than adults courting each other. This isn't helped when actual kids toddle on dressed exactly like them and sing along. Farrell reprises this more effectively in the finale, when Molly sees him singing it and realizes the true depth of his feelings for her. 

Trivia: This was one of the biggest hits of 1929 and inspired other studios to make their own non-backstage original musicals. 

"Turn On the Heat" was originally filmed in Multicolor, but current prints are only in black and white.

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell starred together in three previous silent melodramas, Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star. This would be their first sound film. 

Look for a young Jackie Cooper as the little boy who tries to recite "The Village Smithy" during the block party while squirming to get to the bathroom. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, Farrell doesn't work out quite as well as his co-star. They do have obvious chemistry (and were actually dating at the time), but his nasal voice and flat delivery belie his role as Long Island's most eligible Prince Charming, and his singing is worse than hers. Second, there are times when the early talkie stiffness does turn up, mostly in sequences when people are standing and talking, Also, keep in mind that this is a pre-Code movie. Some relatively racy moments include a sequence with a feminist giving birth control pamphlets to a mother surrounded by children and mild swearing. 

The Big Finale: One of the best movies of its era, this is a sweetheart of a romantic comedy that deserves a place at your 4th of July get-together.

Home Media: At press time, this rarity can only be found on YouTube.

YouTube

The Helen Morgan Story

Warner Bros, 1957
Starring Ann Blyth, Paul Newman, Richard Carlson, and Alan King

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Music and Lyrics by various

Helen Morgan is another jazz singer with an unfortunate history. Originally a farmer's daughter, she also overcame humble beginnings to be a major star during the 20's and 30's, lost her money due to bad choices and the Wall Street crash, was used and abused by her husbands and lovers, and died young from years of alcoholism. The movie about her life had almost as many problems. It had been announced early as 1950, but they couldn't find the right Morgan until studio head Jack L. Warner insisted on Blyth. How does she do with the tale of a woman who reaches the heights as the most famous torch singer of the Roaring 20's, only to lose it all to alcoholism? Let's start at a carnival in Chicago, where con man Larry Maddox (Newman) sells phony land in Florida and find out...

The Story: Helen Morgan (Blyth) is the only one of Maddox's hula dancers who keeps going, even when it starts raining. Morgan is determined to become a star, with or without Maddox's aid. Maddox eventually reconnects with her and convinces her to appear in the Miss Canada contest as Miss Saskatchewan. She wins, but is forced to drop her title when they find it was fixed. 

However, that does bring her into contact with lawyer Russell Wade (Carlson). After Maddox and his buddy Benny Weaver (King) bring Helen and her friends Sue (Virginia Vincent) and Dolly (Cara Williams) into the US as cover for illegal liquor, Helen breaks it off with Maddox. Despite Sue's tragic death, she does become a star in speakeasies. After she's arrested when her current place of employment is raided, she calls Wade, who gets her out. 

She becomes so popular, Maddox creates a showplace just for her, the Helen Morgan Club. He even manages to convince impresario Florenz Ziegfeld (Walter Woolf King) to hire her for his new Broadway historical epic Show Boat. Shortly after the show opens to glowing reviews, Helen learns that Wade put up the money for the Helen Morgan Club...and its raided and destroyed. Worse yet, Helen loses her money in bad investments and the Stock Market Crash. She's reduced to living as a penniless drunk in New York. Even as she bottoms out and ends up in Bellvue Hospital, Maddox hasn't forgotten her...and he's determined that she know others haven't, either.

The Song and Dance: Blyth's strong performance as Morgan and a great production bolsters this otherwise fairly routine story. Blyth doesn't look much like her, but she's a similar type, frail and aching, and she looks terrific on those pianos. This comes from the era where moviegoers were beginning to expect more from their musical biographies than a few nifty tunes and fancy numbers, and it's fairly dark for the 50's. This includes a suicide (and Helen and Dolly's realistically horrified reaction to it), Maddox being beaten to a pulp several times, and Helen trying to sing in a bar when she's hit rock-bottom and no one recognizes her. They do a great job in the first half portraying the late 20's, with fairly accurate and lavish costumes and hair for the time and terrific nightclub sets. 

Favorite Number: Our first real number is "If You Were the Only Girl In the World," which is Helen and her friends' attempt at an audition for a show. They do manage to make it into "Avalon," but Maddox knows Helen was made for better things. At Helen's first nightclub performance, we get the chorus doing an intentionally cheesy girls-and-legs routine to "The Girl Friend" before Helen comes on with the touching "The One I Love (Belongs to Somebody Else)." She eventually gets "Love Nest" there as well, now perched on that piano. 

We next get a montage of her at Gassher's Bar, the speakeasy that gets raided. She performs the Gershwin hit "Do, Do, Do" and "Breezin' Along with the Breeze" before she ends up in the slammer. Uptown, the real Rudy Vallee performs his hit "My Time Is Your Time," leading into Helen's "The Man I Love." Her big song at the Helen Morgan Club is the more upbeat "Sunny Side of the Street." A male vocal group gets a nice "I Want to Be Happy" at the Show Boat post opening party. We then get a medley of Helen's triumphs abroad, with "Someone to Watch Over Me" in London, "Deep Night" in Madrid, and "April In Paris" in that city. Cara Williams is briefly seen joining the chorus near the end for "Sweet Georgia Brown." Helen attempts "Somebody Loves Me" at rehearsal for her latest show, but she's so drunk, she sounds terrible. 

The movie ends with one of the songs most associated with her. She sings "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" at the big dinner finale for everyone who adores her.

Trivia: In real life, Morgan's attempt at a comeback was cut short when she died of liver disease in October 1941. 

Doris Day was initially cast as Morgan, but she thought the role a little too dark. Others considered included Susan Hayward, Jaye P. Morgan, Patti Page, Kathryn Grayson, Judy Garland, Julie London, Lizbeth Scott, Jennifer Jones, Peggy Lee, Yvonne DiCarlo, and model Nancy Berg. 

This would be Blyth's last film.

Known as Both Ends of the Candle in England, after the poem by Edna St. Millay that Helen reads near the end of the movie. 

What I Don't Like: Why did they dub Blyth? She had a gorgeous soprano that was far closer to Morgan's actual voice than Gogi Grant's belting. I have no idea why Jack L. Warner thought that was a good idea, or why he practically shoved Newman into this. Newman fought with everyone from Warner to old-school director Curtiz, and it shows in his lackluster and listless performance. Larry Maddox was fictional. Morgan actually married three times, and although her last husband was her manager, his name was Lloyd Johnston. She never bottomed out as seen in the film and continued to perform in nightclubs, radio, and onstage until her death. Though I give them kudos for going slightly more realistic, especially in the beginning, this is still ultimately the same type of melodrama that turns up in film biographies to this day. 

The Big Finale: Dark and depressing soap opera is mainly for big fans of Morgan, Blyth, or Newman. Everyone else is better off looking up the real Morgan's recordings and her performance in the 1936 Show Boat. 

Home Media: Currently available on streaming and DVD, the latter from the Warner Archives. 

DVD

Amazon Prime

Musicals on TV - Bessie (2015)

HBO, 2015

Starring Queen Latifa, Michael K. Williams, Mo'Nique, and Khandi Alexander

Directed by Dee Rees

Music and Lyrics by various

I enjoyed the two biographies of black female singers I watched last year as a transition from Black History Month to Women's History Month so much, I decided to do it again. This time, instead of rock and R&B singers, we're covering the lives of seminal blues and jazz singers. We start with "The Empress of the Blues" Smith, in this HBO original movie that was the most popular film ever made for the network. How does the story of how the blues singer went from rags to riches to rags again...and rediscovered love in the process...look today? Let's start onstage with Bessie (Queen Latifa) as she recalls her life and her recent troubles during a performance and find out...

The Story: Smith started out working for pennies on the black vaudeville circuit, but what she really wants is to appear in a big stage show. At the time, even black stage managers refused to hire darker-skinned women for their shows. She befriends "Mother of the Blues" Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique) after sneaking onto her private train. Ma helps her develop her style, but when Bessie becomes more popular, they have a falling-out and Bessie leaves with her brother Clarence (Tory Kittles) to start her own act. One of the people she hires starting out is Jack Gee (Williams), a security guard who becomes her manager, and later marries her. 

Jack tries to get Bessie a contract with the newly formed African-American record label Black Swan. When they turn her down, he gets her one with Columbia. Bessie's now one of the most popular black recording artists in the US, but her success does come with major drawbacks. She's stabbed after a performance in her home town and has to drive the Klu Klux Klan off from another show. Wealthy whites treat her condescendingly. Despite buying a huge mansion for her and her family and adopting a son she names Jack Jr. (Sylvester Ambrose James II), Bessie continues her affairs with both Lucille (Tika Sumpter) and bootlegger Richard Morgan (Mike Epps). 

She eventually turns to alcohol, which proves to be a problem as the 20's roll into the 30's. Jack finally gets fed up with her affairs after they have a huge fight and not only leaves her, but kidnaps their son as well. The Depression destroys her savings, and she and Morgan move into a small apartment. Bessie does reconcile with Ma Rainey, and with her encouragement and the inspiration of a racy record by blues singer Lucille Bogan, she finally gets back on her feet and reminds audiences that she still has what it takes to be the "Empress of the Blues."

The Song and Dance: Wow. No wonder this is the most-watched HBO original film to date and won an Emmy for best TV movie in 2015. Powerhouse performances bring Smith's tumultuous story to searing life, with Queen Latifa and Williams the stand-outs as the big loving, big feeling Bessie and her hot-headed husband. Mo'Nique steals the few scenes she appears in as Smith's mentor and predecessor as queen of the blues. The costumes and sets detailing Smith's up-and-down descent from struggling singer to lavishly living celebrity and back again are historically accurate and absolutely gorgeous.  

Favorite Number: Singer Pat Bass dubs Mo'Nique, performing Ma Rainey's own "Weepin' Woman Blues" when Bessie watches her perform for the first time. Carmen Twille performs her "Prove It On Me." Bessie tries to audition with "I Got What It Takes, But It Breaks My Heart to Give It Away," but the producers turn her down. She and Bass duet on "Weepin' Woman Blues"...which is when Rainey realizes that her protege is outshining her. 

Bessie's first song on her own - and her first hit - is "Lost Your Head Blues." She gets her biggest hit, "Downhearted Blues," literally as she's walking from the hospital after her stabbing onto the stage. "Preachin' the Blues" is the number that gets cut off when the Klu Klux Klan tries to burn the tent where she's performing...with her, her band, and the entire audience in it. "Till the Cows Come Home" is the real recording by Lucille Bogan that inspires Bessie to start performing again. She sings about that "Long Old Road" to an appreciative crowd. 

Trivia: Sadly, Bessie's comeback proved to be short-lived. She died in a tragic and controversial car crash in 1937. 

Mo'Nique was originally offered Viola, but asked for Ma Rainey instead, since she'd played types like Viola before. 

Was in development for 20 years, including originally being planned for a theatrical release, before it finally went to HBO. 

What I Don't Like: While the raw subject matter makes this more interesting and honest than most biographies, it still hits all the standard beats of the genre. For all the gorgeous details and terrific performances, I wish the movie had gone a little more outside the box and had explored other parts of Bessie's colorful life, like her connection with audiences or her lesbian lovers, even further. Not to mention, some characters have been fudged or combined. Lucille, for instance, is a combination of Smith's many female lovers. Bessie also met Ma Rainey as a teenager, and they never had a falling out. They also gloss over a lot of Bessie's life in the early Depression, including how she lost her money. There's too many characters, and not enough time to deepen them all. 

The Big Finale: If you love the blues, Smith, Queen Latifa, or the music of the early 20th century, you'll want to learn more about Bessie Smith and her world of gin and sin, too. 

Home Media: As a fairly recent and very popular movie, it's easily found on disc and streaming.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Tanned Legs

RKO, 1929

Starring June Clyde, Arthur Lake, Dorothy Reiver, and Ann Pennington

Directed by Marshall Neilian

Music by Oscar Levant; Lyrics by Sidney Claire

Wheeler and Woosley weren't the only actors at RKO who went on vacation during the early talkie era. June Clyde made an earlier trip to the beach in this 1929 comedy. It originally began as a comedy, but when musicals suddenly became the next big thing in Hollywood, RKO stuffed a couple of songs into the story of a young woman (Clyde) who tries to fix all of her family's problems during a holiday at the seashore. How well does she do? Let's begin at the beach, with ladies talking about the big upcoming talent show, and find out...

The Story: Peggy Reynolds (Clyde) is completely fed up with her parents flirting with younger people. Her father (Albert Gran) is having a dalliance with Mrs. Lyons-King (Reiver), while her mother chases Peggy's friend Roger Fleming (Allen Kearns). Her sister Janet (Sally Blaine) thinks she's in love with stuffy Clinton Darrow (Edmund Burns), but he only wants her money. Darrow is working with Mrs. Lyons-King to blackmail Janet with romantic letters she sent him. Peggy tries to get the letters back, but that only puts her on the outs with her boyfriend Bill (Lake), who thinks she's dallying with Darrow. Now she has to get those letters back, before her sister ends up broke...or worse yet, her parents find out.

The Song and Dance: Adorable summer comedy almost feels like a warm-up for the Disney family films of the 1960's and 70's or Jane Powell's 40's and 50's vehicles, with its perky young protagonist trying to solve all of her family's problems and keep her guy. Clyde is cute as a button as the young lady trying to save her family from disaster, while Kearns and dancer Ann Pennington have a few good minutes as her flirtatious buddy and his sassy girlfriend Tootie. They even get to save the day in the end in a make-believe robbery. Love some of the flapper costumes and bathing suits, too, especially once they get to the talent show. 

Favorite Number: We open with a bevy of beauties in bathing suits who can't keep in sync trying to entice us to "Come In the Water." Kearns and Pennington tell each other "You're Responsible" for driving the other crazy with a lively little dance. Clyde joins the bare-legged ladies for the title number on the beach after they steal the stockings off two women who wore them among the beach-goers and saw them stolen right off their legs for their troubles. Pennington has a solo number in a huge fluffy black and white feather tutu at the ball that's all high kicks and wild wiggling with her hips.

What I Don't Like: I'm afraid nothing else really works. Lake is whiny, annoying, and a terrible singer; he'd come off much better a decade later as Dagwood Bumstead in the Blondie films and radio show. The story with Darrow and the blackmail plot is really a bit dark for this light film. It even ends with Peggy getting shot in the shoulder (though it's not really that bad). The songs are dull, completely unnecessary, and in the case of "Responsible," with its accents on the wrong syllables, poorly written. It's pretty obvious this was originally intended to be a B comedy that had a few songs jammed in here and there at the last minute. Other than her numbers, Pennington is underused and barely seen. 

Also...what happened to the ending? The movie just kind of...stops...right as the family is reconciling. It feels rushed and unfinished. Considering this is barely an hour, more of the family getting back together and what happened afterwards might be nice. We don't even see Lake again. Looks like the last few minutes may be lost for good.

The Big Finale: Bad songs, a plot that's alternately too silly and too dark, and a no-name cast makes this only of interest to the most ardent fans of the early talkie era.

Home Media: Currently, this rare film can only be seen on YouTube and occasionally on TCM.

YouTube

Cult Flops - Glorifying the American Girl

Paramount, 1929

Starring Mary Eaton, Dan Healy, Edward Crandall, and Sarah Edwards

Directed by John W. Harkrider and Millard Webb

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin and others

Of course, operettas were far from the only - or the most popular - musical genre during the it's first flush of popularity in 1929-1930. Backstage films, which had existed even in the silent era, really exploded in 1929. Every studio rushed to make use of the new medium with tons of songs, dances, and acres of girls in plumed headgear and skimpy sequined costumes. Paramount and a cash-strapped Ziegfeld had been trying to get this one off the ground since 1928 By the time they settled on this mish-mash of cliches, it had been switched to all-talking. How does the story of a shop girl who learns how tough it can be to get "glorified" look almost a century later? Let's start with a nifty montage of women traveling across the country to New York to become the next Ziegfeld Girl and find out...

The Story: Gloria (Eaton) is a shop girl peddling sheet music in a department store who wants nothing more than to become the next big dancing star. Enter Danny Miller (Healy), half of a vaudeville dance team who just broke up with his partner. He meets Gloria at an employee picnic and, after doing a tap routine with her, convinces her to be his partner. She leaves behind her boyfriend Buddy (Crandall) and best friend Barbara (Olive Shea) to follow him to New York, only to discover that his real interest in her lays more in casting couches than her talent. Her conniving mother (Edwards) convinces her to sign a five-year-contract with him anyway. She does manage to get out of it, and even audition for the Follies...but she loses her Buddy in the process.

The Song and Dance: For all the elaborate dance routines and Two-Strip Technicolor, this is a pretty damn depressing movie, especially in the first half. It's surprisingly dark for the era, with it's small-time characters and low-down numbers contrasted with the more glamorous Ziegfeld image Gloria wanted so much to be a part of. It being filmed at Paramount's Astoria studios in Queens means there's a lot of location shooting at authentic New York landmarks, including Grand Central Station and on Broadway.

The second half is a lot more interesting. The Technicolor is a bit grainy, but it still adds a lot of spark to the Follies scenes. At the very least, it's easier to tell who everyone is in color. "The Lorelei" sequence, with dozens of actors (including Johnny Weissmuller) flitting about in various states of undress, is a lot easier to take and a bit less static in color, too. There's also Eddie Cantor's non-musical tailor skit. Other than a few Jewish stereotypes that may offend some folks, it mostly works pretty well today.

Favorite Number: The opening montage, set to "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody," really is nifty, with young women from all walks off life coming across a map of the US and dreaming of becoming a glamorous showgirl in feathers and ruffles. Gloria tells everyone how there's "No Foolin'" about what she wants as she sells sheet music to department store customers. One puts in a request for "Baby Face," which she gives him cheekily. Danny Miller and his partner Mooney (Kaye Renard) sing about "Spooning With the One You Love" at the company picnic, but they aren't feeling very romantic and spend the number arguing. Healy and Eaton do better with their tap routines to "Sam the Old Accordion  Man" at the picnic after Mooney stomps off and "Hot Feet" at the vaudeville house.

The film ends with those Technicolor Follies revue sequences. Eaton performs an elaborate ballet, flitting among showgirls in feathered animal costumes in a tutu. Rudy Vallee performs his signature "I'm a Vagabond Lover" with his orchestra. Helen Morgan comes off far better with her impassioned "What I Wouldn't Do for That Man!" Eaton finishes the film with the sad and bluesy "There Must Be Someone Waiting for Me In Loveland" while surrounded by showgirls in the most amazing glitter-and-feather costumes and headdresses. 

Trivia: Among the many real-life celebrities seen at the Ziegfeld Follies premiere are Noah Beery, then real-life New York mayor Jimmy Walker, Irving Berlin, producer Charles B. Dillingham, nightclub hostess Texas Guinan, and Ring Lardner. 

The most expensive movie made on the east coast at that time, it wound up being too costly to earn its money back and was a fair-sized flop for Paramount.

What I Don't Like: Edwards is the only member of the cast who makes even the least bit of an impression as Gloria's conniving, manipulative stage mother. Everyone else is either bland (Shea and Crandall) or obnoxious (Healy). Eaton tries hard, but other than showing a little spunk at her Ziegfeld audition, she mostly comes off as dull and vapid. No one is especially likable, not even Gloria, making it hard for you to root for her rise to the top the way you should. 

The plot is supreme melodrama of the most annoying and cliched type, and it contrasts badly with the glamorous Follies in the finale. Most current copies of the film don't include the color sequences or run them edited and in black and white. For the love of heaven, find those color sequences. The black and white copies look and sound terrible, tinny and blurry. The color, while not perfect, is still better than the black and white TV prints.

The Big Finale: Too dull to be for anyone but film historians or major fans of the movies made during the early talkie era. 

Home Media: If you're really interested in seeing this, look for the DVD or Blu-Ray Kino Lorber released in 2019 with the original blue tint and color sequences fully intact. The thorough bonus features alone make it worth checking out. All prints streaming online, including the one for free at Tubi, are the black-and-white TV versions.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Tubi

The Love Parade

Paramount, 1929

Starring Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupino Lane, and Lillian Roth

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch

Music by Victor Schertzinger; Lyrics by Clifford Grey

Novarro wasn't the only non-American star appearing in a big original operetta that year. Major French headliner Maurice Chevalier made his American sound debut in Innocents of Paris. Though it did fairly well at the box office, critics eviscerated it as dull and cheap. Paramount wanted a classier follow-up and turned to Ernst Lubitsch, already well-known for his sexy silent comedies and epic dramas. Jeanette MacDonald, then a rising stage ingenue, also made her film debut here. How does the first operetta made expressively for the big screen look today? Let's begin in Paris, with Count Alfred (Chevalier) and his latest conquest, and find out...

The Story: After Alfred's conquest nearly shoots herself and her husband tries shooting him, he's called back to the tiny principality of Sylvania by Queen Louise (MacDonald). Louise would enjoy running her country more if everyone from her maid Lulu (Roth) to her cabinet officers wasn't so obsessed with her finding a husband. She want to reprimand Alfred, but is so taken by his charm and candor, she ends up marrying him instead. Alfred finds marriage to a queen disappointing; she has all the royal duties, leaving him with nothing to do. Now she needs a loan from another country or they'll go into bankruptcy, unless he appears as a happily married man at the opera. 

The Song and Dance: Like the next Chevalier-MacDonald musical Love Me Tonight, critics have crowed about this one for years. They're right here, too. Lubitsch expertly weaves musical numbers with the frothy story in a way that's revolutionary for backstage-obsessed 1929. There's a naughty vibe with all the locked doors and closed window shades, giving us a hint of things that still couldn't be shown even then. Everyone puts in sensational performances, including MacDonald in her first film, ace British comic Lupino Lane as Alfred's valet, and sassy Lillian Roth as the Queen's loyal maid. Heck, even Afred's dog gets a part of "Paris Stay the Same" and a comic storyline of his own. There's stunning costumes and sets, too, including some amazing gowns, fur-trimmed day dresses, and barely-there frilly negligees for MacDonald. 

Favorite Number: Alfred laments his being called back from all the luscious ladies of France in "Paris, Stay the Same." His valet Jacques picks it up as he sings about missing the maids of Paris, and even his dog barks to the females of his species. MacDonald first performs the rhapsodizing "Dream Lover" as her maids help her into the bath and prepare her for her daily duties. She does a tearful reprise later before the ball, when Alfred threatens to return to Paris. He claims he'll do "Anything to Please the Queen" after they meet and sparks fly. MacDonald's joined by her army in their uniform for the rousing "March of the Grenadiers," while Chevalier laments about his boredom to the dog and the camera in "Nobody's Using It Now." Lane and Roth enjoy their own type of romance when they perform an acrobatic soft shoe to "Let's Be Common."

What I Don't Like: The second half has a lot of problems, the worst of which is the story hasn't dated well. Nowadays, the Queen would either take Alfred as her full partner and share the duties with him, or he'd accept that she has the right to rule and leave her to it. It slows down here too as the subplot with the loan kicks in. Alfred's not the only one who gets bored at this point. Frankly, the story comes as more than a little chauvinistic and can leave a slightly sour taste, despite Lubitsch's skill in hiding and revealing sexual details. There's also times when this being an early talkie kicks in with an occasional bit of stiff dialogue or camera that stays in one place for too long. 

The Big Finale: Even with the dated story, this is still a delightful operetta with four excellent performances by the leads and a director who knows how to make music on film work. A must for fans of Lubitsch, the stars, or early sound films. 

Home Media: Only on DVD as part of the Criterion Eclipse Lubitsch Musicals collection that also includes The Smiling Lieutenant, Monte Carlo, and One Hour With You. 

DVD - Criterion Eclipse Series 8: Lubitsch Musicals

Devil-May-Care

MGM, 1929

Starring Ramon Novarro, Dorothy Jordan, Marion Harris, and John Miljan

Directed by Sidney Franklin

Music by Clifford Grey; Lyrics by Herbert Stothart

Mexican actor Ramon Novarro was already a matinee idol in swashbucklers like Scaramouche and dramas like The Student Prince when sound came in. The Pagan was a silent movie with sound sequences, and revealed Novarro possessed a decent singing voice along with his good looks. MGM let him take time off to study voice, then brought him back for this huge operetta. How does Novarro's introduction to sound film look today? Let's start in Paris during the early 19th century, just as Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated the throne to King Louis, and find out...

The Story: Armand de Treville (Novarro) is among the soldiers loyal to Napoleon who is scheduled to be executed. He manages to escape to the home of his friend Countess Louise (Harris), who despite her own Royalist leanings, offers him a job as a groom. Louise does have feelings for Armand, but he sees her as more of a big sister. He's really in love with her cousin, Leonine De Beaufort (Jordan), another Royalist. He admired her on his way there, but she only saw his face in shadow and wouldn't recognize him. Even when Louis is overthrown and Leonine is scheduled to be married, Armand is determined to return to his beloved lady.

The Song and Dance: I'm impressed with this one. Sidney Franklin really keeps everything moving for the early talkie era; there's several sword duels and even a nifty montage number towards the end. Harris walks off with the movie as the intelligent, more mature friend who wishes Armand would look her way, and even gets to show off her own voice with a lovely ballad. In fact, I appreciate how much MGM went out for their star's big debut, with decent songs for all major players, and even that still-existing and quite pretty two-strip Technicolor dance sequence. 

Favorite Number: We kick off with Novarro and Napoleon's soldiers singing "March of the Old Guard" as they're ousted...and later with Armand doing a satirical version right before he's sentenced to execution. Harris sings "If He Cared" twice, first at the piano before Armand arrives, and later with Jordan as she explains her feelings. Novarro sings about how he finds Leontine "Charming" as he scrubs her shoes in the courtyard. 

The big color number is "The Love Ballet." The Albertina Rasch Dancers show off their fancy black and white striped dresses as they swirl with stoic black-clad soldiers against a backdrop of flower garlands and fountains. The color is a bit battered, but given how many color films from 1929 are lost today, we're lucky to have this at all.

What I Don't Like: I don't know why MGM kept pairing Novarro with Jordan. She's as shrill and dull as she would be in Call of the Flesh a year later, and still has no chemistry with him. Harris looks and sounds a lot more interesting. The color sequence comes from out of nowhere and while it looks decent, the dancing isn't terribly good, and it's likely there only to sneak in some color and give the Albertina Rasch girls something to do.

The Big Finale: Novarro makes a sound (pardon the pun) debut in this swashbuckling operetta. Well worth your time if you're interested in him or early talkie musicals.

Home Media: DVD only from the Warner Archives.

DVD

Happy April Fool's Day! - The Cocoanuts

Paramount, 1929

Starring The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo), Margaret Dumont, Mary Eaton, and Oscar Shaw

Directed by Robert Florey and Joseph Santley

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

We celebrate a day devoted to laughter with the debut of the most popular comedy teams of all time. The Florida land boom began in the early 20's, thanks to Florida's image as a tropical paradise, World War I cutting off travel for the very rich to the French Riviera, and new dry land created by draining the Everglades. Land prices were skyrocketing, and everyone and their grandmother wanted to come down and get a piece of the orange grove pie for themselves. Con-artists and honest workers mingling with the wealthy and famous in Miami set the stage for the Marx Brothers' second stage musical and their first sound film. How does their initial vehicle look today, as housing prices in Florida and elsewhere begin to rise once more? Let's start at the Hotel du Cocoanut in Miami and find out...

The Story: Mr. Hammer (Groucho) is trying desperately to get paying customers into his hotel. The bellhops are starting to demand their back pay. One of his few customers is filthy rich Mrs. Potter (Dumont) and her daughter Polly (Eaton). Polly is in love with hotel clerk and struggling architect Bob Adams (Shaw), but her mother would rather she married upstanding Harvey Yates (Cyril Ring). Turns out that, not only is Yates not socially connected, he's broke. He and his partner Penelope (Kay Francis) steal Mrs. Potter's diamond necklace and accuse Bob of the theft. Now, not only do Mr. Hammer and hotel guests Harpo and Chico have to sell land of their own, they have to get Bob out from behind bars and make sure the right groom ends up at the wedding.

The Song and Dance: The Marxes take over the movie from the second Groucho makes his entrance berating the help. They get some classic bits here, notably the "why-a-duck" sequence when Groucho and Chico discuss what land parcels they're auctioning off, Chico making way too many bids at the auction, and all three running around and trying to hide in Penelope's hotel room. Kay Francis also debuts in this film, giving a hint of her later glamorous drama queen as the nasty partner in the stolen necklace scheme. (And I have to admit, those opening credits shots of the "Monkey Doodle Doo" number run in negative are genuinely cool.)

Favorite Number: We open with shots of the rich living it up, dancing and romping through the sand in "Florida By the Sea." The Gamby Hale Dancers get a rather nifty and fairly well-shot dance routine on the stairs in their cute bell-hop costumes after Groucho tells them they should work and not worry about money. "The When My Dreams Come True Ballet" at the wedding begins with the first overhead shot in a sound film, more than a year before Busby Berkeley arrived in Hollywood. We get operatic when the local sheriff (Basil Ruysdael) complains about his dress shirt being missing, turning "The Tale of the Shirt" into an opera spoof for the full chorus.

Trivia: All of the paper in the movie made so much noise, it had to be soaked in water to keep it from rustling and damaging expensive early sound equipment. That's why the map Groucho holds in the "why-a-duck" sequence is so droopy.

It was director Robert Florey's idea to let Harpo eat the telephone and drink the inkwell to give him more to do. The telephone was made of chocolate, and there was soda in the inkwell.

This was filmed in Paramount's Astoria studios in Queens, New York. The Marx Brothers made this during the day while starring in their next stage vehicle Animal Crackers at night. Groucho almost calls Chico "Ravelli," his character name in Animal Crackers, during the "why-a-duck" sequence. 

This movie's been chopped up since before its release. It was filmed as over two hours. More than a half-hour of footage was cut and subsequently lost, including sequences with Zeppo and Groucho and a duet for Groucho and Margaret Dumont, "A Little Bungalow." Current copies were pieced together from three different prints, which is why the photographic quality varies dramatically from scene to scene.

The Broadway show eventually ran almost nine months, not bad for the time. It's made occasional appearances on regional stages (usually with songs from other Marx Brothers films added in) and has been revived twice off-Broadway. 

What I Don't Like: Though this is likely the most overtly musical of the Marx Brothers films, most of the numbers stand out like sore thumbs. "When My Dreams Come True," the love theme for Bob and Polly Berlin wrote expressively for this film, is silly and dull. It works all right for the ballet, but the lyrics are drippy and disappointing for Berlin, and no amount of instrumental solos can make it a hit. The "Monkey Doodle Doo" number is almost as bad, with out-of-step dancing, a too-goofy song, and ridiculous costumes. 

Overhead shot aside, this is just as static as most films made during the late 20's and early 30's, with everyone frequently standing around talking and the camera droning on. Eaton and Shaw tend to be a bit stiff as the lovers, though Eaton does have a nice dance solo in "Monkey Doodle Doo" where she pirouettes all around the auction. The cheap sets feel less like Florida and more like "someone poured sand and stuck a few fake palm trees on a small soundstage in Queens.

The Big Finale: The out-of-place music and stiff leads makes this for major Marx Brothers fans only. Casual viewers may want to start with their better-known entries like A Night at the Opera or Duck Soup before coming here. 

Home Media: The solo film is DVD only, but it can be found on Blu-Ray in a collection with the other Marx Brothers movies currently owned by Universal. 

DVD 

DVD - The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection

Blu-Ray - The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection