(80 mins.) Released 1935-08-02
Director: Raoul Walsh
Stars: George Raft, Alice Faye, Frances Langford, Patsy Kelly
comedy, musical, romance
originally posted 28 Oct 2017 00:41
REALLY pleasant surprise. I like Faye and Langford; thought of Patsy Kelly only as comic relief. But Kelly can sing (she solos a bit), and the three of them blend together BEAUTIFULLY.
My (bootleg) copy runs 1:15 instead of 1:20; the time passed quickly with lots of songs. The most famous: I Feel a Song Coming On and I'm in the Mood for Love.
George Raft is young (34) and handsome, but acts arrogant and embittered, as usual. He's a bandleader here, and has white, reserved Cab Calloway moves, dancing in place as he wields the baton, moving only from the waist down. He moves his feet enough for me to notice his 1 inch heels. (IMDb shows him as 5'7".)
I have almost all of AF's movies; can't wait to see when they let her eyebrows grow back in. The super-plucked look was awful, even on Jean Harlow.
This movie is slightly more integrated than usual. During the amateur hour, a white woman sings like a chicken (but wears ostrich feathers (they had a lot of bald ostriches in the '30s!)) and they cut to a well-dressed black man, who looks depressed, but he cracks a smile while listening to the chicken lady. Also, when Raft & cie get their own radio program, their large ensemble of singers is black, with a terrific baritone lead (James Miller - identified on TCM.com as "black singer" here). Unfortunately they're in minstrel outfits, but their faces are not blacked up, and they don't act minstrel-y. The sponsor is a "mint julep" company.
Nice to have a show biz setting that's about radio instead of theatre.
My 7 isn't a strong recommendation, but I like it too well to settle on 6. Maybe on second viewing I'll downgrade it from familiarity.
Walter Wanger Prods & Paramount, dir. Walsh; 7-
