Musical Dreams Reviews: backstage

Thursday, June 25, 2026

The Naughty Nineties

Universal, 1945

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

Directed by Jean Yarborough

Music and Lyrics by various

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DVD - The Best of Abbott and Costello Vol. 2

DVD - Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection

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

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Celebrating Juneteenth - Killer Diller

All-American, 1948

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

Directed by Josh Binney

Music and Lyrics by various

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Cult Flops - The Producers (2005)

Universal/Columbia, 2005

Starring Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, and Will Farrell

Directed by Susan Stroman

Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks

This week, we're looking at two more recent remakes of older musical and semi-musical films. Mel Brooks' original film version of The Producers did well enough at the box off in 1967 but got mixed reviews. Critics at the time didn't always get the black comedy about two producers who try to put on a flop musical that turns into a huge hit. The 2001 stage version, on the other hand, was wildly popular with critics and audiences alike. Everyone praised Susan Stroman's inventive choreography and direction and the pitch-perfect performances of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as the title characters. Needless to say, all three were carried over to the film version...but what works on stage doesn't always work on screen, as we're about to discover. Let's begin in Times Square in 1959 as theatergoers emerge from producer Max Bialystock's (Lane) latest flop musical and find out just how much a smash stage show can go off the rails onscreen...

The Story: Max is still mourning the demise of his latest theatrical venture when his meek accountant Leo Bloom (Broderick) points out that you can make more money off of a flop than a hit. Intrigued, Max hits on the idea of staging the worst musical possible and reaping the rewards when it tanks. Leo resists it first, until he realizes how tired he is of his bland, boring life at the accounting firm.

They first seek out Franz Liberkind (Farrell), the Nazi-obsessed author of the ridiculous musical Springtime for Hitler, even taking an oath in order to get the rights to his show. Transvestite director Roger Di Bris (Gary Beach) and his effeminate partner Carmen Ghia (Roger Bart) object to the darker tones in the show, insisting on keeping everything light, even if the Germans win the war. Gorgeous Swedish blond Ulla (Thurman) turns up on their doorstep, and both men are smitten enough to hire her as their secretary and promise her a role on the show.

The two men do their level best to make sure everything is a disaster, including Max getting dozens of little old ladies to finance it, but...against all good taste and better judgement, Springtime for Hitler winds up as a smash success. Leo's ready to turn them in, until Franz turns up with a gun because everyone laughed at his play and Ulla suggests they take the money and run. Max thinks he's left holding the bag, but you can't break up Broadway's most unlikely and closest producing team, even when they're in jail.

The Song and Dance: It's the movie people who are the revelations here. Who knew Thurman, who is usually associated with action and drama roles, could sing and shake her hips like a champ? And that split she does at the end of "If You Got It, Flaunt It" is incredible. Farrell has way too much fun as the Hitler-adoring Franz, with his pigeons and crazy vows. Makes me wish they both did more musicals. Of the stage folks, only Beach as the mincing director has any idea of how to play the role to the camera. There's some sensational costumes in brilliant colors reminiscent of the Technicolor of 50's MGM musicals, too. And frankly, I do appreciate that the musical drops some dated aspects of the original film, eliminating the character of the hippie who originally played Hitler and giving Ulla more authority and more to do.

The Numbers: We open with the brief "Opening Night" as two usherettes (Bryn Dowling and Meg Gillentine) wonders how the audiences will react to Max Bialystock's latest show. The theatergoers come out shortly after and give their assessment - it's "The Worst Show In Town." "We Can Do It," Max insists to Leo in his office, though Leo isn't as sure. Leo changes his tune around his "Unhappy" coworkers after he fantasizes about how "I Want to Be a Producer," complete with chorus girls in skimpy beaded dresses prancing in the office.

Franz teaches Max and Leo the Fuhrer's favorite song, "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop," before he insists on their vows. Roger, Carmen, and their extremely stereotypical stage team think a musical should be much lighter. "Keep It Gay!" Roger proclaims. Ulla auditions for Max and Leo at their office with "If You've Got It, Flaunt It"...and while the duo haven't started casting yet, they aren't exactly objecting to the show. Max gets the money for the show from a chorus line of old ladies tapping on their walkers (including Andrea Martin and stage star Debra Monk) who say "Along Came Bialy." Leo and Ulla are more interested in falling in love, dancing around their now very white office while singing about "That Face."

They can't find a better Hitler than Franz after he floors everyone with his rendition of "Haben Sie Gehurt Das Deutsche Band?" Roger and Carmen claim "You Never Say Good Luck On Opening Night" backstage, but Max disagrees. "Springtime for Hitler" and "Heil Myself" are the big chorus numbers, and they are a riot of color, sequins, and every possible German and World War II stereotype, up to and including Roger taking over as a decidedly not-butch Hitler.

One of the two new songs added for the film version is "You'll Find Your Happiness In Rio," which shows Ulla and Leo doing just that as Max reads the postcard from them in prison. He feels "Betrayed" as he rants in a soliloquy of the type that were popular in 40's and 50's musicals, relating pretty much the entire show up to that point. Leo returns at the trial, claiming no one thought he was special "Till Him." The duo are still doing their same "sell everyone 100 percent of the show" schtick in prison as Max directs their big jailbird musical "Prisoner of Love." It becomes their first stage hit after they're paroled. Mel Brooks himself claims "There's Nothing Like a Show On Broadway" (the other new song) over the credits before telling the audience "Goodbye!" and that it's time to go home.

Trivia: The Producers opened in April 2001 and was a sensation, running six years and earning 12 Tony Awards, the most of any show to date. It also did well on London's West End, running three years. In fact, at press time, a revival is playing at London's Garrick Theatre.

Three songs from the stage show, "The King of Broadway," "In Old Bavaria," and "Where Did We Go Right?" were filmed, but cut for time. All three are in an extended cut, and "King of Broadway" and "In Old Bavaria" are included as extras on the DVD.

What I Don't Like: Frankly, it feels like Thurman and Farrell are in an entirely different film from everyone else. Lane and Broderick are used to scaling their performances to the balcony, not to the camera. Everyone else is playing everything way too broadly, shouting when something slightly more sly and subtle would have done better. Likewise, Stroman's direction and choreography is scaled to theater audiences. Despite the filming in real locations, this feels like the filmed play it is. Good as most of the numbers are, they also push the running time a little too long. This is over 2 hours, way too long for a wacky black backstage comedy. Some of the other numbers or the shtick in the middle could have been trimmed with no one the wiser. There's also the simple fact that...a musical about a "gay" Hitler isn't nearly as shocking as it would have been in 1967, nor are the many rather ridiculous gay, theater, and Jewish stereotypes.

The Big Finale: Good performances from Ferrell and Thurman aren't enough to put this in the "hit" column for anyone but the biggest fans of the leads, Brooks, or modern Broadway shows.

Home Media: Easily found on disc and streaming, with the DVD often being found for under $10.

Blu-Ray

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Cult Flops - Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938

United Artists, 1937

Starring Warner Baxter, Joan Bennett, Helen Vinson, and Mischa Auer

Directed by Irving Cummings and Charles Kerr

Music and Lyrics by various

We jump back to the US this week for two more 30's musicals, both of them later versions of the lavish Busby Berkeley style. By 1937, Berkeley's scores of showgirls dancing in unique "story" numbers with overhead shots had become commonplace in musicals not only in the US, but around the world. Producer Water Wanger had been bouncing around the studios since the 1920's. He had tried to set himself up as an independent producer earlier in the 30's, but it hadn't worked out. After producing two hits at MGM, he once again struck out on his own...and this time, did much better. Though this wasn't one of his bigger hits, it did produce an Oscar-nominated standard, the ballad "That Old Feeling." How does the story of an heiress who joins a major fashion house and falls for its owner look today? Let's begin at the House of Curon as a show is starting and find out...

The Story: George Curson (Baxter) is having a really rough time. His wife Mary (Vinson) is desperate to go back on the stage and begs him to fund her big starring show, Vogues of 1938. His vice-president Sophie Miller (Alma Kruger) is having anxiety attacks and heart problems. Right after said show, one of his best customers, Wendy Van Klettering (Bennett), turns up claiming she doesn't want to marry her dull fiancee Henry Morgan (Alan Mowbray) and would rather work for him as a model. She basically pesters him into it, even though the last thing he wants is to have her in his home or his fashion house. He even gets Sophie to teach her how to model.

Her fiancee is furious when he finds out she's doing something so common and demands she be taken out of his fashion show. He finds a way for her to appear anyhow. She helps him get his customers back and prove that one of his competitors (Auer) is stealing his ideas. He still insists on staying with his wife, even after Wendy helps him win a big fashion contest...until his wife's show fails, and she dumps him. He put all of the money from the House of Curon into that show. Now, his beloved fashion house may go under, unless he can put on one more spectacular show and prove that the House of Curon still has what it takes to compete with the big Parisian houses.

The Song and Dance: And song and dance, along with some truly spectacular costumes and sets, are the major selling point here. Elegant Baxter and Bennett are dwarfed by some gorgeous Art Deco sets and the amazing dresses, especially at the big contest mid-way through where older ladies show off the creations of the Houses they buy clothes from. The music is actually quite good; "That Old Feeling" was nominated for an Oscar and is now considered to be a standard ballad. Auer and Kruger come off the best as the supercilious Russian who tells his elderly customers his designs are inspired by classical music and the perpetually anxious older vice-president.

The Numbers: After the fashion show opening, we don't have another number until more than 20 minutes in. An all-black cast energetically performs "Turn On that Red Hot Heat." The Cotton Club Singers really burn up the stage with their wild routine before four men in white tuxes get even more into the dancing. Maurice Rocco has even more fun with it on the piano. The dancers reprise it in the dark, writhing wildly to the music. Singer Virginia Vaill introduces "That Old Feeling" directly after. We then get an excellent tap dancer whom Curson claims is his wife's favorite.

The next fashion show gets around Henry and his lawyer Richard Steward (Gonzolo Merono) by claiming Wendy is there "only as a spectator," then letting her "watch" the show onstage and model dresses while doing it. The third fashion show is "The Rayon Ball," with each lady showing off an outfit that's more outrageous than the next. Only Henry appreciates Prince Muratov's outlandish gold gown with the enormous feathered shoulders...and Henry's the only one who doesn't appreciate Wendy modeling a far more simple and elegant white gown.

Mary and her director Mr. Brockton (Jerome Cowan) watch a truly amazing roller skating couple perform a death-defying couples dance in her living room. The big finale begins with Lawrence performing the sweet ballad "Lovely One" to Virginia Vaill, while the chorus models add their own commentary. A trio of dancing violinists pick up the song next, giving us a comic soft shoe. Lawrence picks up with "Lady of the Evening" (along with bits of the Hawaiian "Aloha Ole" and the Navy theme "Anchors Aweigh") as he describes all of those fabulous fashions.

Trivia: Was nominated for Art Direction along with "That Old Feeling."

What I Don't Like: First of all, the movie is almost two hours. That's way too long for a story this fluffy. I do appreciate that the discussions of Curon's unhappy marriage gives it a slight edge over your usual 30's backstage spectaculars. Thing is, Bennett's character is more of an annoying pest than a sweet girl who just wants out of a bad marriage, and she never was comfortable in musicals. A lot of the non-musical dramatic scenes towards the middle probably could have been trimmed with no one the wiser. Second, Warners or whomever owns this now really needs to take a crack at restoring it. The color on the copy at YouTube is soft and scratchy.

The Big Finale: Worth seeing for the musical numbers alone if you're a fan of Baxter, Bennett, or the big spectacular Art Deco musicals of the 1930's.

Home Media: It can be easily found on YouTube and on some shady DVD releases.

Thursday, December 4, 2025

First a Girl

Gaumont British, 1935

Starring Jessie Matthews, Sonny Hale, Anna Lee, and Griffith Jones

Directed by Victor Saville

Music and Lyrics by Maurice Sigler, Al Goodheart, and Al Hoffman

If the story here seems familiar, this is not the first time we've seen it at this blog. I reviewed the 1982 remake Victor/Victoria way back in January 2019. The British, however, got there almost 50 years before MGM did. Evergreen was such a massive success, a follow-up with Matthews and Hale was likely inevitable. This time, Gaumont turned to Germany, where Viktor und Viktoria had been a hit in 1933. They adapted it for the enchantingly gamine Matthews and for English sensibilities. How does the story of a woman who dresses as a man who dresses as a woman look today? Let's begin as shop girls watch a lavish society fashion show and find out...

The Story: Shop girl Elizabeth (Matthews) loses her job when she wears the clothes she's supposed to be delivering to an audition instead. Caught in the rain, she meets Shakespearean actor Victor (Hale), who is currently performing a music hall drag act he calls "Victoria." After he comes down with laryngitis, he convinces Elizabeth to take his place as a female impersonator. They play the act for comedy and are such a success, promoter McLintock (Alfred Drayton) offers Elizabeth a contract. Elizabeth takes the name "Bill," and Victor is her manager.

Elizabeth eventually falls for the handsome and wealthy Robert (Jones), while Victor pursues his fiancee Princess Mironoff (Lee). Robert, however, still thinks Elizabeth is a man. She even drinks whiskey and smokes cigars to convince him she's the gender she claims to be. It's not until he rescues her from drowning on the French Riviera that he realizes she's all woman. Elizabeth is tired of the charade, but first Victor has to explain to the Princess that he and Elizabeth are only friends, and then they both have to figure out how to get Victoria off the stage for good.

The Song and Dance: Hale and Matthews are having just as much fun as Robert Preston and Julie Andrews would 50 years later, if not more. In fact, considering the subject matter, this is downright adorable. Hale and Matthews were married at the time, which explains their delightful chemistry and how they worked so well together. The costumes are gorgeous, the production sumptuous, and the farcical script hilarious at times. Heck, just the fact that they can get away with the female impersonator thing in 1935 is notable. This would not have been made in the US in 1935.

The Numbers: We open with "Little Silkworm," that society fashion show. Elizabeth and the shop girls watch from windows looking into the auditorium. At one point, Elizabeth does an incredibly limber dance full of such high kicks, she actually kicks a shoe into the main theater! She does make a joke about it, but it gets her into trouble. She joins a mass audition singing in chorus, but is pulled quickly. Her first number as a female impersonator is "It's Written All Over Your Face." She's not entirely sure what to do...and then geese come out in the middle of the number.

She's the toast of Europe by the time of "Half and Half." This one starts out looking normal, with women in male tuxes...before we see they're half in tuxes, and half in frilly dresses. "I Can Wiggle My Ears" is a big chorus routine in a lavish Art Deco nightclub. Singer Donald Stewart performs with the ladies in stripes, while Victor sings to the Princess. Elizabeth revels in wearing women's clothes while basking in the paradise of the French Riviera in "Say the World and It's Yours." "Everything's Rhythm In My Heart" showcases Elizabeth as literally a bird in a cage, as the other birds pamper and dress her. Victor reprises it in drag near the end of the film.

What I Don't Like: Alas, this doesn't have Rodgers and Hart writing songs. The music here is disappointingly bland, with only "I Can Wiggle My Ears" as a stand-out. And although the story makes slightly more sense than Evergreen, this is still a fluffy 30's musical. It's not for those looking for something deeper, or even the slightly naughty things Victor/Victoria did with this material in 1982.

The Big Finale: Charming and hilarious, I enjoyed this even more than Evergreen. Highly recommended for fans of big 30's musicals, Matthews, or vintage British cinema.

Home Media: Too bad this one can only be found on YouTube at press time.

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Evergreen

Gaumont British, 1934

Starring Jessie Matthews, Sonny Hale, Betty Balfour, and Barry MacKay

Directed by Victor Saville

Music and Lyrics by various

Come with us across the Atlantic on a holiday trip to jolly old England this week as we take a look at the two most popular vehicles featuring beloved British dance star Jessie Matthews. Matthews started out as a dancer on the London stage in revues for Noel Coward and producer Andre Charlot. She'd been making movies since 1923. By the time this came out in 1934, she had just appeared in the successful movie version of The Good Companions and was looking to follow up on that success. How does the story of a young woman who poses as her own mother to get publicity look nowadays and on this side of the pond? Let's begin "yesterday" with popular music hall singer Harriet Green (Matthews) and her adoring audiences and find out...

The Story: Harriet gives up her career to marry the Marquis of Staines (Ivor McLaren), only to leave him and return to South Africa when her former partner George Treadwell (Hartley Power) tries to blackmail her over her illegitimate daughter. She leaves that daughter to be raised in the country by her old nursemaid. Years later, her daughter, Harriet Hawkes (Matthews), comes to London to get into show business herself. Handsome young publicity man Tommy Thompson (MacKay) sees Harriet's resemblance to her mother and convinces producer Leslie Benn (Hale) to feature her in a new revue as her well-preserved mother. Trouble arises when Harriet falls for Tommy, and not only does the public believe he's her son, but Treadwell comes knocking too, still looking for money. After they discover that they could get arrested for the deception, they have to figure out how to let Harriet be herself, without ending up in jail.

The Song and Dance: No wonder this was a huge hit in 1934 on both sides of the Atlantic. Matthews is simply luminous, an adorable cross between the dainty elegance of Audrey Hepburn and the ingenue proficiency of Eleanor Powell. Some of the numbers simply defy description. They're stranger than what even Busby Berkeley was doing in 1934, especially the "through the years" routine that begins with Matthews singing "When It's Springtime In Your Heart" in 1934 and ends up with women dressed in metal-covered robot costumes being turned into robotic workers in 1918 and people doing the waltz in 1904. The costumes and sets are absolutely gorgeous, with Mathews floating in acres of ruffles, lace, and fluff against a curving Art Deco backdrop.

The Numbers: We open with Harriet Green wowing her audiences with an instrumental dance in a frilly gown, then singing the traditional music hall number "Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow-Wow." She and fellow actress-turned-titled lady Maudie (Betty Balfour) sing another music hall ditty, "I Wouldn't Leave My Little Wooden Hut For You" singing and dancing on the tables at their reception. Harriet sings "When You've Got a Little Springtime In Your Heart" twice, as an audition for Leslie Mann and Tommy Thompson after Tommy comes up with the idea of her being her mother, and later in that insane "through the years" number I mentioned above. The number starts with Matthews performing the song in one of her floaty dresses. She keeps turning a time piece, going further and further back, from the Charleston to the women turned into robots for Great War industry, to a waltz.

Harriet wants to sing "If I Give In to You" and does a wonderful dance to it, but Maudie tells her it would give her away as a young woman. Leslie does the charming "Tinkle Tinkle" with the chorus at a rehearsal. Harriet goes Spanish in another instrumental dance, this time in a ruffled senorita outfit swirling with a passionate matador. Tommy's not really happy with Harriet when they rehearse "Dear Dear." Harriet keeps avoiding giving him a kiss, despite Leslie's insistence on it. The standard from this one is Rogers and Hart's "Dancing on the Ceiling," which Harriet dances in her living room while Tommy listens in his.

"Over My Shoulder" begins as a romp in 1900, with Harriet and Tommy playing mother and son on an outing in their car. It turns into a more typical Berkeley-esque chorus girl routine in wild costumes. Harriet, finally fed up, comes out and does a striptease during her dance, ditching her "old lady" costume to reveal the young woman she truly is. Harriet reprises "Springtime," singing with her mother's own recording in court, then in a literal heavenly chorus. We end with Harriet singing "Over My Shoulder" with an angelic chorus.

Trivia: Ever Green debuted at the Adelphi Theater on London's West End in 1930, with Matthews and Hale in MacKay's role. It originally had an all Rodgers and Hart score, but only "Dancing On the Ceiling," "Dear, Dear," and "If I Give In to You" were used in the movie. "In the Cool of the Evening" turned up as background scoring. To my knowledge, it has never made it to this side of the pond and has not been revived.

What I Don't Like: While I give the British credit for getting cheeky in a way no American musical would even attempt in 1934, this is still a fluffy 30's musical. MacKay is cute but otherwise dull as Harriet's love interest, and Hale can get annoying, especially early on when he's barking at everyone. And I do wish they'd kept the full Rodgers and Hart score! Though I do like "Over My Shoulder" (and it became a signature number for Matthews), most of the other non-Rodgers and Hart songs are pretty dull.

The Big Finale: If you love big 30's musicals or vintage British cinema, you'll want to step across time and join Harriet in her backstage adventure, too.

Home Media: Not on disc in North America, but it can be found on streaming.

Saturday, November 29, 2025

Family Fun Saturday - Standing Ovation

Rocky Mountain Pictures, 2010

Starring Kayla Jackson, Alanna Palumbo, Joei DiCarlo, and Pilar Martin

Directed by Stewart Rafill

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's hit the Jersey Shore this holiday weekend with this independent backstage tale. High School Musical was pretty much the template for all teen and tween musicals made from 2006 well into the 2010's, and this one was no exception. Apparently, despite Rocky Mountain Pictures hyping it to the skies in 2010, it was a huge flop with critics and audiences. Now that it's easily available on several streaming platforms, how does this tale of big hopes and bigger dreams come off today? Let's begin at a local contest for pre-teen dance groups and find out...

The Story: The Five Ovations are a talented song and dance pre-teen girl group in Atlantic City. They keep getting sabotaged by the Wiggies, a group of spoiled rich girls who specialize in outrageous wigs supplied by the wealthy father (Sal Dupree) of Ziggy Wiggs (London Clarke). Brittany O'Brian (Kayla Jackson) lives on the boardwalk above a 99 cent store with her Irish grandfather (P. Brendan Mulvey) and her musician songwriter brother Mark (Austin Powell). She's desperate to find the father who abandoned her and her mother. Her family is broke; her grandfather keeps using their money to play the horses.

Major network CDS announces a huge music video contest for pre-teen groups. After the Wiggies take over the school gym to rehearse, the Ovations convince Eric Bateman (William McKenna) to loan them his father's recording studio. They do make the video, but Ziggy and Mark sabotage it. Unfortunately, their "sabotage" turns it into a comedy and makes it popular with the audience at CDS.

The Wiggies do make it to the finals. So do the Ovations, once someone else drops out. They recruit local dancers to help with their big number. Alanna Wannabe (Palumbo), a young girl who desperately wants to be a star, gets in on it, too. She and her father made a video, but it didn't make it to the finals. Meanwhile, tough girl Joei Battaluci (Joei DiCarlo), the Ovations' manager, uses her tough-guy attitude and menagerie of biting animals she keeps in her purse to help Brittany find out what happened to her father and find out who stole money from Joei's father.

The Song and Dance: This was cuter than I thought it would be from the low-budget pedigree. The numbers have real energy, the dancing isn't bad, and some of the comedy lands. DiCarlo steals the show as the hilariously tough kid who can talk herself into and out of anything and has an army of venomous critters at her disposal to back her up. As someone who has lived in Southern New Jersey all her life, I appreciate the filming in and around the Atlantic City area, including the boardwalks in Atlantic City, Cape May, Ocean City, and Wildwood.

The Numbers: We actually open with a group performing a nervy "Thing 4 U" in 40's threads...before Mr. Wiggs turns off the lights and ruins their number. The Wiggies' first number is the too-sexy-for-their-ages "Blush" in pink wigs. The Ovations attempt "Bounce," but Ziggy paid a stagehand to put pepper on Brittany's microphone and make her sneeze. The Wiggies' rehearsal number is "That Boy," a song Mark was working on (to Brittany's disgust). They film the number on the Ocean City boardwalk, but Mr. Wiggs makes it clear that Alanna is not invited to join them.

Brittany performs a stirring "God Bless America" on a rain-soaked Atlantic City boardwalk, but she and Joei end up confronting a jerk who steals the money she made. Rap group Dacav5 performs "The Runaway" and "The Music Is Dropping You" as the Wiggies shimmy in a nightclub that, once again, is way too old for kids who can't be more than 13 or 14. The Ovations demonstrate different forms of dancing across the 20th and 21st century at an old folks' home in "Crazy Feet." "All I Want To Do Is Sing" provides the backdrop for Joei telling Brittany she has a line on the thief who stole her dad's money.

The Ovations' first attempt at a music video is the late 60's themed Beach Party spoof "River Deep, Mountain High." While they try to figure out something more modern, Mr. Wiggs and the Wiggies perform "Soup to Nuts" dressed in their idea of upper-crust outfits at a local diner. The Ovations get stuck doing a commercial for a really awful brand of soda, singing "Shake It and Make It"...but they just can't drink that nasty stuff, no matter how much the director wants them to. They finally end up filming "Scream" at the Wildwood boardwalk, including a rap battle with local boys. Alanna's music video is "Go After Your Dream," complete with dancing firemen and her dancing with a moving teddy bear. "Superstars" is the Wiggies' self-aggrandizing video in glittery dresses with scads of dancers.

Mr. Wiggs and the Wiggies perform "Under the Boardwalk" and "Splish Splash" in rather ridiculous mid-60's-style wigs and dresses at their big show. They look so silly, it's almost a relief when the Ovations let fleas loose in their wigs. A genuinely good gospel group performs "Our Song Begins Again" at the music video finals in New York. The Wiggies' "Dancing Girl" is actually rather bland for their energetic performance of it. Alanna and her dancer cousins from Florida join the Ovations for the vastly more unique space opera-themed "Shooting Star." The movie concludes over the end credits with "Turn It Up," a reprise of "All I Want to Do Is Sing," and the title song.

What I Don't Like: As funny as this can be, in other ways, it's the ultimate in teen cliches. Even the names on a lot of the characters are painfully obvious. Who on Earth calls a teen music group the Wiggies? There's Alanna Wannabe the wannabe singing star, too. Some of the acting is stiff as a board. The ending is not only a complete wish-fulfillment deux ex machina, but it goes on for at least 15 minutes too long. Ending with the contest and maybe briefly letting Brittany meet her father would have sufficed, instead of drawing it out and having him be the solution to everyone's problems. For all their energy, the original songs are bland and unmemorable.

The Big Finale: Most critics were really harsh on this one when it came out, but I'll give it a pass for the high-energy numbers, some hilarious bits, and just because not many movies were filmed and set in South Jersey. If you have pre-teen girls looking for background noise at a girl's day in or slumber party this holiday weekend, they can do far worse than this bit of showstopping lunacy.

Home Media: The DVD is currently expensive, but you can find this streaming for free with commercials just about anywhere online, including Tubi and Pluto TV.

Pluto TV On Demand

Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Two for Tonight

Paramount, 1935

Starring Bing Crosby, Joan Bennett, Mary Boland, and Lynne Overmann

Directed by Frank Tuttle

Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Mack Gordon

Bing was at the height of his early success as a crooner when he made this short movie for Paramount. By this point, Paramount was beginning to codify just what Bing's movies were all about. They needed a goofy supporting cast, a girl for Bing to sing to (whether he actually gets her in the end or not), and some good songs that would make it on the hit parade. This was pretty much the prototype for Bing's vehicles during the 1930's. This may be the most typical of them. Just how does this confection about a songwriter who has to write a show for a demanding star in just a few days look now? Let's begin with Mrs. Smythe (Boland) as she tries to chase off a census-taker at her door and find out...

The Story: Mrs. Smythe has three sons by three different husbands, and they're trying to make ends meet by selling their songs. One day, as the eldest Gilbert Gordon (Crosby) is trying to perform a number for producer Alexander Myles (Maurice Cass) when a plane hits the tree he was singing next to. Gilbert ends up in the hospital, leading his mother to claim he was working on a musical and get $50,000 from the pilot.

Turns out the pilot's a woman, Bobbie Lockwood (Bennett), who can pay them 15 a week...but can also get them in to see her boss Harry Kling (Overmann), a Broadway producer. Kling's having a hard time finding a suitable musical for his actress girlfriend Lily Bianco (Thelma Todd) and thinks Gilbert's show would be perfect. Trouble is, Gilbert never wrote a show, but Kling thinks that the plane incident is the plot. He asks the butler Homps (Ernest Cossart) for ideas, and even starts a riot to get arrested. Even after he gets out, he gets into trouble with Bobbie and Kling when rehearsing a love scene with Lily and Kling walks out. It looks like the show won't go on, until his mother convinces a most unlikely backer to step forward.

The Song and Dance: For a movie lasting a little over an hour, this almost has more plot than Wicked: For Good! There's a lot going on here, including some genuinely good songs. Bing is charming as the eldest son who gets caught up in the lunacy, while Mary Boland is hilarious as his much-married mother who will do anything to get money for her boys. In fact, this has a bit more comedy than usual for one of Bing's movies, including that goofy sequence with the airplane drowning Bing out and how the riot in the nightclub gets started.

The Numbers: We open with Bing performing the title song over the credits. The brothers compose "Takes Two to Make a Bargain" as their mother deals with the census man. It includes several lines that are either spoofs of other songs, or referring to the piano being repossessed even as they work. Gilbert reprises it on the tree that gets drowned out by first a bee, then the airplane. He sings "From the Top of Your Head" to Bobbie while trying to come up with ideas for the play. The lovely ballad "Without a Word of Warning" is Gilbert's attempt to woo Bobbie, but she thinks he's interested in Lily. He performs "I Wish I Was Aladdin" with the prisoners while in jail in the film's only large-scale chorus number. Gilbert reprises "Word of Warning" near the end to win Bobbie back.

What I Don't Like: Um, yeah, for all the crazy stuff that happens, this is about as fluffy as you can get, even by the standards of 30's musicals. Bennett makes slightly more of an impression as strong-willed Bobbie than Todd as Lily, who doesn't have that much to do. The second half is far less interesting as the attempt to put on the show takes a backseat to Gilbert chasing Bobbie while Lily chases him.

The Big Finale: Harmless hour's worth of fun if you're a fan of Bing or Joan Bennett or want to check out a smaller-scale 30's musical.

Home Media: Maybe it's just as well that the only place you can currently find this one is on YouTube with Portuguese subtitles.

Thursday, November 13, 2025

Happy Go Lovely

RKO/Associated British-Pathe, 1951

Starring Vera-Ellen, David Niven, Cesar Romero, and Diane Hart

Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone

Music by Mischa Spoliansky; Lyrics by Barbara Gordon and Mischa Spoliansky

William Bendix wasn't the only American film star to work in England during the 1950's. Vera-Ellen, Cesar Romero, and director H. Bruce Humberstone joined British star David Niven to make this veddy English take on the backstage extravaganza. How does the story of a chorus girl who mistaken for the sweetheart of a millionaire look nowadays? Let's begin in a theater at Edinburgh, Scotland, during the first preview of the show Frolics for You and find out...

The Story: Right now, it's looking like there might not be a show. Director-producer John Frost (Romero) can't afford to pay his cast, let alone his creditors. Chorus girl Janet Jones (Vera-Ellen), desperately late for rehearsal one day, gets a ride from Bates (Hugh Dempster), the genial chauffeur for millionaire B.G Bruno (Niven). The moment she's seen stepping out of a millionaire's limo, everyone at the theater thinks she and Bruno are an item. Frost decides to use this to his advantage, giving Janet the star role after the original star quits and telling his creditors he now has a millionaire backing his show. Janet even gets a visit from the dressmaker (Barbara Couper) who had been hounding her to pay her before to make new clothes.

The clothes bill finally gets back to the real B.G Bruno. Bruno is an unassuming young greeting card tycoon who is more interested in his business than romance. He goes to Janet, only for her to mistake him for the reporter who is supposed to interview her, Paul Tracy (Gordon Jackson). B.G is so charmed by her, he lets her think he's Tracy. She and her friend Mae (Hart) even convince him to "play" B.G Bruno when Frost demands to see him. Bruno does give him money for the show...but now Janet thinks he's in trouble for forging a check and tries to get him out of that theater, and fast!

The Song and Dance: Debonair Niven and sassy, charming Vera-Ellen aren't the first people I'd pair off, but they're surprisingly cute together in this really fun backstager. His wiry charm and her brittle warmth play off each other well, and they have so much chemistry, I wish they'd worked together again. They're backed by a lovely production at England's Elstree Studios, with a gorgeous soft Technicolor palate, lovely gowns for the ladies, and fine suits for Niven.

The Numbers: The movie opens with the lavish "Macintosh's Wedding," the original big number before the star quits. A young Scotsman isn't thrilled to marry his sweetheart, until a bump on the head convinces him otherwise! The lovely "One, Two, Three" is a charming ballet with Janet and the chorus dancing in frilly white dresses over rainbow petticoats. "London Town" is the other big chorus routine, a ballet with Janet as a tourist who falls for a British guard. "Would You, Could You?" ends the film with Janet's big solo ballet, pirouetting in a gorgeous white and gold dress as she dances for the audience, but only has eyes for B.G.

Trivia: This is a loose remake of two earlier European movies, the German And Who Is Kissing Me? from 1933 and English Paradise for Two from 1937.

What I Don't Like: Cute though it is, story is not this movie's strong suit. The backstage aspect is nothing you haven't seen in put-on-a-show films on both sides of the pond, while the romantic aspect is so tangled, B.G isn't the only one questioning his identity by the end! Romero is less charming and more annoying as the other transplanted American (though interestingly, he doesn't end up paired off with Mae or one of the other chorus girls, which I thought they might end up doing).

The Big Finale: If you love Niven, Vera-Ellen, or 50's musicals, you might want to travel over to Scotland and give this highland fling a shot.

Home Media: It's in the public domain, so it can pretty much be found anywhere on DVD and streaming.

Thursday, November 6, 2025

Cult Flops - Something to Sing About

Grand National Pictures, 1937

Starring James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, William Frawley, and Gene Lockhart

Directed by Victor Schertzinger

Music and Lyrics by Victor Schlesinger

I Go Pogo was far from the only independent movie that ran into trouble with distributors. Grand National Pictures began in 1936 as an alternative to the many B-level Poverty Row studios. Hiring James Cagney, who was then feuding with his usual home-base Warner Bros, was considered a great coup for them. They threw Cagney into two lavish (for them) films, of which this is the second. It's also Cagney's second time singing and dancing on-screen. He started out as a hoofer on Broadway and still considered himself to more-or-less be one. How does Cagney's second foray into musicals after Footlight Parade look nowadays? Let's join Terry Rooney (Cagney) and his band at their latest nightclub and radio gig and find out...

The Story: Terry is off to Hollywood to make movies with studio owner B.O Regan (Lockhart). He leaves his band and his fiancee Rita (Daw) behind, promising to return. Terry doesn't find his time in Hollywood easy. Fearing his new discovery getting a big head, Regan has ordered his people not to praise Terry in any way. This culminates in an onscreen fist fight that turns too real for Terry's liking. He leaves and goes back to the band, marrying Rita. When he returns, he discovers that the movie has been released and was a huge success.

The studio already has his second movie planned. They convince him to keep his marriage silent. Studio publicist Hank Meyers (Frawley) plants news stories claiming Terry and actress Stephanie Hajos (Mona Barrie) are an item. Terry is kept in Hollywood for so long dealing with all this and his new contract, Rita feels neglected and returns to the band. Terry has to finally take control of both his careers and prove his marriage to Rita is more important to him than any movie.

The Song and Dance: And "dance" is the real operative word here. We do get to see Cagney strut his stuff, including three solo dances. Great cast for what amounts to a B-pick here, too. Frawley and Lockhart are hilarious as the publicist who thinks he can drum up interest no matter what the real story is, and the studio head who worries that his new discovery will get too big for him to handle.

The Numbers: We open over the credits and in the first few minutes with Rita performing the title song. Terry gives us his first dance sequence, tapping in a rather Fred Astaire-like top hat, white tie, and tails across the nightclub floor. His second instrumental dance number is as he's about to leave for Hollywood. He shows off for Rita and the band, this time in a simpler suit and bucket hat, even swinging an amused Rita around. Rita and the band perform their new ballad "Right or Wrong" over the phone for Terry.

Terry sings "Any Old Love" with a bevy of ladies in the movie-within-the-movie. His third solo is dancing with two officers (Cagney's real-life partners and teachers Johnny Boyle and Hartland Dixon) on the tramp steamer that takes him and Rita to the South Seas for their honeymoon. Rita sings "Out of the Blue" when she rejoins the band on the East Coast. She sings "Loving You" and reprises "Right or Wrong" at the nightclub in the finale. "Loving You" also gives us one last dance from Terry.

Trivia: Grand National threw everything they had into their Cagney pictures...too much, as it turned out. This and the comedy Great Guy were too lavish for their audiences. Between that, the difficulties a newly-formed company had bucking the studio system of the time, and no breakout hits in the so-so score, Sing About wound up a flop...and took down Grand National with it. Grand National closed their doors in 1940. Warner Bros ended up buying Cagney's contract and the next movie Grand National had intended to make with him, Angels With Dirty Faces.

What I Don't Like: Cagney, his dances, and the decent cast are pretty much the only things of interest here. Otherwise, it's pretty obvious this was a low-budget B-film from the late 30's. As mentioned, the songs are dull, the story perfunctory, the Hollywood satire toothless. This isn't anything you haven't seen in countless spoofs of the movies going back to the silent era, and this does nothing really new with it other than the idea of Terry walking out.

The Big Finale: Only for the most devoted fans of Cagney and the cast.

Home Media: This is in the public domain, so it's easy to find anywhere in most formats. It's currently streaming on Tubi with commercials.

Thursday, October 9, 2025

New Faces

20th Century Fox, 1954

Starring Eartha Kitt, Ronny Graham, Alice Ghostley, and Robert Clary

Directed by Harry Horner, John Beal, and Eugene Anderson Jr.

Music and Lyrics by various

Revues saw a revival on film and stage in the 40's, when they entertained the troops going overseas. Though they continued on Broadway for a few years after the war ended, they ended up being superseded by that upstart rival, television. Variety shows were among the most popular genres on TV in the 1950's, casting the same wide net over show business that revues once did. Why go see a theater show when you could watch the same type of acts on Ed Sullivan or Milton Berle - and even more - for free? There were a few revues on Broadway in the early 50's that did manage to do relatively well, this among them. Leonard Stillman had been putting out New Faces revues since the 1930's, always on the cheap. He struck gold with the 1954 edition, rounding up a genuinely talented cast and some great material. It was so well-received, it was adapted as a film two years later, one of Fox's earliest ventures into Cinemascope. How well did they pull this off? Let's begin backstage at the New Faces show and find out...

The Story: Wealthy Texan Mr. Clayton (Charles Watts) insists that he'll back the show if he's impressed with the talent and numbers involved...and with his daughter Virginia's (Virginia de Luce) performance. Virginia is not only frustrated that her big number keeps getting cut off, but she's fallen in love with one of the dancers. Meanwhile, diminutive Frenchman Robert Clary (himself) locks a bill collector in a dressing room before he can collect or stop the show.

The Song and Dance: And yeah, this one is all about the song and dance. There's admittedly some impressive talents here. Eartha Kitt became a recording superstar, Ghostley, Clary, Graham, and Paul Lynde were TV sitcom stalwarts, and June Carroll and Carol Lawrence were among the most popular leading ladies on Broadway in the 50's and 60's. Some of the more memorable non-musical sketches include a spoof of dark stage melodramas of the 50's featuring Lynde as the criminal father, Ghostley as his wife, and Graham as the son who'd rather play baseball than follow in his father's footsteps and Graham in a fairly amusing takeoff on Truman Capote and the southern Gothic stories he specialized in.

The Numbers: We open and close with "We're the New Faces," with said new faces stuck into a black set as they sing about why they love what they do and what we're going to see. Kitt gets the first actual number, "C'est Bon," a sultry French ditty. Virginia deLuce keeps trying to sing "He Takes Me Off His Income Tax," but never actually gets through the song before the next act is announced. Clary is "Lucky Pierre" when he's joined by the female dancers (including Carol Lawrence and Patricia Hammerlee) for a typical girls-and-guy routine. Weary woman of the world June Carroll sings wistfully about "Penny Candy" as she sees the ghosts of her childhood and recalls how others made fun of her desire to be an actress.

Alice Ghostley is a plain woman whose "Boston Beguine" may be the closest thing she gets to exotic excitement. Robert Cary is joined by Eartha Kitt and Rosemary O'Reilly to show why "Love Is a Simple Thing." Mother and daughter June Carroll and Alice Ghostley say it's "Time for Tea" as they recall how the daughter almost fell in love...but her parents drove her suitor off, and she never married. Clary's joined by Lawrence and the chorus girls again, this time offstage, to perform the traditional French song "Alouette." Eartha Kitt introduces the show's big standard, the seductive "Santa Baby," as a woman who wants a lot more than candy and an orange in her stocking for Christmas.

Graham, Ghostley, and the chorus spoof operetta waltzes as they describe the delights of damp "Waltzing In Venice," then "Taking Off the Mask." For Robert Clary, everything is "Raining Memories." Kitt is a Turkish woman singing about "Uska Dara." Robert Clary is a school boy who claims "I'm In Love With Miss Logan," but gets quite disappointed when he realizes Miss Logan has someone else. The chorus gets the world's only hoedown dedicated to the trial of that infamous murderess "Lizzie Borden." Kitt and Clary go back into French mode with "Bal, petit bal." Kitt finishes things off with "Monotonous,"as a star who is bored with her life of fame.

Trivia: Film debuts of Paul Lynde, Alice Ghostley, and Carol Lawrence.

What I Don't Like: For all the wonderful numbers and performances, this doesn't really belong on film. It's a filmed play and doesn't pretend to be anything else. This intimate revue didn't need the widescreen and made no use of it whatsoever. There's a lot that hasn't dated well, too, notably Lynde's rather annoying safari sketch and Graham's Truman Capote takeoff. (No matter how funny Graham is in that segment, a lot of people aren't that familiar with Capote's work nowadays.) The story is piffle and adds absolutely nothing to the numbers or the movie.

The Big Finale: Even with the above caveats, this is still worth seeing for the performances and songs alone if you're a fan of any of the above stars or of 50's musicals and revues.

Home Media: In the public domain, so it's pretty easily found anywhere. Tubi currently has it for free (though in a rather blurry copy).

Thursday, September 25, 2025

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.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

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.

Thursday, September 4, 2025

Back to School Again - College Holiday

Paramount, 1936

Starring Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, and Mary Boland

Directed by Frank Tuttle

Music and Lyrics by various

Our next collegiate story is a bit more unique. Most of Paramount's college-set stories usually took place on the actual campus. This one varies the setting enough to take the kids on vacation to a fictional resort in trouble, with a bit of Busby Berkeley backstage mixed in. How does this strange combination of school, wacky comedians, and then-fashionable theories on human breeding look nowadays? This time, let's begin as those kids dance at their prom and find out...

The Story: Sylvia Smith (Marsha Hunt) is called from the dance by her father, who had a mental breakdown when he found out they might lose their California hotel the Casa Del Mar, thanks to his less-than-astute partner J. Davis Bowster (Benny). The mortgage is held by eccentric heiress Carola Gaye (Boland), who is given to obsess over whatever strange fad catches her fancy. At the moment, that's eugenics and ancient Greek history, thanks to Professor Hercules Dove (Etienne Giradot). Bowster promises her gorgeous college bodies for her eugenics mating program if she'll fund the college kids staying at the hotel. Bowster tells the kids they're there as entertainers, as he wants to raise enough money for them to put on a show.

The kids aren't happy when they discover that Hercules wants his "genetically perfect" daughter Calliope (Allen) to select who gets to pair off. Dick Winters (Leif Erikson) has been trying to find out Sylvia's first name ever since the dance, and he'd rather be with her than with Gaye. There's also Calliope's actual boyfriend George Hymen (Burns), who would rather avoid she check his measurements to find her Apollo, and the stagehand (Ben Blue) who tries to chase new student Daisy Scholggenheimer (Martha Raye), but has a hard time avoiding the fists she's been trained to use in order to ward off men. They all end up putting together a minstrel show in support of the hotel, and to show Hercules and Carola that true "perfection" is in the eye of the beholder.

The Song and Dance: While the story isn't much, even for a Paramount college musical, some of the individual performances do have merit. Jack Benny has fun firing off some hilarious lines, while Raye and her fists do even better playing off the adorably bewildered Blue. Boland and Dove are befuddled riots as the duo with more wealth than brains who actually believe his ridiculous theories. Allen and Burns have a blast too, especially when Gracie attempts to pair off everyone!

The Numbers: We open under the credits with everyone performing "The Sweetheart Waltz" at that dance. The California Collegians Glee club sings "The Maine Stein Song" on board the train going to the resort. Dick and Sylvia really get into their cute "A Rhyme for Love" tap routine at the back of the train. Bowster even joins in briefly near the end. Daisy wonders "So What?" when asked about men. Bowster also gets to conduct the Collegians singing "Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here" and plays (or tries to play) "Love In Bloom" during the minstrel show.

The ballad "Enchanted (I Love You)," performed by Sylvia and Dick with the chorus, is the big ballad in the minstrel show. Calliope, Ben, and George get into lavish colonial garb for an attempt at what they think is a dainty dance to the "Minuet In G." Martha Raye gets more into her blackface routine to "Who's That Knocking at My Heart?" with the Collegians.

What I Don't Like: Where to start with this one? How about eugenics has largely been discredited since 1936, making Dove's theories look even sillier now than they likely did then. Or how dull Erikson and Hunt are compared to all the loonies around them. There's also the finale revolving around a minstrel show. In 1936, it was quaint nostalgia from a rosy past. Nowadays, the blackface alone may make the final 20 minutes a slog for many people. Or the songs are cute but nothing special, with only the wordplay on "A Rhyme for Love" being even a mild stand-out. Or Raye and Blue seeming to have come from another world entire; Blue is dropped into the second half with little rhyme or reason.

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of the star comedians.

Home Media: Once again, this can currently only be found on YouTube (admittedly in a decent copy taken from a TCM showing).

DVD - Rock Around the Clock/Don't Knock the Rock

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Don't Knock the Rock

Columbia Pictures, 1956

Starring Alan Dale, Alan Freed, Fay Baker, and Patricia Hardy

Directed by Fred F. Sears

Music and Lyrics by various

The Poverty Row studios weren't the only ones who recognized rock as a popular genre among the young. By 1956, almost every studio in Hollywood wanted to cash in on this big new teen sound. Columbia jumped on the band wagon with Rock Around the Clock, the first musical to have a true rock score. That went over so well, they grabbed Bill Haley and the Comets for more of the same, here joined by Little Richard and the Treniers, among others. How well does the story of teens in a small town who show their parents that rock is hardly a corrupting influence come off today? Let's begin with those teens dancing up a storm over the credits and find out...

The Story: Rock star Arnie Haines (Dale) flees Freed's constant promotion to spend the rest of the summer in his hometown. He discovers on his arrival that, while the teens in the town adore him, their parents are far less welcoming. They believe rock to be a corrupting influence on the young, especially the stuffy Mayor Bagley (Pierre Watkin) and influential columnist Arline MacLaine (Baker). Arline's daughter Francine (Hardy) not only doesn't share her mother's opinion about rock, she falls for Artie.

Francine and Artie set up a concert with big name acts like Bill Haley and the Comets and Little Richard, but it's disrupted by a fist fight set up by jealous Sunny Everett (Jana Lund), who also has a crush on Artie. Artie's ready to give up and leave, but Francine convinces him to do one last show. They claim it's a pageant of art and culture...but it really proves that art changes over time, and today's rebellious youth music is tomorrow's happy nostalgia.

The Song and Dance: This is at least a little closer to what most people probably think of when they hear "early rock musical." Hardy is an attractive and sensible Francine, and Baker is wonderfully witty as her skeptical journalist mother. We also have a far more interesting story, almost a precursor to Footloose thirty years later. Not only does this movie discuss many parents' real-life attitudes towards rock at the time, it reminds people that rock was hardly the first musical genre adults thought would "corrupt" young people. We also get some sensational dancing here to go with that music, including the wild dance routine at Artie's apartment after his show in the opening.

The Numbers: We open with Haley's rendition of the title song over the credits. Dale sings "I Cry More" (one of the first published songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David) and "You're Just Right" at a nightclub. Haley's numbers include " "Hot Dog Buddy Buddy," the instrumental "Goofin' Around," and "Calling All Comets." Their version of "Rip It Up" is heard over the big jitterbug routine at their first concert, and we hear the audio for "Hook, Line, and Sinker." Dave Apple and the Applejacks get "Applejack" and "Country Dance." Little Richard tears things up with two of his classics, "Long Tall Sally" and "Tutti-Fruitti." The Treniers "Come Out of the Bushes" and are "Rocking On a Saturday Night."

What I Don't Like: While the story is more interesting, the cast for the most part isn't any better than Rock Rock Rock! Dale is so blank and dull, you wonder what the girls see in him. Freed has more to do here, but he's no actor and comes off as stiff, not at all like someone who would be caught up in a payola scam by 1960. This is once again a vehicle for the music, and anything else takes a back seat.

The Big Finale: Pretty much the same deal here. For early rock enthusiasts and major fans of Haley or Little Richard only. Everyone else is better off looking for their records or watching Footloose again.

Home Media: The DVD double feature with Rock Around the Clock is currently expensive on Amazon. It's on YouTube, though the copy is glitchy and keeps stopping every few minutes.

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Cult Flops - Burlesque (2010)

Sony/Columbia, 2010

Starring Christine Aguilera, Cher, Eric Dane, and Stanley Tucci

Directed by Steven Antin

Music and Lyrics by various

Evidently, some important lessons were not learned from the failure of Glitter. Director/writer Steve Antin created this one back in 2002 after seeing Aguilera and other artists perform at the Roxy Theater nightclub in Hollywood. He fashioned this story for her, and later for Cher, after she decided this would likely be her last chance to sing in a major musical. Though it was better-received at the time than Glitter and didn't suffer from that film's production problems or universal pans, it wasn't a huge hit with critics or audiences, either. Why didn't it work? Let's begin as Alice "Ali" Rose (Aguilera) takes money from her abusive boss and heads to Los Angeles and find out...

The Story: Ali has dreamed of dancing professionally ever since she lost her mother at age 7. She has little success, until she stops in a burlesque club owned by singer Tess Scali (Cher) and flirts with the bartender Jack Miller (Cam Gigandet). He suggests she audition, but Tess isn't willing to give her the time of day, until she notices their waitress shortage and grabs a tray to help out. Ali eventually joins the chorus after one of the dancers reveals she's pregnant, then gets the star roles when lead dancer Nikki (Kristen Bell) is too drunk to go on. The jealous Nikki turns off the music they usually lip sync to, but Ali just sings in her own voice.

Despite Ali becoming the talk of the town, Tess is in serious financial trouble. Her ex-husband Vince (Peter Gallagher) wants to sell to developer Marcus Gerber (Dane), who wants to build an office tower. He claims he only owns the "air rights" over the club. Ali has been having her own problems. She was living with Jack while his fiancee Natalie (Dianna Agron) was doing a play in New York, but leaves when Natalie catches them in bed together. She ends up with Marcus, only to discover he has a lot more in mind for the burlesque theater than making use of its "air rights." She and Tess have to reveal the truth to the developer across the street (James Brolin) in order to save the theater and the song and dance they both love so much.

The Song and Dance: The song and dance...and some surprisingly strong performances...are the key here. Unlike weepy Carey, Aguilera is obviously having a blast. She's not the greatest actress by any means, but she manages to hold her own against the magnetic Cher and Tucci and even does decently in the dramatic scenes. Cher's even more fun as the older businesswoman who sees Ali as her last chance for fame and to save the club she loves. Tucci's hilarious as her gay partner, and Alan Cummings gets a few good lines as a dancer at the club. The brief, glittery costumes and the theater itself are just as important characters as the actual humans, especially as Ali rises to fame in the first half. The spangles, beads, and feather fans evoke the naughty world of the older Gypsy Rose Lee burlesques of the 30's and 40's, but the music and attitudes are decidedly modern.

The Numbers: We open with Ali's dream at the club and "Something's Got a Hold On Me." "My Drag" is the first of our chorus numbers. Cher performs "Welcome to Burlesque" after we get our first chorus number. "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" starts out with leather and studs as Nikki sings along to Marilyn Monroe's recording...but it turns into Ali's big number, complete with her own vocals. Nikki sings "Long John Blues" before she's ousted.

Ali joins the chorus for "Nasty Naughty Boy" and auditions to the "Wagon Wheel Watusi." Madonna's "Ray of Light" is a chorus number for all of the girls. "Tough Lover" is Ali's rise to fame, while "But I'm a Good Girl" and "A Guy What Takes His Time" are 30's feather fan and barely-there-pearls stripteases. "Express" is heard near the end for Ali and the girls. Tess defiantly belts "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" when she's on the verge of losing her club. Ali laments that she's "Bound to You," then finishes the movie with the big finale to "Show Me How to Burlesque."

What I Don't Like: It's too bad all of these glittering numbers and enjoyable performances are bound to one of the silliest and most cliched scripts I've ever seen. This story has been done endlessly since cinema found its voice in the late 20's, and Burlesque does nothing fresh or inventive with it. The whole thing with buying the air rights and Tucci's sexuality do add mild modern twists, but it's not enough to sustain a whole movie.

There's also the problem of Gigandet's character. Jack is, frankly, a jerk, inviting one woman over while his fiancee was half-way across the country, then lying and telling Ali he was free when he wasn't. Ali does deal with it somewhat better than Billie dealt with her betrayal, but she still went back to the jerk in the end after he left his fiancee (supposedly) for good. Nikki's alcohol story is defeated by the cliches and Bell's overwrought performance.

The Big Finale: I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, cliches and all. If you're a fan of the leading ladies or love huge, flashy musicals and are willing to overlook or ignore the heavy cliche storm, you may end up having just as much fun at Tess's burlesque theater, too.

Home Media: Thankfully, this one is also a lot easier to find. The discs often turn up for under $5, and it's everywhere on streaming.

Blu-Ray