Back to School Again - High School Hero

Monogram, 1946

Starring Freddie Stewart, June Preissler, Noel Neill, and Jackie Moran

Directed by Arthur Dreifuss

Music and Lyrics by various 

Let's go back to school with the Teen-Agers in this B-comedy. Drive-in fodder for teens goes back way further than the Beach Party films. Monogram created this series directly for this new breed of consumer. The war years gave teens a life of their own, with their own language, clothes styles, and culture, which exploded in the late 40's and 50's along with the population. This would be the third of four films in this series. We covered the first, Junior Prom, back in 2022. How does the football season at Whitney High look nowadays? Let's begin with that fateful game and find out...

The Story: Actually, Whitney's team is terrible. They lack a star player like Fairview's Jimmy Forrest (Jackie Moran) and keep losing to their rivals. Not only that, but the school's newspaper may shut down due to lack of circulation, and Professor Townley (Milton Kibbee) wants to replace the student performers with professionals at the school bazaar. Freddie goes to Jan Savitt (himself) and his singer Chi-Chi (Lita Baron) for help. Jan thinks he's there to be his next singer and convinces Chi-Chi to make him fall in love with her. 

Meanwhile, Freddie and his best friend Lee Roberts (Warren Mills) sees Freddie's girl Dodie (Preissler) knock every guy on the field over when she thinks he's two-timing her and convinces her to join the team and play in his place. This works until Dodie's reporter sister Betty (Neill) gets photos of her, of Freddie with Chi-Chi, and of the governor with all of them and reveals the deception. Now Dodie and all of the kids have to figure out how to win the big game against Fairview without Dodie, convince the governor (Pierre Watkin) that they mean no harm, and get them all back into that big student show, before they all end up expelled.

The Song and Dance: For all that the so-called "kids" are way too old for their roles, there's still a lot of talent to be found here. I do like that a girl ends up saving the football team and comes up with the idea that wins the game in a plot that pre-dates the college football comedy Necessary Roughness by almost 50 years. Preissler has way too much fun off and on the field, especially shoving all those guys aside to get to her man! Anne Rooney as the youngest Rodgers sister gets her own mildly amusing subplot spouting half-baked psychology theories after she falls for her psychology teacher (Leonard Penn). 

The Numbers: We open with "Fairview March" as Fairview High celebrates its big win over hapless Whitney and its big star Jimmy Forrest. Freddie Slack and his Orchestra play the jivin' instrumental "Southpaw Serenade" after two kids put a nickel in the jukebox and dream about him and his musicians. "Football Frolics" pits the girls against the boys in a mock dance football game. (Girls win, by the way.) Freddie sings "You're Just What I Crave" to Dodie when they're out on a date at the Teen Canteen. Chi-Chi sings and wiggles her hips in a glittery dress to "Mi Caballo" with Jan Savitt's band. The majorettes perform a brief march and toss the batons routine to "Whitney Victory March," which becomes a number for the football team when they use their dance moves to confuse Fairview. The film ends with a reprise of "Whitney Victor March" and "Fairview March" as both schools celebrate Whitney's win together in a last big chorus number at the bazaar.

What I Don't Like: Uh, yeah, this is about as cheap of a B-movie as you can get. None of the kids look remotely like high schoolers or football players. (I'm pretty sure Frankie Darro was pushing 30 by this point, though at least he has less to do in this movie than he did in Junior Prom.) The story is even skimpier than the student body elections in Junior Prom. The subplot with Chi-Chi just seems stuffed in to get a nightclub routine and a little more glamour than most teens could provide in there.

The Big Finale: Ehh, same deal. Recommended for a few catchy numbers if you need a way to pass an hour after school or background noise on while your kids are doing homework. 

Home Media: To my knowledge, the Teen-Agers films are currently streaming only.

Tubi

Happy Labor Day! - Wake Up and Live

20th Century Fox, 1937

Starring Jack Haley, Alice Faye, Ben Bernie, and Walter Winchell

Directed by Sidney Lanfield

Music by Harry Revel; Lyrics by Mack Gordon

We celebrate journalists, gossip columnists, and those who work on the radio to keep us entertained and informed this week as we head into Labor Day. Comic rivalries, real and fictional, abounded on radio in the 30's and 40's as people listened in to hear just how long two opposites could keep tossing quips at one another. In real life, orchestra leader Ben Bernie and gossip hound Walter Winchell were close friends, but they started up a fictional feud on the radio. Not only did it net them both more attention, but it got to be so huge, it outgrew the airwaves. Fox finally made this movie based on their ongoing feud not only to bolster them, but as a showcase for their newest singing star, Alice Faye. How does this farce about a nervous young singer who gets more help overcoming mic fright than he bargained for look nowadays? We open at the nightclub belonging to Ben Bernie (himself) and a barrage of mildly insulting quotes from his buddy Winchell (himself) on a poster outside, then move inside to find out...

The Story: Eddie Kane (Haley) and his partner Jean Roberts (Grace Bradley) arrive in New York to audition for the radio. Unfortunately, Eddie's rejected when he develops severe fear of the microphone. Jean forms her own act, and Eddie gets a job as an usher at the station. He befriends Alice Huntley (Faye), the host of the self-help show Wake Up and Live, in order to conquer his fear of the mics. 

One day while alone in a studio, he sings into what he thinks is a dead mic. Turns out this microphone is very much live...and Eddie's golden voice ends up going out over the airwaves. He's a sensation as everyone wants to know who this "Phantom Troubadour" is, especially Bernie and Winchell! Alice figures it out and tells the radio station she'll set up broadcasts of his voice for a bigger salary. Trouble is, first, Eddie and Alice fall for each other, then a lot of people who are a lot less pleasant than even dogged Winchell and Bernie get involved with trying to find this unknown singer, including Jean and her manager Gus Avery (Walter Catlett) and Eddie's sister and Winchell's secretary Patsy (Patsy Kelly) and Winchell's dour assistant Steve (Ned Sparks).

The Song and Dance: This is a lot more fun than you might think from the goofy premise. Haley's adorable as the sweet singer whose golden voice causes all the trouble, and Faye plays off him nicely as the motivational speaker whose kind encouragement hides a will of steel. Bernie and Winchell do get a few good quips in, naturally at each other's expense, and Patsy Kelly has nearly as much fun trying to help them figure out what's going on here. Revel and Gordon's music is lovely; "There's a Lull In My Life" became a jazz standard. 

The Numbers: We open at Bernie's club with an instrumental number featuring some nifty fast tap dancing from the Condos Brothers. We hear "Oh, But I'm Happy" the first time when Jean and Eddie attempt their audition and Eddie suffers from his attack of mic fright. Jean ends up singing "I'm Bubbling Over" with two other young ladies on her own at a nightclub. Alice performs the title song for the first time as theme song of her radio show. Ben Bernie and his male singers give us a commercial jingle for "Red Seal Malt" before the Condos Brothers return with another fast tap routine, this time sitting down. 

The song that Eddie inadvertently performs for the entire listening audience is the ballad "Never In a Million Years." Bernie trots out a masked singer to reprise "Never In a Million Years" on his show, but Winchell figures out it isn't the real deal almost immediately. Eddie sings "It's Swell of You" for Alice...which is when she realizes he's the Phantom Troubadour. Eddie reprises the title song with her as it goes out over Bernie's show. Eddie sings "Camptown Races" with the audience as Eddie brings the man next to him up to Winchell...who turns out to hardly be a singer. 

Joan Davis does a hilarious Spanish spoof number "I Love You Much Too Much Muchacha" at Bernie's club with the chorus, and then basically flings a partner around with a filmy scarf. Alice gets to introduce the big hit from this one in an attempt to get Eddie back, the gorgeous ballad "There's a Lull In My Life." Eddie finally reprises the title song when he manages to get into the club. The movie ends with Eddie and Alice briefly reprising "Never In a Million Years," Jean telling Gus that she's not really "Bubbling Over," and Patsy trying to charge Steve's batteries with "There's a Lull In My Life," and Bernie and Winchell finally singing "It's Swell of You." 

Trivia: Haley was dubbed by crooner Bobby Clark.

There was a semi-sequel also featuring Bernie and Winchell later in the year, Love and Hisses. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, why was Haley dubbed? He was a genuinely good singer. Second, as you may have noticed, the story is pretty silly, and not the strongest in the universe. It's also very topical. If you don't know who Bernie and Winchell were or know anything about their radio feud or old time radio in general, you might not get as much out of this. 

The Big Finale: For all of Winchell and Bernie's sniping at each other, this ended up being surprisingly adorable. Highly recommended for fans of Faye, Haley, old-time radio, or the big Fox musicals of the 30's and 40's. 

Home Media: Alas, the only place you can currently find this one is on YouTube. 

YouTube

Let's Go Native

Paramount, 1930

Starring Jeanette MacDonald, Jack Oakie, Richard "Skeets" Gallagher, and James Hall

Directed by Leo McCarey

Music by Richard A. Whiting; Lyrics by George Marion Jr.

Let's take a summer vacation to a remote tropical island in this hilarious early romp. Director McCarey had been directing short comedies featuring Laurel and Hardy and Charley Chase since the early 20's. This was only his third sound film and his fourth feature, but he already knew his way around a slapstick gag. It wound up being a surprise hit in 1930 and garnered so many positive comparisons to the Marx Brothers vehicle Animal Crackers, McCarey would go on to direct the Brothers' Duck Soup in 1934. How does this nutty Depression-era tale look nowadays? Let's begin with two dapper Argentinians as they look on at the home of costume designer and singer Joan Wood (MacDonald) and find out...

The Story: Joan got hit hard by the start of the Depression and is heavily in debt. She's done the costumes for a Broadway show that's on its way to Argentina, but she won't get paid until they're in Buenos Aires. Her boyfriend Wally Wendall (Hall) wants to marry her, but she won't marry him until he gets a job. His wealthy grandfather (Charles Sellon) doesn't approve of Joan and has disinherited him. He wants him to marry Constance Cook (Kay Francis), the daughter of the owner of a cruise ship line. Also onboard is Voltaire McGinnis (Oakie), a cab driver who wants to get his money from Wally and his friend Basil Pistol (William Austin) after a freak accident.

While onboard, Voltaire falls for Constance, while Wally continues to pursue Joan. They all end up stranded on a remote island when the ship goes down. The natives are all beautiful women, to the  delight of most of the men. They sound and behave like Brooklyn chorus girls because the "king" of the island is Jerry (Gallagher), a New York native who was shipwrecked on the island and was dubbed its king. Voltaire woos Constance and plots with Basil to sell Jerry's pearl-crusted crown once they get back. Wally's grandfather finally turns up to rescue them, but Joan knows how to deal with him - and Voltaire's scheming - now. She leverages the island and its riches in exchange for marrying his son, but the island is volcanic, and it may not be around for much longer...

The Song and Dance: This may be one of the funniest original musicals from the early talkie era. Everyone is having a ball with the unique and wild shipwreck story. Even MacDonald, who apparently wasn't happy about ending up in this, seems to enjoy swaying in her grass skirt. Oakie, Austin, and Gallagher have a lot more fun as the two guys who get caught up in Joan's money woes and the one who managed to "civilize" paradise. There's some great gags here, from the opening with the furniture being carried out of Joan's house even as she awakens for breakfast to the men on board watching as they all knock off each other's hats (and how that ties into the fate of Jerry's pearl crown in the finale). There's no attempt to tie the songs in. They blatantly come up with the silliest, spoofiest cues for songs that, more often than not, are there just to be catchy. 

The Numbers: We open with Wally and Joan singing one last song on Joan's piano, the ballad "My Mad Moment," before it's repossessed. Joan does a whirling Apache dance before we go into a montage of musical numbers from the big show, ending with Joan and one of the dancers performing an Argentinian-style tango. "It Seems to Be Spring" is a rehearsal on the boat, as Joan and Wally sing on a stage where snow is falling, even as they strip down to warm-weather clothes. The snow stops briefly, enough for bears to do their own wooing...and them to get covered in snow. Voltaire gets the ladies on-board going with his lively chorus number "Joe Jazz." This turns into a full-on tap routine, with the dancers in top hats and hot-pants dance costumes. 

The title song chorus number on the island starts with Voltaire and the native girls doing their idea of a hula. Basil joins in for the stuffy British version before the girls go into Busby Berkeley-style overhead formations. Voltaire's idea of a romantic song is "I've Got a Yen for You." Constance even joins in at one point. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, Universal needs to do some serious restoration on this one. The copies currently on YouTube are horrible, blurry, jumpy, and with fuzzy sound. Second, this is obviously not for those looking for a darker story or one that makes sense. This is pure goofiness all the way. McCarey's skill makes this a little livelier than most early musicals, but it's still an early talkie and can occasionally get a bit static (mostly in the first half). And I kind of wish they'd gotten to the island earlier. They spend more than half of a 75-minute movie setting up the finale. 

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of any of the stars, are looking for something light and funny to watch on a summer's day, and can deal with the shape the copies online are in, you'll have a "vine" time going native with some of the wackiest goofballs of the pre-Code era.

Home Media: As mentioned, this is currently on YouTube in blurry copies with fuzzy sound. 

YouTube

Happy 4th of July! - The Fleet's In

Paramount, 1942

Starring William Holden, Dorothy Lamour, Eddie Bracken, and Betty Hutton

Directed by Victor Scherzinger

Music by Victor Scherzinger; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Let's celebrate America's 250th anniversary honoring the US Navy with this rare classic from early in the World War II years. Holden was a true golden boy in the early 40's, having become a star in the 1939 film version of Golden Boy and earned an Oscar nomination in 1940 for Our Town. What he wasn't was a musical star - in fact, this would be his only musical - which is likely why he's surrounded by some of Paramount's most popular musical performers of the war years. Lamour had been popular since the mid-30's, but Bracken and Hutton were up-and-coming comedians and would have their biggest hits during and directly after the war years. How do they all come together in this wacky romantic comedy where a sailor tries to kiss a standoffish nightclub singer to win a bet? Let's begin with another singer, movie star Diana Golden (Betty Jane Rhodes), performing the title song in a nightclub populated by sailors, and find out...

The Story: Diana kisses shy sailor Casey Kirby (Holden) as a publicity stunt. His shipmates, including his best friend Barney Waters (Bracken) are now convinced he's a ladies' man. They make a bet that he can't kiss frigid singer the Countess (Lamour) while on leave. Waters has his own problems. He's being pursued by the Countess' noisy roommate Bessie (Hutton), and he made the bet against his friend Spike's (Gil Lamb) watch. If he doesn't win that bet, Spike will thrash him within an inch of his life. Casey does everything he can to woo the Countess...but to his surprise, finds himself falling in love with her for real. She does, too, until Bessie and her friend Cissie (Cass Daley) spill the beans about the bet. Now Casey has three days to convince the Countess his love is on the level, before they get thrown out...or worse, land in jail.

The Song and Dance: Sweetly sincere Holden does tend to come off better than most leading men who appear opposite musical ladies. He's certainly enjoying himself more than most of the non-singing guys at 20th Century Fox did as the gob who finds himself falling for this lovely lady in spite of himself. Lamour has even more fun playing opposite him as the standoffish Countess. Mercer and Schertzinger came up with a terrific score, too. Three of the songs - "I Remember You," "Tangerine," and "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In a Hurry" - are now standards. 

The Song and Dance: We open with the title song over the credits before revealing that Diana Golden is singing it at a nightclub. Eddie Bracken reprises it with the sailors on their way back to their ship. Their first trip to the Swingland dance club provides our next numbers. Bob Eberly and Helen O'Connell introduce "Tangerine" with Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra. The Countess steps up next for "When You Hear the Time Signal." Bessie next tears into several sailors while performing "If You Build a Better Mousetrap." (Eberly and O'Connell reprise this later in a version that's less damaging to the sailors.) Barney joins the Countess and Bob Eberly for "Not Mine" in the nightclub. 

The Countess gets the honor of introducing "I Remember You" accompanied by Eberly, O'Connell, and Jimmy Dorsey at the sailors' weenie roast. Dancers Lorraine and Rognan do a spoof ballroom number to an instrumental version later at the club. Bessie blasts "Arthur Murray Taught Me Dancing In a Hurry" in her idea of a tap costume, while Cissie finishes with "Tomorrow You Belong to Uncle Sammy" and Spike does his own acrobatic instrumental dance. 

Trivia: This is based on the 1933 non-musical play Sailor Beware. Paramount would remake it under that title as a vehicle for Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 1952. 

Victor Schertzinger's last film. He died in October 1941, four months before the movie was released. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, the plot is annoying. If the Countess would stop and listen (and if Bessie would close her mouth for five seconds and listen), they'd know that Casey doesn't really want to go through with it, either. They both pretty much say it's distasteful, and it is. A little of Bracken and Hutton can go a long way, especially when Hutton is in bombastic mode. Bracken spends most of the movie whining, and Hutton spends most of it yelling at him and throwing him around. 

The Big Finale: In the end, this is worth checking out as you dodge the heat this 4th of July for the good cast and music alone. 

Home Media: Alas, the only place you can find this online at present is YouTube, but at least the TCM copy there is pretty decent.

YouTube

The Naughty Nineties

Universal, 1945

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

Directed by Jean Yarborough

Music and Lyrics by various

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DVD

DVD - The Best of Abbott and Costello Vol. 2

DVD - Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Pictures Collection 

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

Amazon Prime

The Inspector General (1949)

Warner Bros, 1949

Starring Danny Kaye, Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart, and Elsa Lanchester

Directed by Henry Kostner

Music and Lyrics by Sylvia Fine

Danny Kaye was at the height of his popularity as one of the most beloved comedians in the world when he did his one and only vehicle for Warners. Based on the 1832 Czech play The Government Inspector, and with music entirely by his wife Sylvia Fine, this also wound up being one of the biggest hits of Kaye's career. Is it still worth running for today? We'll begin in the small French town of Brodny, where the Mayor (Lockhart) and his corrupt cronies just got a most unwanted message, and find out...

The Story: The Mayor and his cronies are terrified when they get a message telling them that the Inspector General is coming to their town. The Inspector is known for demanding justice and honesty, and the Mayor and his family members whom he's assigned to office care about nothing but furnishing their own lavish lifestyle with tax money. They think a man who wandered into town and was arrested is the Inspector General. His real name is Georgi (Kaye), a kind but illiterate peasant who wandered into town after his gypsy boss Yakov (Slezak) fired him. The Mayor and his men dress him well and give him everything he asks for. The Mayor's wife (Lanchester) thinks he's her ticket out of town and flirts with him.

Even as Georgi enjoys their hospitality, Yakov makes his way to town and convinces Georgi to let him stay. Georgi is more interested in the pretty maid Leza (Barbara Bates). She tells him that the Mayor bought an organ for the church with taxpayers' money, then sold it to a nearby town. Yakov tries to convince Georgi to take bribes from the Mayor and his relatives to pay for the organ, then conspires with the Mayor to increase his sum. Georgi's horrified, even more so when the Mayor and his men plot to kill him. Yakov's quick thinking saves him, but Georgi manages to stop him from making off with the money. Fortunately for Georgi, the real Inspector General is on his way, and he's far more appreciative of honest men with no education than educated men with no honesty.

The Song and Dance: One thing I like about Danny Kaye is he's one of the few golden-age comedians who can pull off historical roles and manage to be dashing and funny at the same time. This would be his first of three historical movies (The Court Jester and Hans Christian Andersen would be the other two), and he runs with it, commanding when playing the Inspector, adorable and timid with Yakov, delightful showing off to the town in his patter numbers. Slezak and Lancaster take the other honors as his crafty boss who is more greedy than evil and the Mayor's love-starved wife. Gorgeous costumes and stunning Technicolor, even in the slightly blurry public domain prints generally available, ably bring the world of eastern Europe in the 1830's to life. 

The Numbers: We open with "The Medicine Show" as Kaye shows off his tongue-twisting dexterity Georgi's patter number intended to sell the phony elixir to the townspeople. "Brodny" is the chorus number that introduces Georgi to the townspeople as they all gather to greet the Inspector. It's heard again in the ending, as they salute their new Mayor. (He struggles to pull out his sword both times.) Georgi, nervous about being discovered, sings the title song after Yakov convinces him to stay. This goes into "Soliloquy for Three Heads" as three different versions of Georgi act as consciences and try to convince Georgi to stay or go. He does an instrumental acrobatic number with soldiers in training as he tries to hide from a general who saw him selling phony medicine with Yakov. 

Hoping to cheer up Leza and make her see that she can be more than a kitchen maid, he sings about "Happy Times" when they're downstairs together. One of the cronies (Walter Catlett) sings "Onward, Onward" when he's trying to explain his reasons for being corrupt to Georgi. Georgi launches into the "Gypsy Drinking Song" to distract the Mayor from his plan to retrieve the church organ, while the Mayor just hopes he drinks a poisoned glass of wine.

What I Don't Like: If you're not a fan of Kaye, you probably won't be into this. He has the lion's share of the songs except for the "Brodsky" chorus number and most of the best set pieces. This also doesn't have a lot in common with the book. In the original book, it was a Russian worker, not a French peasant, who accidentally fooled everyone. There was no church organ, no love interest, no gypsy boss or elixir. Fine's music, while not bad, isn't the best she's done for her husband, with "Happy Times" as the only standout.

The Big Finale: If you're a fan of Kaye or loved The Court Jester, you'll have just as much fun with his earlier venture into comedy in another time and place.

Home Media: Best place to find this public domain title would be on streaming. Almost every streaming service, especially the free ones, has it in one form or another.

Tubi

Pluto TV On Demand

Amazon Prime

YouTube

Happy Memorial Day! - Let's Face It

Paramount, 1943

Starring Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, Eve Arden, and ZaSu Pitts

Directed by Sidney Lanfield

Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter and others

Let's celebrate the upcoming Memorial Day weekend with the last of the four comedies Bob Hope did set in the military. On Broadway in 1941, Let's Face It was a farce with Cole Porter songs that made stars out of Danny Kaye as one of three soldiers who are hired by bored wealthy women to escort them and Eve Arden as the most prominent of those women. It was a surprise hit despite less-than-stellar reviews that didn't consider it to be one of Porter's better scores. How does it look nowadays? Let's begin, not at the barracks, but at a dairy farm that is also a health spa for overweight women and find out...

The Story: Winnie Porter (Hutton) is getting tired of her fiancee, Private Jerry Walker (Hope) ducking out of getting married. On the day they're supposed to finally tie the knot, Winnie catches Jerry selling junk food to her clients, and the Army catches him when he accidentally drives a Jeep through a wall. Desperate to pay off the Jeep, he convinces his friends Barney (Dave Willock) and Frankie (Cully Richards) to join him in arranging dates for wealthy Maggie Watson (Arden) and her friends Cornelia Figeston (Pitts) and Nancy Collister (Phyllis Povah). The ladies are tired of their husbands going off on "fishing trips" and leaving them alone. Furious when they catch them with the women, Winnie and Frankie and Barney's girlfriends Muriel (Dona Drake) and Jean (Marjorie Weaver) take the ladies' husbands out on dates at the same nightclub. Unfortunately, the boys' superior officer Sergeant Wiggins (Joe Sawyer) is also out on the town. When he catches them, it sends the boys fleeing again.

The Song and Dance: Though Hope and Hutton both have some good moments, Arden and the older ladies are the ones who really steal the show. They get all the best lines and have some of the best moments, including when their husbands catch them with the soldiers! Hope does get a few moments of his own to shine, notably in the beginning when he's trying to hustle the ladies with the sweets and the end when the guys are fleeing the entire mess. 

The Numbers: We open with "The Milk Song" as Winnie leads ladies of all shapes and sizes in an exercise class. Winnie and Jerry say "Who Did? I Did? Yes I Did!" as they sing along to an album Winnie made and Jerry tries to show off on Winnie's exercise equipment. "Let's Face It" is the sole chorus number as the Army soldiers sing about the presents their girlfriends sent them. "Who Did?" is heard later as an instrumental dance number for the trio of soldiers as they literally stick together to keep the overly amorous older ladies at bay and as they finally do dance with the women. When we get to the nightclub, two dancers do an instrumental routine that seemed to mainly involve variations on the woman smacking the man. Winnie gives her own option on romance as she insists "Let's Not Talk About Love."

Trivia: Jules Styne and Sammy Cahn wrote "Who Did? I Did! Yes I Did!"

Let's Face It debuted on Broadway in 1941 with Kaye in Hope's role singing two patter numbers written by his wife Sylvia Fine in addition to Porter's songs. As mentioned, it was a surprise hit, running two years in New York and a year in London in 1943. It pretty much disappeared after the London run, other than a TV version in 1954 with Bert Lahr and Gene Nelson as the soldiers and Vivian Vance in Eve Arden's role.

What I Don't Like: No matter who wrote the music, this isn't really much of a musical. I really wish they'd kept more of the Cole Porter score, even if it wasn't one of his best. It might have fleshed out more of the characters. We barely see Winnie other than her numbers, and Jerry's buddies and their girls are fairly interchangeable. 

The Big Finale: Mainly for really big fans of Hope, Arden, Porter, or small-scale 40's musicals. 

Home Media: Which makes it just as well that the only places you can currently find this are on YouTube and the Internet Archive.

YouTube

Internet Archive

Li'l Abner (1959)

Paramount, 1959

Starring Peter Palmer, Stubby Kaye, Leslie Parrish, and Billie Hayes

Directed by Melvin Frank

Music by Gene dePaul; Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Lil' Abner was one of the most popular comic strips of the mid-20th century. From 1934 to 1977, millions of Americans followed the hilarious shenanigans going on in the Kentucky hillbilly town Dogpatch, where characters had names like Earthquake McGoon and Evil-Eye Fleagle and the spoof was broad, hilarious, and firing everywhere. The main characters were the title character, a handsome but hulking young man who was forever being pursued by the sweet Daisy Mae. When Daisy Mae finally caught him in 1952, it was a national event. The strip was popular enough to inspire a hit Broadway musical in 1956. The film version did well enough when it debuted in 1959, but is it still as funny almost 70 years later? Let's begin on "A Typical Day" in Dogpatch and find out...

The Story: Things are moving along in Dogpatch pretty much the way they usually do, with formidable Mammy Yokum (Hayes) giving her strapping son Abner (Palmer) his Yokumberry Tonic, and Abner being chased by lovely Daisy Mae Scragg (Parrish). The ladies are more excited about Sadie Hawkins Day, when the women of the town chase the men they hope to marry. They're shocked to find out Sadie Hawkins Day may not go on this year when Dogpatch is declared the most useless town in the US and is marked for nuclear bomb testing. 

The residents toss out everything they can think of to keep their town from being destroyed, until Mammy tells the government about that Yokumberry tonic. Not only does the government want the tonic, but so does General Bullmoose (Howard St. John). He enters his mistress Appassionata Von Climax (Stella Stevens) in the Sadie Hawkins Day Race and has her catch Abner. She'll marry him and get the tonic recipe, then kill him. 

Daisy Mae and Abner's parents are so horrified when they discover Bullmoose' plot, Daisy Mae agrees to marry Earthquake McGoon (Bern Hoffman), "the dirtiest wrassler in the world," to get him to help. Daisy thinks she'll be stuck being McGoon's wife, but it's the government who figure out what the tonic really does when they use it on the men of Dogpatch...and Abner's Pappy (Joe E. Marks) who finds a way to give his strapping son the gumption to go after the lady he truly loves.

The Song and Dance: You can't fault the cast on this one. Most of them were in the stage version as well, including Palmer as a perfect Abner, Stubby Kaye as the matchmaker Marryin' Sam (who leads most of the chorus numbers), and Julie Newmar, who doesn't need to speak a word for the audience to understand why she's called Stupefyin' Jones. My favorite by far is Billie Hayes, who replaced Charlotte Rae as Mammy on Broadway. I hope she was as much fun as she is here. "Formidable" doesn't begin to describe this tough-minded witch of a hillbilly. You can certainly see why she'd go on to play a more obvious witch in the even stranger world of Sid Kroft over a decade later. The Technicolor is gorgeous, a riot of rainbow colors mixed in every way that shouldn't work and amazingly does. Some really fun songs too, including the hit "I'm Past My Prime" for Kaye and Leslie Parrish.

The Numbers: We open over the credits with "A Typical Day," as the residents of Dogpatch introduce themselves and their unique home. Abner and the younger men of the town sing about what they'd do "If I Had My Druthers." Marryin' Sam leads the towns folk in a rousing salute to local hero "Jubilation T. Cornpone," which is heard briefly again in the finale after Dogpatch is saved. "Don't That Take the Rag Offen the Bush" and "Room Enough for Us" are numbers for the townspeople before and after learning they have to evacuate their home. 

Abner finally admits that yes, he does kinda have feelings for "Namely You," Daisy Mae. "What's Good for General Bullmoose" is performed by his lackeys several times, usually whenever he's come up with another nefarious idea. Every woman in town chases after the closest thing to eligible males during the wild Sadie Hawkins Day Ballet, including Appasionata and Daisy Mae. Daisy laments that "I'm Past My Prime," ignoring the fact that Marryin' Sam is more interested in taking her to the altar. "I Wish It Could Be Otherwise" is Abner and Daisy's big ballad right before she's supposed to marry Earthquake McGoon. The ladies of Dogpatch demand "Put Em' Back" twice, in the lab after they find out their men are now stronger but also less romantic, and in the finale, leading to "The Matrimonial Stomp" with Marryin' Sam.

Trivia: Look for Jerry Lewis in a cameo as Dogpatch resident Itchy McRabbit, and Donna Douglas (later Elly May Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies), Valerie Harper, and Beth Howland as three of the Dogpatch ladies who later catch themselves husbands. 

Lil' Abner debuted on Broadway in 1956 and was a hit, running over a year. As mentioned, Charlotte Rae was the original Mammy but left early in the show's run, Tina Louise was Appasionata Von Climax, and Edie Adams was Daisy Mae. It's only returned to New York in an Encores concert since then, but is fairly popular with regional and high school theaters. 

The film cut a couple of numbers from the original show, including a really nice ballad for Abner and Daisy, "Love In a Home," a number for the scientists "Oh Happy Day," and one for General Bullmoose, "Progress Is the Root of All Evil." 

What I Don't Like: The stage origins of this one show all too plainly. Everything is filmed flat and looks like the stage play it's based on. The sets are about as fake as you can get, which admittedly does go with the comic book vibe. As in many musicals of the 1950's, the chorus numbers really have nothing to do with anything - "Rag Offen the Bush" and "Room Enough for Us" come out of nowhere and contribute nothing to the story. Also, if you don't go in for broad comedy or hillbilly comedy, or you don't know much about the mid-late 50's, you'll probably want to hurry elsewhere quickly. 

The Big Finale: This is funny and tuneful enough to get a recommendation if you love wacky hillbilly comedies or the big, bold, bright musicals of the 50's and 60's. 

Home Media: Don't be fooled - this one is currently DVD-only. Plex is listed as having it online, but they really show the non-musical, black and white 1940 film version. (Which admittedly has a few virtues of its own, including Buster Keaton as Native Lonesome Polecat.)

DVD

Lost In Alaska

Universal, 1952

Starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Tom Ewell, and Mitzi Green

Directed by Jean Yarbourgh 

Music and Lyrics by Henry Mancini

Let's take a winter trip to Alaska and celebrate the last weeks of the season in this Abbott and Costello Yukon comedy. This was, in fact, Bud and Lou's second winter-themed musical after the comic thriller Hit the Ice. By this point, Bud and Lou had tangled with almost every monster in Universal's roster, gone to war, and had dealt with fairy-tale giants in pastel Cinecolor. This time, they go back in history to San Francisco in the 1890's, when a well-meaning fireman helps a seemingly down-on-his-luck man jumping off a pier...and get into a load of trouble for doing so...

The Story: Genial George Bell (Costello) and his best friend Tom Watson (Abbott) take the man home after they save him from drowning. Turns out the man is "Nugget" Joe McDermott (Ewell), the former sheriff of Skagway, Alaska. He was just turned down by his girl Rosette (Green) and thinks he has nothing to live for. Tom and George are quick to point out that the 2 million in gold he's hauling around is certainly something to live for. After getting a telegram claiming Rosette wants to marry him after all, Joe is so grateful to Tom and George for saving him, he gives them a gold nugget. Turn's out to be some very foolish gold when the duo discover at the bank next day that the local police think they killed Joe instead of helping him. They hit the boat to get him to clear their names, but end up going to Alaska with him instead.

Turns out Rosette isn't really that interested in him, but everyone else in Skagway sure is. Tom, George, and Joe are shot at almost the minute they arrive. Joe left money to his "old timer" friends in his will, and now they're more interested in gold than in their friendship. They're not the only ones. Rosette's boss Jake Stillman (Bruce Cabot) wants her to marry him, so he can kill Joe and get the gold. She warns the trio instead, joining them as they flee into Alaska and Eskimo territory, all the while pursued by Jake and his men and Joe's so-called, gold-crazed "friends."

The Song and Dance: Surprisingly long on plot for one of Bud and Lou's films. There are some very funny moments, especially when they actually do make it to Alaska. I love them having to track across the frozen wastes and get literally frozen. There's also a few good jokes with them dealing with the Eskimo tribe, one of the few Alaskan/Yukon cliches Bing Crosby and Bob Hope missed in the similar Road to Utopia. Mitzi Green has a few good moments of her own, and Ewell's casual acceptance of everyone in town being after him is good for a few chuckles. 

The Numbers: Rosette claims "I'm Just a Country Gal" when we first meet her at the saloon in Skagway. She even imitates another famous barroom song from a warmer western, Marlene Dietrich performing "See What the Boys In the Back Room Will Have" from Destry Rides Again. She claims it's "A Hot Time in the Igloo Tonight" when she dances with the Eskimos. 

Trivia: First movie for Henry Mancini. 

What I Don't Like: First of all, this is far from Mancini's best work. His two numbers are hardly distinguished in any way. Second, yes, northern Native stereotypes abound, including the Natives being called "Eskimo" instead of "Inuit." Third, this isn't Abbot and Costello's best work, either. It's basically an imitation Road to Utopia with more of an accent on comedy and few of the routines they're famous for. Rosette jumps back and forth so much in her interest in Tom, it seems like almost an afterthought when they do end up together in the end. Fourth, what happened to Tom and George being on the lam? Did they ever clear their names in San Francisco?

The Big Finale: Mainly of interest to major fans of Abbott and Costello. 

Home Media: Can be found on solo on streaming and on disc as part of two Abbott and Costello collections.

DVD - The Best of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello: Vol 3

Blu Ray - Abbott and Costello: The Complete Universal Collection

Amazon Prime

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. 

DVD

Blu-Ray

Amazon Prime

Animation Celebration Saturday - The Twits

Netflix, 2025

Voices of Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Natalie Portman

Directed by Phil Johnston

Music and Lyrics by David Byrne and others

Our last animated review of 2025 takes us back to streaming for something that's been a long time coming. The Twits, the 1980 Roald Dahl children's book about a nasty couple who played pranks on each other and other people, had originally been optioned by Vanguard Animation back in 2003 as a live action/animated hybrid. It moved with Vanguard to Universal from Disney in 2006. There were mentions of it until around 2012, but it seemed to stall there until Netflix bought the Roald Dahl Story Company in 2022. How does this tale of a gruesome twosome who learn a lesson about meanness from a group of orphans look now? Let's begin as a mother firefly named Pippa (Emily Clarke) tells their story to her son Jeremy (Sami Amber) and find out...

The Story: Mrs. Credenza (Martindale) and Mr. James (Vegas) Twit are the proprietors of Twitlandia, an amusement park that is the only thing they love. After it's shut down on opening day for health violations, the Twits spitefully fill the water tower of the town Tripelot with liquid hot dog meat. This causes a massive explosion that floods the town and damages its reputation as the go-to place for fun.

Orphans Beesha (Ramakrishnan) and Busby (Ryan Lopez) have their own score to settle with the Twits. Busby was about to be adopted when the flood caused the couple who were interested to back out. Beesha takes Busby to Twitlandia, where the Twits gleefully admit to everything they did. Beesha also encounters a group of colorful monkeys called the Muggle-Wumps, who are being kept as the main attractions. The kids aren't able to rescue them right away, but Beesha does record the Twits' confession. The Twits are arrested, but are released by a family who desperately wants their help in making the town a center for fun again.

After they discover that the children have freed the Muggle-Wumps, the Twits chase them to the orphanage. Beesha won't let them in, claiming the orphanage belongs to the city. The Twits run for mayor, convincing everyone that they'll make them billionaires. When they trick Beesha into thinking her parents are coming for her, Mary Muggle-Wump (Portman) reminds her that family isn't always the one that's related to us. Sometimes, it's the one we create...and that there's a lot of people out there who are willing to help fight our battles. Beesha and all of the orphans learn their own lesson in empathy when they play the ultimate joke on the Twits to get them to admit they had no intention of helping the town...but it costs them their ability to understand the Muggle-Wumps.

The Animation: Though likely computer animated, it has the look of a jerky stop-motion animated film of the 80's and 90's like The Nightmare Before Christmas. Everything is all sharp angles, bushy, kinky hair, or squashed ovals. This adds to the unsettling story and the obscene and outrageous gross-out gags. The fact that most of the colors are fairly subdued makes the things that are more colorful - the Muggle-Wumps, Mrs. Twit's green hair - stand out all the more.

The Song and Dance: I give them credit just for getting this weird. Most animated musicals intended for kids don't go in for gross-out gags and strange scatological humor, which makes this almost oddly refreshing in that respect. Roald Dahl's trademark wacky-dry weirdness comes across loud and clear in Martindale and Vegas' appropriately loud and obnoxious performances. Ramakrishnan doesn't do too badly as the kid who wants to prove how "good" she can be so her parents will come back for her.

The Numbers: We begin with the Twits singing about how "We're Not Like Everyone Else" as they fill the water tower with liquid hot dog juice after their amusement park is condemned. Mary Mugga-Wump performs a "Lullaby" for the orphans to show how wonderful their dreams can be. The Twits claim that "The Problem Is You" as they campaign for mayor. We get an almost operatic "Twitlandia" over the destruction of their amusement park, then "Trick Me." The movie ends with "Open the Door" on being willing to grow and learn.

What I Don't Like: See the "gross-out gags" mentioned up there? What audience did Netflix intend this for again? It gets too weird and scary for younger kids, while older kids may be turned off by the cute kids and fantasy sequences with the Muggle-Wumps, and their parents my be too grossed-out to care. There's also that "inspired by" credit. Apparently, the book version of The Twits were a hateful couple who did make bird pie, use a special super-sticky glue to catch them, and own a group of colorful monkeys called Muggle-Wumps, but they intended to start a circus with the Muggle-Wumps, not an amusement park. There were four boys who scared the birds away, but they don't end up saving the Muggle-Wumps. The Muggle-Wumps were the ones who came up with the idea of gluing the Twits' furniture on the ceiling, not the kids. The whole subplot with the liquid meat and tricking the townspeople was invented for this movie.

The Big Finale: Definitely not for younger kids despite the PG rating, but older kids and pre-teens who like their humor rude and their action frantic and can tolerate a little sentimentality may find a lot more in this weird gross-out tale than I did. 

Home Media: It's currently a Netflix exclusive.

Netflix

Saluting Our Veterans - Idol On Parade

Columbia, 1959

Starring Anthony Newley, William Bendix, Anne Aubrey, and Lionel Jeffries

Directed by John Gilling

Music and Lyrics by various

Let's celebrate Veteran's Day overseas and honor those who fought and died in Europe with this British comedy. Elvis Presley being drafted into the Army in 1958 made so many headlines, it became fodder for everything from Broadway musicals to TV show episodes. Anthony Newley was an up-and-coming star songwriter and performer in England around the same time. He'd started out as a child actor in the late 40's, but by 1959, was one of the most popular singers in the country. This low-budget black and white comedy was the movie that made him a star, but does it still entertain 60 years after Elvis came back from the Army? Let's begin with Newley's character, rock star Jeep Jackson, at one of his concerts and find out...

The Story: Jeep is shocked when he's mistaken for another J. Jackson and called into military service. He's not popular at first. He's used to the rock star life and keeps trying to sneak out the camp or return to his recording career. He's popular with his fellow recruits, who enjoy hearing him sing spoofs of the officers, but not with said officers. Irish Drill Sargent Lush (Bendix) is particularly fed up with his antics. The ladies are more pleased, especially Caroline (Aubrey), the friend of wealthy Bertie Barnett (Jeffries). It's not until he records a best-selling ballad that the rest of the camp comes to appreciate him...and he begins to realize that there's a lot more to serving your country than playing jokey songs about your superior officers.

The Song and Dance: Bendix and Newley are almost the whole show in this cute spoof of Royal Army life in 1959. Newley is charming enough that I can understand why he was so popular in 1959. Although his singing style is closer to crooning than Elvis, he still has a way with his own songs and other people's. Bendix is hilarious as the lug of a drill sergeant who spends most of his time screaming at Jeep, and even manages a semi-credible Irish accent.

The Numbers: We open with "Idle On Parade" as we see why girls are so crazy about Jeep at one of his concerts. "Won't Get No Promotion" is his spoof of the officers, including Lush, for the men in the barracks. "I've Waited So Long" is performed several times, including Jeep's attempt to sing it after having done drill sergeant work with Lush and the silkier version heard on that hit record. "Idle Rock-a-Boogie" and "Saturday Night Rock-a-Boogie" are his songs performed near the end, before he leaves.

Trivia: The movie the soldiers go see, The Cockleshell Heroes, was one of Anthony Newley's earliest film appearances. 

Known in England as Idle On Parade.

What I Don't Like: This is pretty obviously a British B comedy from the late 50's. Jefferies isn't bad as the snobbish Bertie, but Aubrey's character isn't much more than a love interest. Despite "I've Been Waiting So Long" being a #3 hit in England, the songs aren't all that memorable, and the plot is even less-so. The second half in particular, with Jeep managing to continue his singing career, gets a little too fluffy for its own good. 

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of Newley, Bendix, or the British or rock musicals of the 50's and early 60's.

Home Media: Only on DVD in the US as part of the Sony Pictures Screen Classics By Request made-to-order DVD line.

DVD

Election Day Special - I Go Pogo

21st Century Film Corporation, 1980

Voices of Skip Hinnant, Johnathan Winters, Vincent Price, and Bob McFadden

Directed by Marc Paul Chinoy

Music by Gary Baker; Lyrics by Tom Flora

Our first review this week is so obscure, I never even heard of it until last week. I have, however, heard of the comic strip it's based on. Walt Kelly's Pogo started in 1948 and became one of the most popular comic strips of the 1950's and 60's. Its homespun characters, creative use of language, and spot-on political satire made it a favorite of kids and adults alike. The comic had already begun falling out of favor when Kelly passed away in 1973. There had already been two attempts at putting the strip on TV, but this would be its first and only movie outing. How does this laid-back stop-motion comedy compare to the much-loved strip? Let's begin in Georgia's Okefenokie Swamp as the title song introduces our main premise and characters and find out...

The Story: Everyone in the swamp is bound and determined for Pogo (Hinnant) to run for president...except Pogo himself. Pogo would rather be fishing and thinks the entire process is nonsense. Molester Mole (Winters), Deacon Mushrat (Price), Albert Alligator (Stan Freberg), and Howland Owl (McFadden) in particular are determined for Pogo to win the nomination for the presidency. They think of everything they can do to force him to campaign, from painting him as part of "Mount Rushmore" on a fence (his head gets stuck) to attempting to marry him off to skunk Mis Mam'selle Hepzibah (Ruth Buzzi) so he'll have a first lady. Molester and Mushrat even call on the unreliable Wiley Katt (Winters) at one point. In the end, as Pogo and the narrator point out, the more they try to fix things to their own ends, the more of mess they make of it all.

The Animation: The stop-motion has been criticized for not looking much like the characters in the comics. Not having read the comics, I can't make the comparison there. I can say that, though they move decently enough for the time and their facial expressions are occasionally hilarious, they're all so rounded and undefined, it's hard to tell what animal most of them are supposed to be. (I would not have guessed "possum" for Pogo, for instance, or muskrat for the Deacon.)

The Song and Dance: I will give them credit for assembling such a wonderful all-star cast. Hinnant is a charming Pogo, while Price actually manages a decent southern accent as the conniving Deacon. Freburg and McFadden also make the most of the twisty and frequent dialogue. Buzzi does well by her two very different characters, making Hepzibah sweet and silky and motherly Miz Beaver warm and no-nonsense.

The Numbers: We open with the title song as we see the locations that will later turn up in the film. Porky Pine (Winters) laments that "It's Hard to Be a Friend" when the others are all busy with the campaign and he has no one to fish with. It's "Convention Time," and the animals cheer Pogo on. "Pogo In Desperation" is an attempt to point out to the others that he's not suited to the candidacy. The others would rather give "Hail and Cheers" at the rally. "The Chase!" is on as everyone goes after their candidate in the finale.

Trivia: 21st Century Film Corporation pulled a little chicanery of their own when they told the animators they would get this national distribution in time for the 1980 election, with a one million promotional budget and a "Pogo for President" write-in campaign. They ended up sending it straight to video instead. It was only available through Fotomat's rental service.

An edited version with added narration would eventually turn up on cable, including HBO, Showtime, and The Disney Channel. This version would also be re-released on video by Disney in 1984 and 1989. (It's this version that I based my review on.)

Skip Hinnant's last theatrical film.

Among the later cartoonists Kelly's work inspired were Gary Trudeau (Doonsbury), Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes), and Jeff MacNelly (Shoe). 

What I Don't Like: For all the great characters, first of all, there's too much talk and way too little action. Three fourths of the movie is just characters plotting and plotting with very little to show for it. The narration they added for cable only makes things more confusing. The plot is barely existent, and is mainly there to show off the cast and Walt Kelly's trademark unique words. And once again, I've never read the comics, but some comments online say this lacks it's charm and wordplay. I have to agree with another comment that the stop-motion doesn't really seem to suit the characters. They would have been better off in regular 2D animation. 

The Big Finale: Only for the most ardent fans of the Pogo comics or the cast. Everyone else can leave this one alone in the swamp.

Home Media: This is so obscure, it's never been on DVD, to my knowledge. The only way you can find it is in the cable-edited version with the narration on YouTube.

YouTube

Animation Celebration Saturday - Plankton: The Movie

Netflix/Nickelodeon, 2025

Voices of Mr. Lawrence, Jill Talley, Tom Kenney, and Bill Fagerbakke

Directed by David Needham

Music and Lyrics by various

We're remaining at Netflix, but going to a whole different franchise. SpongeBob SquarePants is the story of a very enthusiastic sponge who lives in under the sea and has some of the most peculiar friends in all of animation. Plankton is technically one of the show's villains, a tiny one-eyed creature with an ego three times the size of his body who is married to a computer and thinks stealing the formula for Krabby Patties will help him take over the world. Although the film revolving around SpongeBob's squirrel friend Sandy Cheeks wasn't well-received critically, it was popular enough on Netflix for them to go ahead with this one. How well does music fit with SpongeBob's oddly sunny world? Let's begin with SpongeBob as he introduces us to the world of his home Bikini Bottom and find out...

The Story: Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) is furious when his computer wife Karen (Talley) tries to make over his dreary restaurant, the Chum Bucket, to be more cheerful and "contemporary" and actually get customers. Him destroying the restaurant is the last straw. She turns into a larger robotic form with three heads and claims she'll take over the world without him. Her new fortress magnetizes the Chum Bucket, stealing it and other buildings in Bikini Bottom.

Plankton wants to get to the bottom of why Karen's behaving badly, so he lets SpongeBob (Kenny) hypnotize him to recall his past. This leads him to remember Karen's previous form as a calculator attached to a potato, which he upgraded at Bikini State University. They built their first machine to take over the world there. That didn't work, but it led Plankton to the Chum Bucket and to overhearing Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown) jokingly say that the Krabby Paddy formula will help him take over the world is what made Plankton want it for his own. It's not until he encounters Karen's "Gal Pals" Sandy Cheeks (Carolyn Lawrence), Mrs. Puff (Mary Jo Catlett), and Pearl Krabs (Lori Alan) that Plankton realizes what he'd been missing...and downloads her empathy chip into his own brain to see that what she really wanted all along was to be acknowledged as his favorite partner in crime.

The Animation: The SpongeBob movies have been done in 3D for several years now. This is...just ok. Everything looks the way it should, including Plankton and Karen's many forms, but it doesn't always move as smoothly as it could. Some of the 2D and 3D isn't very well-combined, either. It looks more-or-less like the TV show, which is really all this franchise needs in the end. In fact, the film looks better when it gets away from computer animation, including the psychedelic sequence where Plankton experiences empathy for the first time. 

The Song and Dance: SpongeBob was always a bit...strange...and this movie is no exception. Kudos to them for doing something a bit different with this material. To my knowledge, the other SpongeBob films are all straight action comedies. This is the first time they've done a film musical...and it's not bad. Mr. Lawrence and especially Talley have a lot of fun with the spoofs of 80's movie musical tropes, and Kenny's attempt to hypnotize and understand Plankton's overwhelming ego is hilarious. This goes slightly darker than usual for SpongeBob, which doesn't often go into complicated marital relationships or why empathy is so important for humans and AI alike, and it's rather refreshing for the show. 

The Numbers: We open with SpongeBob cheerfully introducing us to life in the colorful undersea world of "Bikini Bottom." "I'm Plankton" introduces Plankton, Karen, and Plankton's usual desire to take over the world. Karen insists that her husband "Say My Name, Karen" when she suddenly turns into a monstrous version of herself. "I Made a New Friend" says Plankton when he creates Karen as a child. He finally admits "I'm a Jerky-Jerk" to Karen by way of an apology. "Taking Over" brings everyone together to fight Karen's new forms. "Welcome Back to Bikini Bottom" is SpongeBob's big chorus finale as the underwater world is restored. We end over the credits with "You and Me."

What I Don't Like: Start with the so-so animation mentioned above. There's also the cliched plot points...and the fact that, if you don't know the show all that well, especially in its later seasons, you might be slightly confused. There are times when, despite being the title character, you wish they actually focused more on Plankton and a bit less on SpongeBob. 

The Big Finale: Highly recommended if you're a fan of SpongeBob or Plankton, or just want a unique animated musical to watch with your older elementary school-age kids. 

Home Media: This is a Netflix exclusive at the moment. 

Netflix

Pardners

Paramount, 1956

Starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lori Nelson, and John Baragrey

Directed by Norman Taurog

Music by Jimmy Van Heusen; Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

We're staying out west with two more popular comedians who ironically also began at Paramount. By 1956, rumors abounded that Martin and Lewis were breaking up their very profitable partnership and going solo. This movie was one way they denied those rumors. How does this remake of the Bing Crosby vehicle Rhythm On the Range look nowadays? Let's begin out west, as Matilda Kinglsey (Agnes Moorehead) flees the K Ranch with her son Wade Jr shortly before bandits kill her husband Wade (Lewis) and his partner Slim Mosley (Martin) and find out...

The Story: Wade Jr. (Lewis) longs to be a cowboy in the real wild West, but his mother would rather he marry a formidable girl from a wealthy family. He's impressed with the son of Slim (Martin), who is a ranch hand at the K-Ranch, and his cousin Carol (Lori Nelson), who runs it, and follows them to the rodeo. Slim wants to win a bull named Cuddles and replenish their stock after a raid, but Wade's bungling costs him the top prize. Feeling guilty and still wanting to see the authentic West, Wade buys him Cuddles and inadvertently ends up following him there when he gets stranded on the train. Slim was annoyed with Wade at first, but finally warms up with him to the point where they agree to become partners like their fathers.

There's even more trouble when they do finally arrive at the K Ranch. Banker Dan Hollis (Baragrey) has been trying to buy the ranch and sell the land for a dam and asking Carol to marry him. She's not interested in selling or marrying him. Slim, hoping to avoid teasing, claims Wade is Killer Jones, the roughest, toughest man in the entire state. The townspeople dub Wade their new sheriff, but because they think he's the one who stopped a runaway stagecoach. It was really Slim, who has to help keep Wade from ending up like all the other sheriffs in town and dig up the dirt on who is really after the K Ranch and its holdings.

The Song and Dance: You'd never know Martn and Lewis were having problems by this point with hilarious performances here. Martin has more to do, for once, and runs with it, especially in the second half when he's supposed to be protecting Wade and making him look like a lawman. Though this starts out relatively similar to Rhythm On the Range, once they get Cuddles to the ranch, it becomes a whole different - and frankly, far more interesting - story. The focus on Martin, Lewis, and Lewis' antics as a mama's boy who learns to take care of himself also keeps this from degenerating into a series of unrelated specialty numbers like Rhythm did near the end of the film. Not to mention, this feels a lot more like an actual western complete with bandits, shoot-outs, and land-grabbing schemes.

The Numbers: "The Wind, The Wind" is Slim's song at the rodeo, which he performs to win enough money for Cuddles after Wade's antics end with him dropping out of the bucking bronco race. "Buckskin Beauty" is Wade's song once he's out west. They declare themselves "Pardners," first on the way out west with Cuddles, and later in the finale. Slim sings "Me N' You N' the Moon" later for Carol when they're at the ranch.

Trivia: Taurog also directed Rhythm on the Range. 

What I Don't Like: Martin and Lewis are really the only ones who have much to do. Nelson and Jackie Loughery as the saloon dancer Wade falls for barely register as much more than love interests. Both Hollises are pretty obvious villains, too. Where this really falters is with the music. Rhythm on the Range produced the standard "I'm an Old Cowhand" and had a few other decent songs. None of the four numbers here get anywhere close to that, though "The Wind The Wind" is mildly interesting.

The Big Finale: One of Martin and Lewis' better later vehicles is worth checking out for fans of theirs or of 50's comedy.

Home Media: Only on DVD in the US as part of a collection of Martin and Lewis movies, though the solo Blu-Ray is due on September 12th. At the moment, you may be better off streaming this. Like most Martin-Lewis titles, this can currently be found for free with commercials at the Paramount-owned Pluto TV.

DVD - Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Collection Volume 2

Blu-Ray

Pluto TV On Demand

Go West (1940)

MGM, 1940

Starring Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx, John Carroll, Diana Lewis, and Walter Woolf King

Directed by Edward Buzzell

Music by Bronislau Kaper; Lyrics by Gus Kahn

Saddle up, pardners, 'cause we're going west this week with some of your favorite comedians. We kick off our look at the funny side of the Old West with one of the Marx Brothers' later movies. It's also their only film with a non-contemporary setting and the only time they played with western tropes. How well do the Marx Brothers deal with land-grabbers and family feuds? Let's begin with swindler S. Quenton Quayle (Groucho) as he attempts to buy a train ticket west and find out...

The Story: Quayle loses his ticket money to a pair of even smarter swindlers, brothers Joe (Chico) and Rusty Panello (Harpo). The brothers in turn use that money to buy Dead Man's Gulch from old prospector Dan Wilson (Tully Marshall), who claims it has no gold. As it turns out, it's valuable in another way. Terry Turner (Carroll), the son of Wilson's long-time rival, went to New York to attempt to convince the railroad to buy Dead Man's Gulch. He's convinced them that the gulch is the only route through the mountains linking east and west. He's also in love with Wilson's granddaughter Eve (Lewis), who wishes to marry him no matter what her grandfather thinks. 

After the railroad agrees to buy the property, Quayle attempts to swindle it away from the Panellos. Corrupt railroad executive John Beecher (King) and saloon owner Red Baxter (Robert Barrat) use saloon singer Lulubelle (June MacCloy) to charm the deed off them. Now it's up to Quayle and the Panellos to make sure that deed gets to the railroad officials in New York, even if they have to tear the train apart to keep it going to its destination!

The Song and Dance: This wound up being really cute, probably one of the Brothers' better later efforts. Chico and Harpo in particular have some nice moments. Harpo tearing up the train to keep the engine moving in the finale is one highlight. Groucho both ducking and enjoying Lulubelle's advances are another. King is almost as good here as he was in Night at the Opera and continues to play well off the Marxes, his bluster more than matching their anarchy.

The Numbers: We start over the credits with "As If I Didn't Know." Groucho joins Lulubelle onstage for "You Can't Argue With Love." "Ridin' the Range" has the Marxes joining in with Carroll as they discuss their devotion to their new western home. Eve sings the old Stephen Foster number "Beautiful Dreamer" at home. Chico performs "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain" and "The Woodpecker Song" on the piano, while Harpo gets "From the Land of the Sky-Blue Water) for the Natives whom they have to convince to give up their claim on the land.

What I Don't Like: Not one of the Marxes' better movies. Carroll is particularly dull in a thankless role, and Lewis isn't much more interesting and is too nasal to pass for a western heroine. Although it doesn't hit the lows of their next movie after this The Big Store, it's still not one of their best efforts. Only the train finale is really vintage Marx Brothers madness.

The Big Finale: Mainly for fans of the Marx Brothers or comic westerns.

Home Media: On DVD and streaming from the Warner Archive.

DVD

Amazon Prime

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). 

YouTube

Back to School Again - So This Is College

MGM, 1929

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

Directed by Sam Wood

Music and Lyrics by various

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home Media: DVD only via the Warner Archives.

DVD