Strike Me Pink

Goldwyn/United Artists, 1936

Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Sailly Eilers, and Harry Einstein (Parkyakarkus) 

Directed by Norman Taurog

Music by Harold Arlen; Lyrics by Lew Brown

By the mid-30's, the Goldwyn/Cantor extravaganzas weren't the only game in town for merriment. Berkeley had moved to Warners, while the Production Code ensured that the Goldwyn Girls could no longer show skin and Cantor's blackface numbers couldn't be quite so suggestive. Musicals had come back into fashion, and now every studio was creating lavish spectaculars featuing big numbers with lots of pretty girls. How does Cantor's last movie for Goldwyn reflect these changes? Let's begin, not with Cantor, but with college student Butch Carson (Gordon Jones) as he defends a smaller student from bullies, and find out...

The Story: Butch is a sweet guy, but he's not very bright. He turns to his friend Eddie Pink (Cantor), the owner of the tailor shop where he studies, to help him ace his final exams. He was supposed to take over managing his mother Hattie Carson's (Helene Lowell) amusement park, but joins the Navy instead. Eddie, who has read a book on how to be more assertive, gallantly agrees to take the job.

He instantly regrets it when he realizes that a group of gangsters led by Mr. Couple (William Frawley) have been pushing to have their illegal slot machines in the amusement park and have killed all of Eddie's predecessors. He manages to avoid their bullets and hypnotize one of their men, though he doesn't have much luck dodging his meddling bodyguard Parkyakarkus (Einstein). His crush on nightclub singer Joyce Lennox (Merman) may be what does him in when she convinces him that she killed a man. He'll do anything to help her, but even he thinks there's something going on when gangsters phony ghosts who can burp and play cards start chasing him and Parkyakarkus all over the amusement park!

The Song and Dance: Cantor dominates this from start to finish. He does get some good routines, especially when he's hypnotizing gangsters or convincing them he's impervious to their bullets. (I also appreciate that this is one of two Goldwyn movies where he doesn't end up in blackface, not even to avoid the mob.) Eliers gets a few good lines as his disbelieving secretary, and Frawley's a decent menacing gangster. Goldwyn's usual lavishness gives us gorgeous gowns for the ladies and location shooting at the long-gone The Pike amusement pier in Long Beach, California. 

Favorite Number: Taurog begins Merman's nightclub number "First You Have Me High" with a striking shot of her in black, with just her white face surrounded by a dark background. This eventually becomes dozens of dancing Goldwyn Girls who are joined by handsome partners as they swirl around her. Cantor admires comely Dona Drake and the Goldwyn Girls as they swirl across the stage, singing about how "The Lady Dances." Merman and Cantor sing on the Ferris wheel about how he'll be smoking a "Calabash Pipe" when they grow old together, despite her having no real interest in him. Merman gets to solo on the peppier "Shake It Off With Rhythm," this time joined by Sunnie O'Dea and the Goldwyn Girls tapping to their mirrored reflections.

Trivia: Look for a young Brian Donlevy among the thugs threatening Eddie. 

What I Don't Like: No one besides Cantor and the gangsters really have all that much to do. Merman is top-billed with Cantor, but other than her numbers and luring Eddie with her phony murder story during the middle of the movie, she's barely there. You think Jones will be a prominent character, from what a big deal they make over Eddie helping Butch out in the opening, but he vanishes after ten minutes and is neither seen, nor heard from again. Harold Arlen and Lew Brown's songs are lovely, but not that memorable.

The Big Finale: Fine for major fans of Cantor or Merman. Casual viewers will want to start with one of his earlier, better-received vehicles like The Kid from Spain or Roman Scandals. 

Home Media: Once again, easily found on streaming and DVD, the latter from the Warner Archives.

DVD

Amazon Prime

Cult Flops - There's No Business Like Show Business

20th Century Fox, 1954

Starring Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O'Connor, and Marilyn Monroe

Directed by Walter Lang

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

This was intended to be the biggest musical Fox ever made in every sense of the word. It's six main stars came from every corner of show business. Ethel Merman was one of the biggest stars on Broadway. Dan Dailey and Donald O'Connor were movie musical veterans. Johnnie Ray was a massively popular singer known for his emphasis on rhythm and blues and dark ballads a few years before rock really started. Do they all work together in this lavish cavalcade of Irving Berlin hits, or should this family be separated for good? Let's start at the height of vaudeville's popularity in 1919, as married act the Donahues have just added another member...

The Story: Molly (Merman) and Terry (Dailey) Donahue are show business troopers through and through, even raising their children to be part of the act. Though the children attend Catholic school, they eventually rejoin the act after high school as The Five Donahues. Even as the act expands, vaudeville contracts. Sound movies and radio cuts into their business, and then the Depression hits. 

Having their grown children in the act is good for business, but they don't remain there for long. Gentle pianist Steve (Johnnie Ray) joins the priesthood. Vivacious daughter Katie (Mitzi Gaynor) marries handsome lyricist Charlie Gibbs (Hugh O'Brian). Wayward oldest son Tim (O'Connor) pursues gorgeous dancer Vicky Parker (Monroe), but disappears when she's tired of him complaining about her career. Molly never trusted the sensuous Vicky and blames her for Tim running off. It seems that Tim is gone for good and The Five Donahues have gone the way of vaudeville, until the Hippodrome Theater in New York has one last benefit, bringing all the Donahues together one last time.

The Song and Dance: This is as big as a musical could get in the mid-50's. Huge numbers that fill a wide Cinemascope frame, gorgeous Oscar-nominated costumes, a cast of thousands, vibrant DeLuxe Color, an expansive story that covers pretty much all of popular culture from 1919 to 1939. Dailey puts in one of his best performances as the roguish father who will do anything for his family, and Merman also does well as his strong-willed wife. O'Connor would later call this his favorite of his films, and he certainly runs with the opportunity to play a character that's slightly darker than usual for him, including one of his best numbers with the statues. Gaynor is so charming when she is seen, I wish she had more to do.

Favorite Number: We open with the Donahue parents performing "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam'" in vaudeville. It does give us a good idea of what a typical couple number was like, including them ending up as the front and back half of a train. Katie and Tim reprise it hilariously at Steve's party before he joins the seminary, complete with the same costumes and them as two halves of a train. "Play a Simple Melody" begins with Molly in old-fashioned hoop skirts and bloomers and Terry in stripes playing ragtime as they sing one of Berlin's signature two melodies at once, with Molly preferring old-fashioned ballads and Tim wanting something a little jazzier. "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" has a blonde Molly competing with a bevy of glittering chorus girls for Tim's attention.

The act breaks up briefly, with Merman performing "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" on the radio, and Dailey turning "You'd Be Surprised" into a girlie burlesque act. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" turns into a massive chorus routine when all the Donahues join in. Molly and Terry do a German dance in bright peasant costumes. Tim dons a kilt for a Scottish highland dance, while Katie joins the boys for a French can can, and Steve simply plays and sings it on the piano. Monroe's introduced in a barely-there glittering white gown with enormous feathers in her head for "After You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It Anymore." The chorus gets "Remember" at that party for Steve. He also gets to sing the ballad "If You Believe." 

Molly may not be happy that she lost the number (in the film or real-life), but Vicky sizzles in "Heat Wave," with its straight-legged dances and brilliant pinks and blacks. Vicky only sings "A Man Chases a Girl Until She Catches Him" off-camera, but it's enough to inspire Tim to do an amazing dance with moving statues around a moonlit park. Tim and Katie literally dances rings around Vicky, who would rather linger and be "Lazy" on a chaise lounge. Katie and Molly liven things up as sea salts in the city who claim "A Sailor's Not a Sailor ('Til a Sailor's Been Tattooed)." The movie ends with all of the principals, including Vicky, joining for a massive version of the title number, literally performed on a pedestal as dancers in colorful costumes representing different aspects of show business flitter around them.

Trivia: This was also Oscar-nominated for Best Score and Best Story. 

Berlin's second-to-last full film musical (White Christmas, released later that year, would be the last). 

Monroe initially refused to do this movie, but Fox promised her the lead role in The Seven Year Itch and a pay increase of $3,000 a week. They also gave at least two numbers planned for Merman to her, including "Heat Wave." 

What I Don't Like: The story is the same domestic melodrama Fox had been serving up in its musicals going back to their 1938 Alexander's Ragtime Band. It feels like they tried to throw every possible cliche in, including Ray joining the priesthood. Speaking of Ray, while he's not quite as terrible as critics claimed at the time, he's not great, either. His performance is stiff as a board, which is likely why he doesn't have much to do besides sing, look concerned, and perform the marriage ceremony for Katie and her beau. No wonder this would be his only film appearance. 

Monroe's not a whole lot better. It's obvious that, other than her numbers, she didn't want to be here and wasn't interested in any of this. She has no chemistry with the vibrant O'Connor, whom she seems to treat more like a kid brother than a lover. It also has the same problem with historical accuracy as Alexander's Ragtime Band. After they get out of the 1910's around the twenty minute mark, it looks like the 50's for the rest of the film. 

The Big Finale: Not the best musical Fox put out, but the numbers are good enough for me to recommend this for major fans of the cast or the big, bold musicals of the 50's and 60's. 

Home Media: Easily found in all formats.

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Alexander's Ragtime Band

20th Century Fox, 1938

Starring Alice Faye, Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, and Ethel Merman

Directed by Henry King

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

By the time this came out, Faye was one of Fox's biggest stars. She had just made the semi-musical disaster film In Old Chicago with Power and Ameche, which was a huge hit. This one would be even bigger, Fox's biggest hit of the 1930's. Berlin himself wrote the story of how popular music changed in the years between the debut of his 1911 title song and 1938. In many ways, it also parallels Faye's career and how she went from platinum blonde Jean Harlow imitation to a warm honey-haired beauty who had a way with a ballad. How well does it look today? Let's begin in 1911, as Alexander (Power) plays classic music at a concert and find out...

The Story: What Alexander really wants to do is start his own band. He and his boys barely managed to get a job at a small-time club when another group quits. They grab the first sheet music they can find to play, which turns out to be a number that blowsy singer Stella Kirby (Faye) had been trying to push on the owner. She eventually joins them in the song, and later in the band. 

Alexander cleans up her low-down image as they go on to bigger and better clubs. Despite her initial resistance, she and Alexander end up falling in love. They're playing at the Cliff House when they try to get an audition with big-time New York producer Charles Dillingham. Turns out he only wants Stella. Alexander's angry and disappointed, but she does take the offer.

That's far from his only problem. The band breaks up when they're all drafted into World War I. Alexander does manage to put on a show for the Army that's a big hit, enough for the band to get back together after the Armistice. Their new singer is brash Jerrie (Merman), who not only lends her own unique sound to the Band, she falls for Alexander, too. Alexander, however, has never forgotten Stella, even though she's now a huge star on Broadway and is in love with former bandmate Charlie Dwyler (Ameche). Jerrie and the rest of the bad figure it's high time they brought Stella back into the fold, just in time for a huge jazz performance at Carnegie Hall.

The Song and Dance: It's the music and the cast who largely carry the day here. Faye and Merman may have opposing styles, but they both do equally well as the tough singer who starts as a floozy and ends up a star and the brassy belter who also loves Alexander...but understands better than him who he really cares about. Ameche is charming as the songwriter for the band who at least temporarily gets Stella, and Jack Haley gets a few good gags as a member of the band who keeps flirting with the same girl (Ruth Terry) for two decades. Fox spared no expense on the production, with gorgeous gowns for the ladies and spectacular recreations of San Francisco and New York  in the 1910's and 20's. 

Favorite Number: We kick off with the title song, played by Alexander at his band at that low-down bar. They start out playing it as a quieter parlor ballad, but by the time Faye kicks in with the lyrics, it's now the lively ragtime dance tune it was meant to be. We also get "Ragtime Violin," performed by members of the band. Stella defies Alexander and goes out dressed the way she wants for "International Rag." She does finally start to change her look for "This Is the Life."  Dancers Wally Vernon and Dixie Dunbar get a great duo ballroom routine here. 

Our first of two new songs is the ballad "Now It Can Be Told." Charlie first sings this for Stella after he's written it. She's so impressed, she brings it to the band, who perform it at the Cliff House this very night. Stella does "When the Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam'" so well, it sells Dillingham on her. A man at the recruiting station brings in the Band with "For Your Country and My Country." Jack Haley gets to sing "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning," the song Berlin himself introduced in the original Yip, Yip, Yaphank on Broadway in 1917. We also get two more authentic Great War era chorus numbers, "We're On Our Way to France" and "I Can Always Find a Little Sunshine at the W.M.C.A."

Jerrie first sings "Say It With Music" and "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" when she's trying to convince Alexander to give her a chance. She and Stella do sing "Blue Skies" together, but Stella never gets to Alexander. The next montage takes us through the 20's, with Jerrie getting the big chorus number "Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil" and the new "My Walking Stick" and Stella performing "Everybody Step" and the darker laments "Remember" and "All Alone." We get a montage of Berlin favorites at Carnegie Hall. Charlie joins the female chorus for "Easter Parade," Merman blares "Heat Wave," and the chorus gets "Marie."

Trivia: Three numbers were cut from the final film. Merman had a second big number in the Carnegie Hall finale "Marching Through Time," Ameche  had "Some Sunny Day," and Haley had a second comedy number with Wally Vernon and another dancer, "In My Harem." All exist and are included on the DVD. 

Not only was this 20th Century Fox's biggest hit film of the 30's, it was the top hit of 1938. 

John Carradine can be spotted near the end as the taxi driver who takes Stella to Carnegie Hall. 

It was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Song ("Now It Can Be Told"), but only took home Best Scoring. 

The Cliff House was a real restaurant in San Francisco. It was rebuilt twice before the third version the band plays at opened in 1909. The restaurant closed in 2021, but the building still exists, and the exteriors look pretty much the same as they do in the movie.

What I Don't Like: When was this set again? It's historically accurate only for the first 20 minutes. Once the band starts getting popular, any attempt at history flies out the door of the Cliff House. After World War I, it looks like 1938 for the rest of the film. They don't even attempt to age the characters. You'd never know time passed at all if people didn't say it did. 

No matter how much Fox kept throwing him into them, Power never was comfortable in musicals. He's far stiffer here than either of his leading ladies. I suspect he'd be much happier with a sword than a baton. Haley and Ameche are far more at ease than he is. 

The Big Finale: If you love Faye, Merman, or Berlin, this lively look at some of his most popular songs is highly recommended. 

Home Media: It can only be found streaming at Vudu Fandango, but the DVD is readily available. 

DVD

Vudu Fandango 

Kid Millions

Samuel Goldwyn Productions/United Artists, 1934

Starring Eddie Cantor, Ethel Merman, Ann Southern, and Warren Hymer

Directed by Roy Del Ruth

Music and Lyrics by various

Cantor's vehicles became an annual event for moviegoers in the early 30's. Every year in November or December, they could count on seeing Cantor clowning and dodging the advances of a crusty comedienne,  doing a blackface routine or two while Busby Berkeley created incredible chorus routines around half-naked Goldwyn Girls. Berkeley moved to Warners after the success of 42nd Street in 1933. The Production Code went into effect earlier in 1934, and among the things it forbid was scanty costumes. 

Goldwyn had to find other diversions to pair with Cantor. He came up with a new Broadway comedienne who had just made a splash two years before and an improved three-strip Technicolor process. How does all this reflect on the story of a young man who is literally chased to Egypt and back to get a fortune? Let's begin as singer Dot Clark (Merman) learns about the death of her ex-boyfriend Professor Edward Wilson (Cantor) at the shop where she works and find out...

The Story: Professor Wilson wanted his son Eddie (Cantor) to inherit the 77 million dollar fortune he found in the pyramids of Egypt. Eddie lives with his abusive adoptive father (Jack Kennedy) and stepbrothers on a leaky barge in Brooklyn, watching over the children who also live there. He only agrees to go so he can marry his girl Toots (Nora Davenport). 

Turns out, he's not the only one who thinks he deserves a cut of that cash. Dot and her current boyfriend Louie (Warren Hymer) claim to be Eddie's mother and uncle and try to kill him. Colonel Harrison Larrabee (Berton Churchill) says his company financed Wilson's explorations and should get a cut, too. Wilson's assistant Jerry Lane (George Murphy) just wants to marry Larrabee's niece Joan (Sothern), but she's angry when he tells her the money belongs to Eddie. And then after Eddie inadvertently rescues the daughter (Eve Sully) of a shiek (Paul Harvey), it turns out the money really belongs to his ancestors, and he intends to kill the son of the man who stole it!

The Song and Dance: Cantor gets a better supporting cast and a terrific production backing him this time. He and Merman are hilarious together, especially on the ship when she plays leapfrog and tickles him in order to get him to sign over the money. Sothern and Murphy have slightly more to do than usual for the young lovers in Cantor's films. Hymer's hilarious as the gangster who just wants to bump Eddie off and get the dough, and Harvey is a riot as the shiek whose sense of humor overrides the fact that he actually thinks Eddie is a nice guy. The finale in the ice cream factory of Eddie's dream is gorgeous Technicolor in shades of sherbet and candy straight out of banana splits. 

Favorite Number: We open right with Merman performing "An Earful of Music" at a song sheet store, backed by a chorus of Goldwyn Girls. Cantor sings "When My Ship Comes In" for the kids on the barge, promising them a better life with free ice cream and no spinach. The Nicholas Brothers and Goldwyn Girls give us a huge minstrel show on the barge, singing "I Want to Be a Minstrel Man." Blackface-clad Eddie gets Irving Berlin's hit "Mandy," while Murphy woos Sothern in massive hoop skirts with "Your Head On My Shoulder." 

The Goldwyn Girls amuse Cantor, Harvey, and the sheik's audience with "The Harem Dance." Cantor sings "Ok, Toots" to explain why he's devoted to his girl. The movie ends in blazing Technicolor with "The Ice Cream Fantasy," as the Girls mix the flavors in Eddie's massive streamline factory and the kids wait impatiently to get in.

Trivia: The music for "I Want to Be a Minstrel Man" would be reused as "You're All the World to Me" in the 1951 MGM film Royal Wedding. 

Look for Lucille Ball among the Minstrel Show Goldwyn Girls. 

Cantor originally introduced "Mandy" in The Ziegfeld Follies of 1919. 

What I Don't Like: This may be the strangest Cantor movie yet. Nothing makes the tiniest bit of sense, including the Egyptian setting. The second half is awash in the goofiest Middle Eastern stereotypes I've ever seen, and there's Eddie's blackface during the "Mandy" minstrel number, too. The lavish ice cream number is nifty to look at to this day, but the choreography misses Berkeley's creative and outrageous touch. 

The Big Finale: Strange as the plot is, Cantor's antics and the nice supporting cast makes this one of his better vehicles. Highly recommended if you're a fan of him or the wacky comic musicals of the 30's and 40's. 

Home Media: Easily found on DVD from the Warner Archives and on streaming. Like many Goldwyn offerings, it's currently free with commercials at Tubi. 

DVD

Tubi

Animation Celebration Saturday - Journey Back to Oz

Filmation, 1972

Directed by Hal Sutherland

Voices of Liza Minnelli, Paul Lynde, Ethel Merman, and Herschel Bernardi

Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

Adaptations of the Wizard of Oz books go as far back as 1908. The MGM version from 1939 is probably the most famous, but it's far from the only one. After the 1939 film was a hit on TV, there was a notoriously low-budget production in 1969, and then this animated one in 1972. Neither is well-regarded today, but this has a slightly more impressive pedigree. Filmation began this around 1962, but they ran out of funds until over a decade later. 

By the time it came out, Disney-esque fantasies were out of style, and it wasn't a success...on the big screen. It did far better on TV starting in 1976, when live-action sequences featuring Bill Cosby (and later, Milton Berle) were added for syndicated showings. The original would turn up on video later, and that's what this review is based on. Does it reach the same heights of the original film, or should it stay in Kansas? Let's begin in Kansas, as Uncle Henry (Paul Ford) scolds Dorothy (Minnelli) for not helping get ready for a storm, and find out...

The Story: This time, Dorothy and Toto are themselves caught up in the cyclone, no house needed. After landing in Oz, they first encounter a talking signpost (Jack E. Leonard) whose signs all point to the Emerald City...going different ways. Fearful Jack Pumpkinhead (Lynde) only wants to go one way - away from his creator, the evil witch Mombi (Merman). She conjures up green elephants to stampede through the Emerald City, where she kidnaps Toto and the Scarecrow (Mickey Rooney). 

Dorothy goes to her old friends for help, but the Cowardly Lion (Berle) and Tin Woodsman (Danny Thomas) are too afraid of Mombi to help. Glinda (Rise Stevens) does better, giving her a box to use "in dire need." Dorothy will need all the magic she can get if she, Jack, and Charlesworth the Wooden merry-go-round horse (Bernardi) are to defeat Mombi and save the Scarecrow and Toto!

The Animation: Not bad for Filmation at this time. The colors are, appropriately for an Oz movie, the real selling point. They pop off the screen, brilliant greens and velvet purple when Dorothy first arrives, sparkling silver in the land of tin, deeper green in the Emerald City. The stylized designs move well enough; the Tin Woodsman especially is rather cute here. 

The Song and Dance: Impressive cast for a relatively low-budget undertaking. Liza does just as well as her mother playing the budding young woman who only wants to help her friends. Lynde's hilarious as the fearful but loyal Jack, and Bernardi gets some of the best lines as the sarcastic wooden carousel horse. Rise Stevens lends her Metropolitain Opera soprano to a gentle Glinda. Merman's a rather scary witch, too, and it is amusing to hear Margaret Hamilton play Aunt Em in the beginning, the total opposite of her Wicked Witch from the 1939 film! 

Favorite Number: Minnelli's "Over the Rainbow" song to Toto in Kansas is "A Faraway Land" as she longs to return to Oz and see its lovely greenery and unique citizens again. She also gets the upbeat "Keep a Happy Thought" after Jack laments about never finding the Emerald City. This time, the witch gets to sing, too. Mombi creates her green elephants in "An Elephant Never Forgets" and explains her mother's dying wish to her, "If You're Going to Be a Witch, Be a Witch." 

Stevens' glorious soprano makes the most of her song explaining to Dorothy why she doesn't need magic...because "You Have Only You." Minnelli finishes with the "Return to the Land of Oz March" and her telling the others why she wants to go back to Kansas, "That Feeling for Home." Herschel's number is "That Horse On the Carousel" as Charlesworth tells the others how he ended up where he was.

Trivia: Danny Thomas' voice recording was of such poor quality, he was largely re-recorded by Larry Storch. 

The 1976 ABC showing had live-action wrap-around segments featuring Bill Cosby as The Wizard, searching for two munchkins. Milton Berle would appear as The Wizard for syndicated airings. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, there's a lot of padding in this movie. The signpost and his song have no function in the story. He's neither seen, nor mentioned again after Dorothy leaves him. The numbers for the Cowardly Lion, Tin Woodsman, and Scarecrow exist more to show off the actors than move the story along, and contradict their character development from the original book and 1939 film, too. Speaking of the songs, they're not bad, but they certainly aren't as memorable as the ones from 1939. 

It also appears to be a mash-up of characters and events from many later Oz books, mainly the second, The Marvelous Land of Oz. Dorothy largely replaces the boy Tip who created Jack Pumpkinhead in the book, though. Mombi wasn't the one who originally created the elephants, either. And Charlesworth may be based after the title character of the final book in the series, The Merry-Go-Round Horse of Oz. 

The Big Finale: Worth seeing at least once for fans of Oz or Filmation for the cast and some decent numbers. 

Home Media: The DVD is in print, but very expensive and hard to find. You're better off streaming this one. 

 

DVD

YouTube

Anything Goes (1936)

Paramount, 1936

Starring Ethel Merman, Bing Crosby, Ida Lupino, and Charlie Ruggles

Directed by Lewis Milestone

Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter and others

This week, we're going on an ocean cruise with two very different versions of this beloved Cole Porter show. Anything Goes debuted on Broadway in 1934 and was an instant sensation, thanks to one of Porter's best scores and the performance of Ethel Merman as belting evangelist Reno Sweeney. Merman carried over to this lavish movie version, joined by Crosby and Oscar-winning director Milestone. How does this shipboard story of girls, gags, and gangsters fare nowadays? Let's begin at a nightclub with Sweeney (Merman) and Wall Street broker Billy Crocker (Crosby) as she explains she's ready to take a cruise and find out...

The Story: Billy is supposed to get off the ship and return to work, but he's smitten by the beautiful heiress Hope Harcourt (Lupino) and stays onboard. Hope, however, is a runaway who is being returned to her father by her hopelessly naive English fiance Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Arthur Treacher). Even worse than that, Billy learns that his boss Mr. Whitney (Robert McWade) is also on the cruise. Reno helps him find increasingly outlandish disguises to avoid being discovered.

Meanwhile, Billy and Reno also befriend the Reverend Dr. Moon (Ruggles) and his assistant Bonnie LaTour (Grace Bradley). Dr. Moon is actually "Moonface," the 13th most wanted criminal in America, and Bonnie is the wife of Snake Eyes, the #1 most wanted. When they're discovered, everyone thinks Billy is a gangster, too. Reno tries everything she can think of to make Captain McPhail (Matt Moore) believe that Billy's no gangster, but it takes the big finale for everything to really come to light.

The Song and Dance: I do give them credit for more-or-less adopting the story as it was in the original show, with only a few minor details changed. That didn't always happen in early Broadway transfers. Milestone manages some nice touches, including the unique ending with Moonface looking through the Paramount camera with Evelyn and Reno on one side, Hope and Billy on the other. Merman's having the most fun by far repeating her Broadway role as the brassiest evangelist on the high seas; Crosby also has fun with the many changes and wacky disguises he ends up in. Treacher has a few good gags as the good-natured nobleman, too.

Favorite Number: Merman opens things with the title song, or at least the first line, over the credits, then reminding Crosby that "I Get a Kick Out of You" coming out of the ceiling on a swing at the nightclub. Four sailors play musical instruments together, reminding each other why "There'll Always Be a Lady Fair" in a charming routine by The Avalon Boys Quartet. Crosby joins them - or tries to hide among them - to help them paint portholes and remind in a reprise. He sings "Sailor Beware" from the crow's nest. He's definitely getting a "Moonburn" as he shows off for Hope on deck. The lyrics may be different, but Crosby and Merman still have a blast mugging their way through "You're the Top" anyway, even with Crosby's home-made beard. 

Trivia: Anything Goes debuted on Broadway in 1934 and was an instant sensation, running over a year. It did four months in London in 1935. The show's been back to New York three times, as an off-Broadway version in 1962 and two smash-hit revivals in 1987 and 2011. A London revival in 2021 did so well, it's returned after touring and is running at press time. It's also extremely popular with regional theaters on both sides of the Atlantic looking for something light-hearted and naughty. 

One of two times Ethel Merman repeated her Broadway role on film. (The other was Call Me Madam from 1953.)

WC Fields was replaced by Charlie Ruggles just before filming began. 

Most TV copies now run it under the title Tops Is the Limit, which is what Paramount called it when they released it to television while their 1956 Anything Goes was in theaters. 

What I Don't Like: The soft-spoken, effeminate Ruggles does seem like an odd choice for a gangster, even a harmless one. He's a bit miscast, as is Ida Lupino in an early role. With all of Hope's ballads eliminated, Lupino has nothing to do but look haughty and play the damsel in distress. Only four songs were retained from Porter's classic score, and two of them were heavily rewritten. The lovely ballad "All Through the Night" is only heard as underscoring. Crosby did have a minor hit with "Moonburn" at the time, but to tell the truth, none of the replacement songs are anywhere near as memorable. There's also the two young Chinese students whom are easily duped by gangsters and Moonface, and Reno's big Chinese-themed finale "Shanghai-de-Ho" in outrageously stereotyped Asian costumes. 

The Big Finale: Worth taking a cruise for if you love Merman, Crosby, or Porter and can find it. 

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

YouTube

Election Day Special - Call Me Madam

20th Century Fox, 1953

Starring Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, and George Saunders

Directed by Walter Lang

Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin

While you wait for the returns to come in, here's a lively political tale to check out. This is one of only two times Merman got to recreate one of her Broadway roles on film. (The other is the rarely-seen 1936 version of Anything Goes.) Even Hollywood had to admit that no one else could get away with playing Mrs. Sally Adams, a widow who becomes the ambassador for a tiny European principality, with quite the same relish. How does she do alongside smooth Sanders and sweet O'Connor? Let's start in Washington DC, as Sally is being sworn in, and find out...

The Story: Sally's political connections gets her the job as the ambassador to tiny Litchenburg in Europe, even though she's the wealthy daughter of an Oklahoma oil driller who knows nothing about diplomacy. Kenneth Nelson (O'Connor), an out-of-work reporter, convinces her to bring him along as her press attache.

They arrive in Litchenburg to be greeted by the head of the Embassy Pemberton Maxwell (Billy De Wolfe), a fussy fellow who doesn't think much of Sally or her abilities. Prime Minister Sebastian (Steven Garay) and Grand Duke Otto (Ludwig Stossel) are hoping to get a huge loan from the US. They want Otto's niece Princess Maria (Vera-Ellen) to have a large enough dowry to marry Prince Hugo (Helmut Dantine). Foreign Minister Cosmo Constantine (George Saunders) would prefer his country to stay independent and self-sufficient...but the last thing he expected was to fall for Sally. Ken ends up in love with Maria as well, but she's still expected to go through with her political alliance.

The Song and Dance: This one is all about the numbers and a fairly unusual and then-topical story. Indeed, it's inspired by a real Washington hostess, Pearl Mesta, who was the ambassador to Luxembourg in the 1940's. Merman relishes her rare chance to be in the spotlight on film, not only clowning with O'Connor and doing some nice comedy bits with the stuffy ministers, but getting to play romance with smooth Saunders, too. O'Connor and Vera-Ellen are delightful as the younger lovers and DeWolfe has some funny bits as the head of the Embassy who thinks he knows everything about dealing with the locals. The colorful, Oscar-nominated costumes, in Washington and Litchenburg, add a great deal to the European charm-meets-American vivacity feel.

Favorite Number: We open with Merman explaining to the press how she got her new job - by being "The Hostess With the Mostess On the Ball." "It's a Lovely Day Today" is initially a cute duet for Maria and Kenneth when they meet in a department store. They later perform a gorgeous pas de deux to an instrumental version at the ball around a sparkling fountain. The day after the ball, O'Connor wonders why he feels like he does. Merman tells him "You're Just In Love" in what's probably this show's biggest hit. Maria joins the chorus for a colorful peasant dance at the fair to the melody of that most European of instruments, "The Octarina." Frustrated after Maria turns him down at the fair, Kenneth dances drunkenly around a beer garden - and nearly destroys the place - wondering "What Chance Have I With Love?" 

Trivia: Call Me Madam debuted on Broadway in 1950, with Russell Nype as Kenneth, Paul Lukas as Cosmo, and Galina Talva as Maria. It was a huge hit that ran almost three years, with Merman playing the whole run. It also did fairly well on the West End for such a red-blooded American show, running a year and a half with Billie Worth as Sally Adams. Interestingly, though it was revived briefly in London in 1983, the only time it's been seen in New York since it's initial run was in two (admittedly well-received) off-Broadway Encores! concerts in 1995 and 2019. 

What I Don't Like: Part of the reason it's now rarely seen on major stages is the story hasn't dated that well. Nowadays, I doubt any country in Europe would be asking for a loan - or anything else - from the US, and a lot of those peasant costumes and weird accents could be seen as European stereotypes. And why is Maria and Kenneth's second big duet, "Something to Dance About," set in a dark passage? It's too dreary a setting for the delightfully cheerful choreography.

The Big Finale: Dated story aside, if you love Merman, O'Connor, or Vera-Ellen or are a fan of the big Broadway adaptations of the 50's and 60's, you'll want to look out for this one.

Home Media: Unavailable on video and hard to find for years, it was finally released on DVD in 2004...which, at press time, is still the only way you can see this one.

DVD

We're Not Dressing

Paramount, 1934
Starring Bing Crosby, Carole Lombard, Ethel Merman, and Leon Errol
Directed by Norman Taurog
Music by Harry Revel and others; Lyrics by Mack Gordon and others

We head from Puerto Rico to the Pacific for our next musical cruise. Crosby headlines a cast of comics, kooks, and playboys who discover that paradise isn't what it looks like in the travel posters when they end up marooned on a tropical isle. How does this Gilligan's Island-esque tale of love between the classes look today? Let's take a trip on a yacht this time and find out...

The Story: Socialite Doris Worthington (Lombard) is bored with the long yacht trip and her two pampered suitors, Prince Alexander (Jay Henry) and Prince Michael (Ray Milland). She passes the time sparring with singing sailor Stephan Jones (Crosby). Her best friend Edith (Merman) is more interested in pursuing her drunk Uncle Hubert (Errol). Hubert attempts to drive the ship while soused in a fog, running into a reef. Stephan rescues Doris while the others make for the lifeboats, but the princes take credit for getting her ashore.

Stephan tries to get the group to help him find food and build a shelter, but they refuse to do anything resembling work...at least until they smell Stephan's meal of mussels and coconuts. Even then, Doris would rather snitch his food than get his own. He does finally get them all working on a shelter, but Doris is still angry. She figures she has a way to get back at him when she encounters scientists Grace (Gracie Allen) and George Martin (George Burns). They give her tools and clothes, which she floats to Stephan. He's elated...and she begins to wonder if the joke is so funny when she sees how dedicated he is to helping the others.

The Song and Dance: Crosby may not be the first person you think of when you think "poor sailor with building skills," but he does fairly well as the sailor who is a lot more savvy than meets the eye. George Burns and Gracie Allen, favorites of radio and (later) TV, have more to do with the plot than you think as the zany wife who creates weird inventions and her slightly exasperated interpreter. Merman has a couple of good sequences with rubber-legged Errol, including two fun duets. And yes, that is later Oscar-winner Ray Milland as one of Lombard's royal suitors.

Favorite Number: Crosby kicks things off on the deck insisting "I Positively Refuse to Sing," which turns into a medley of popular songs of the era (including "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" and "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"). As mentioned, Merman and Errol make the most of their two goofy duets, "It's an Old Spanish Custom" on the yacht and the brief "Let's Be Domestic" while helping to build a shelter on the island. Crosby serenades Lombard with "Once In a Blue Moon" and a bear with "May I?"

Crosby also gets the movie's best - and most pointed - song. He's working on a shelter of his own while performing "Love Thy Neighbor." It may sound like one of Bing's usual ballads, but in this context, it becomes a commentary on the refusal of the rich to help their fellow man, including a still-haughty Lombard.

Trivia: This was based after the 1902 J.M Barrie play The Admirable Crichton. Doris even refers to it at one point, when Crosby is paying more attention to trying to figure out how to get their camp site water than to her.

What I Don't Like: The story is thin and really kind of strange. Burns and Allen are even less believable as scientists than Crosby is as a sailor. Merman has even less to do beyond her two songs. Lombard manages the appropriate spoiled attitude for the occasion, but otherwise comes off as disappointingly bland.

There's a rather odd sequence when an angry Stephan literally drags Doris across the island after he's discovered her deception with the tools, ties her to the beams of the house they built, and chews her out. While Doris shouldn't have made fun of him, this sequence can come off as uncomfortably abusive nowadays.

The Big Finale: Fun time-waster if you love Crosby or the cast, or run into it on TCM.

Home Media: Currently only available via the Universal Vault made to order collection and two Bing Crosby and Carole Lombard sets. (My copy comes from the Bing set.)

DVD - Universal Vault
DVD - The Bing Crosby Collection
DVD - Carole Lombard: The Glamour Collection

Musicals On TV - Anything Goes (1954)

NBC, 1954
Starring Ethel Merman, Frank Sinatra, Bert Lahr, and Sheree North
Directed by Sid Smith
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter

We debark from the romantic Grecian isles to take a cruise to London in the 1920's. This is an early live TV version of the Cole Porter show, which had been a big hit with Merman in 1934 on Broadway. The Colgate Comedy Hour did this as a "special" in 1954, the only pairing of Merman and Sinatra. How does this tale of mistaken identity on the high seas look today? Let's head to the docks, where the ship is about to set sail, and find out...

The Story: In the 1920's, stage star Reno Sweeney (Merman) takes a cruise to London to marry her stuffy aristocratic fiancee, Sir Evelyn Oakleigh (Arthur Gould Porter). She's followed by her ex-boyfriend Harry Dane (Sinatra), who badly wants her back. Meanwhile, Moonface Martin (Lahr), the fifth most wanted hood in America, and his bubbly blond girlfriend Bonnie (North) are also on the boat, avoiding the police and trying to move up to the fourth most wanted. Moonface is disguised as a missionary after he got the real one (Nestor Palva) arrested. Harry ends up with the ID of the number one most wanted gangster in America and seeks help from Moonface to avoid the cops, while trying to make his case with a reluctant Reno.

The Song and Dance: I suspect this is the closest most people would get to see a live version of this onstage until the rise of YouTube. Despite being streamlined, the story is still closer to the Broadway show than either of the film versions. Lahr revels in the intimacy of the small screen, mugging and joking and having a ball. The glittery costumes for the most part nicely reflect the glamour of sea travel during the Roaring 20's, with North and most of the women wriggling in beads and sequins and Merman resplendent in several furs.

Not to mention, there's the simple history involved in seeing a big TV musical from the 1950's, since many live productions from the time recorded on kinetoscopes have been lost.

Favorite Number: The show kicks off nicely with Merman performing the title song to explain the lunacy of the era. She and Bert Lahr have a lot of fun with "Friendship," and her "You're the Top" with Sinatra isn't bad, either. Sinatra's best solo is "All Through the Night" when he's in the brig; Merman's best solo moment is the rousing "Blow, Gabriel Blow" (which becomes a plot point when she uses it to point out Sinatra hiding among the guests).

Trivia: Merman was Reno Sweeney in the original Broadway production in 1934, with stage comedians William Gaxton and Victor Moore as her co-stars. The show would be revived off-Broadway in 1962, and successfully on Broadway twice, in 1987 with Patti LuPone as Reno, and in 2011 with Sutton Foster in the role.

Every version of Anything Goes since the original has added songs from his lesser-known shows of the 20's and 30's. This one includes "You Do Something to Me" from Fifty Million Frenchmen, "Just One of Those Things" from Jubilee, and "Friendship" from DuBarry Was a Lady.

Speaking of DuBarry, Merman and Lahr first performed together in the original 1939 Broadway cast of that show.

What I Don't Like: There's a reason this would be the only time Merman and Sinatra appeared together. They have no chemistry whatsoever, making Billy and Reno's constantly being pulled apart and thrown together even less believable. Their singing and performance styles are totally different; it's not as obvious in the comic "You're the Top," but their attempts at ballads in a reprise of "I Get a Kick Out of You" and "You Do Something To Me" have all the heat of two dead fish. The condensed show combines Reno with the ingenue role...which doesn't really work with Reno's character or Merman's tough personality. Lahr's attempts to bump up his notoriety are more interesting than Reno and Harry's romance.

And why was this set in the 20's? Every version of this since then has been set in the 30's, when the show and songs were written and first debuted.

The Big Finale: An interesting curiosity if you love Merman, Sinatra, Porter, or 50's musicals. Everyone else is better off listening to Merman and Sinatra's solo recordings of these songs.

Home Media: Out of print but not that hard to find on DVD; it can also be found on streaming.

DVD
Amazon Prime