Gangsters take control of a record company and use toughguy tactics on unwilling performers.
(89 min) Released 1937-11-26
Director: Charles Reisner (as Charles F. Reisner)
Stars: Phil Regan, Leo Carrillo, Ann Dvorak, James Gleason
Genres: Comedy | Music
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029209/
Watched on Amazon Prime.
7 minutes in, and we get a great quote. Leo Carrillo plays a gangster (with a Spanish/Italian accent, eventually we meet his Italian mamma), and James Gleason is his Runyonesque American gangland lieutenant (Brooklyn/Bronx, skinny, frail, late middle aged, but lively and twinkle-in-the-eye, straw hat, bow-tie demeanor). They've just foreclosed on a recording studio, taking over the business.
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| Cropped screen shot from video |
Danny The Duck (Lt.): I can land enough talent in your lap to entertain the world.
Tony Gordoni (Boss): Yes, but I don't want them in my lap. I never mix business with pleasure.
Danny The Duck: Don't take me
illiterately!
Frequently Tony Gordoni says "I am a man of very few words, and when I talk I say a lot." When we meet his mamma, she says her version, clearly the source of his.
Unfortunately, James Gleason quickly fades into the background, as usual.
This film is the least certain listing in
Appendix B of Tap! by Rusty Frank, with the note "Possibly Cook and Brown." No one in the IMDb credits is named Cook or Brown, but it wouldn't be the first time a thorough cast list omitted dancers. (This one lists a ventriloquist's
dummy: Elmer was played by Elmer.) I ran the movie a second time, trying to listen for taps, and got nothing, not even during Cab Calloway's Mama, I Wanna Make Rhythm. Some lively couples jitterbugging, but no taps; I wouldn't be surprised if CC's jitterbug partner was Jeni LeGon, but I wouldn't swear to it.
The best reason to watch this for me is that Kay Thompson and Her Ensemble sing 2 numbers: one starts around 20 minutes (
video here; Amazon movie is better video quality), the other 43 minutes later. The credits list Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine as 2 of her backup singers. These 2 are (future?) songwriters (sometimes together) and Kay, with Roger Edens, were the Freed unit's vocal arrangers, making many an MGM singer much better and more interesting than without them. (Edens especially worked with Judy Garland.)
I adore Kay Thompson's performance in Funny Face ('57); I think she steals the show from Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn. Unfortunately that was her only substantial acting credit. This film is her first of 4, the second looks like a bit part, and the last is in an early Liza Minnelli drama. If you think I'm enthusiastic about her, here's how her
mini-bio on IMDb begins:
"Sleek, effervescent, gregarious and indefatigable only begins to describe the indescribable Kay Thompson -- a one-of-a-kind author, pianist, actress, comedienne, singer, composer, coach, dancer, choreographer, clothing designer, and arguably one of entertainment's most unique and charismatic personalities of the 20th century."
The author of that bio wrote many bios on the site, seldom so effusive. (I guess 'coach' covers Vocal Arranger, for which she has the most credits. She was the author of the children's series of Eloise books about a 6 year old who lives at, and impacts the Plaza Hotel in NYC.) Kay actually appears as herself here, and has no lines beyond the songs she sings.
If you read the prior post for I'll Take Romance (different studio), you can imagine my disappointment when this film devolved into the recording company pursuing a diva opera singer to perform for them. And this one has lots of yelling. If only I had a dvd copy so I could ffwd while seeing where I am.
Louis Prima and his Band are listed as the background for one of Phil Regan's songs. I certainly wasn't aware of them while he sang. Ted Lewis and his band are quite prominent, but I don't recognize anything they play (nor any song from the film, but that's quite normal during this quest.)
The opening credits said "introducing" Gene Autry, but this is his 23rd film, starting in '34. Maybe it was a big deal for a singing cowboy to cross over to a mainstream film.
1:03:00 Kay Thompson does her brief second number in the recording studio, and they watch her on a television set (closed circuit, but not stated as such) down the hall in the office of the studio's president. Movies don't show working TVs very often, since it promoted the competition, but in '37 it wasn't widely available - or useful. (I remember what a big deal it was that Jane Wyman's character in Magnificent Obsession ('54) gets a TV set from her children, and she doesn't want it.)
Republic, dir. Reisner; 6-
