High, Wide and Handsome (1937), 5+

Pennsylvania, 1859. Railroad tycoon Brennan (Alan Hale) is muscling in on oil-drilling farmers, led by Peter Cortland (Randolph Scott). Cortland must try to save their oil business, while also saving his marriage to Sally (Irene Dunne).
(110 min) Released 1937-07-21
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Stars: Irene Dunne, Randolph Scott, Dorothy Lamour, Elizabeth Patterson, Alan Hale

Genres: Musical | Western

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029000/

Bootleg copy, very poor quality. Next viewing: perhaps buy the now-official release.

Even with 6 songs by Kern & Hammerstein, this doesn't feel like a musical. This feels like a straight drama illustrating the hardships of breaking into new technologies (harvesting and transporting oil). The fact that Mamoulian directed shocks me, because I didn't feel anything was special about this.

Oh, and I think I finally found a story by Hammerstein that didn't involve racial prejudice, but it did hit class (occupation) prejudice multiple times. Usually E.Patterson's character countered the malicious talk by dragging some skeleton out of the speaker's closet. That was fun.

(This is the 2nd of 3 pairings of Dunne and Scott, and the 3rd is less direct: he plays her shipwrecked nuisance in My Favorite Wife (1940), and most of that happens off-screen; Cary Grant is her co-star there.)

The video quality definitely hurts my appraisal, but so did the way RS treated ID (of course, their characters): he was quick to abandon her to his oil ambitions, even on their wedding day, and he was quick to dismiss her suggestions and contributions. In other words, he was a narcissistic misogynist. So this earns a rating to warn me away. The + is for ID.

Paramount, dir. Mamoulian; 5+

Thanks for Listening (1937), 4-

Homer Tompkins, a trusting young musician with aspirations of becoming a radio star, is installed in a fine set of offices in Reno by a quartet of "easy money" con artists who have bugged ... 
(62 min) Released 1937-07-12
Director: Marshall Neilan
Stars: Pinky Tomlin, Maxine Doyle, Aileen Pringle

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029649/

Watched online, quality very poor, partially because of bad internet today, and the site doesn't have a Cast function, so the streaming does double work: first to the laptop, then to the TV.

I can't believe I gave Pinky another chance, his 3rd at bat with me. This one has contentious Reno divorces, the Professional Listener, gangsters trying to steal a non-existent gold mine, blackmail and kidnapping. How the songs fit in, I don't know. I got lost and didn't want to retrace my steps. 

Conn Pictures Corporation, distr. Ambassador Pictures, dir. Neilan; 4-

Meet the Boy Friend (1937), 5-

A heartthrob singer, Tony Paige, also known as "America's Boyfriend" decides to wed a Swedish actress. His manager doesn't want this because he is afraid of Tony losing female fans so he ... 
(63 min) Released 1937-07-12
Director: Ralph Staub
Stars: Robert Paige (as David Carlyle), Carol Hughes, Warren Hymer, Pert Kelton

Genres: Comedy | Music | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029223/

Watched online, ok print. In some sections, the lighting looked more like TV/tape design than movie.

Didn't catch my interest. The male lead was a successful singer who didn't like his success, so he worked odd jobs to "stay real." He seemed to have married his love interest at the end, but was mistaken for the Swedish actress... I don't know. It just didn't interest me. (The blonde in the poster must be the Swede; Carol Hughes was the brunette love interest here.)

The male lead had a nice voice, but I'm not going to search him out. His 69 credits look like some Universal titles, and this was...

Republic, dir. Staub; 5-

New Faces of 1937 (1937), 6

A crooked producer tries to link his backers by producing a flop and disapearing with the money. Patricia, one of the chorus girls has given her money, too and after the disapearing of the ... 
(100 min) Released 1937-07-02
Director: Leigh Jason
Stars: Joe Penner, Milton Berle, Harry Parke, Harriet Hilliard Nelson.
Sammy Lee ... dances staged by

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029303/

Not at all sure why I bought this. Most of these names and faces are still new to me, and I pay attention to names. I'm not going to look at all their filmographies to see who's really new. Harriet Hilliard we already enjoyed in Follow the Fleet ('36).

The premise here is the same as Mel Brooks' The Producers (1967 and 2005): oversell the financing of the show and deliberately produce a flop. (And this is NOT on the Connections page.)

Lots of singing and dancing here; unfortunately no scene selection menu on the dvd; these numbers are IN the named chapter, but not necessarily at its begining:

• Ch 4: The Widow in Lace, sung by Thelma Leeds and dozens of showgirls and boys at dress rehearsal, and played and danced by unidentified children, probably The Loria Brothers
• Ch 7: Our Penthouse on Third Avenue, played on piano by Harriet Nelson and sung by her and William Brady 
• Ch 13: It Goes to Your Feet, at auditions, played and sung by Eddie Rio and Brothers, danced by Stanley Ross, Henry Hite and Freddy Hickey and Lorraine Krueger. She danced well, has 22 movie credits, 10 are tagged music/musical.
• Ch 15: If I Didn't Have You, sung by Harriet Nelson and William Brady 
• Ch 19: Love Is Never Out of Season, sung by William Brady and danced by Harriet Nelson and male chorus 
• Ch 23: New Faces, sung and danced by showgirls (including The Brian Sisters) and showboys to open the final show, leads to:
• Ch 24: New Faces, danced by Ann Miller (her 4th or 5th movie; 30 of 41 credits are music/musicals), leads to:
• Ch 25: New Faces, sung by Harriet Nelson and showgirls 
• Ch 27: When the Berry Blossoms Bloom, sung and danced by Joe Penner in the show 
• Ch 29: Peckin', sung and danced by The Three Chocolateers, The Four Playboys and chorus in the big finale in the show

RKO, dir. Jason; 6

King Solomon's Mines (1937), 7 {nm}

White hunter Allan Quartermain and his enigmatic guide help a young Irish woman locate her missing father in unexplored Darkest Africa.
(77 min) Released 1937-06-17
Directors: Robert Stevenson, Geoffrey Barkas
Stars: Paul Robeson, Cedric Hardwicke, Roland Young, Anna Lee

Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama | Musical | Romance | Thriller
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029081/

This not really a musical; PR sings 3 (or 4?) songs. But he's such a powerful presence in all ways, that his singing seems natural somehow.

This, of course, is an H. Rider Haggard adventure story, much remade, as I discussed on She (1935), 8 {nm}.

The process shots, intended to place the actors in dangerous terrain, do not match the studio lighting very well. However, it IS impressive that they did remote 2nd unit shooting (dir. Barkas) to capture moving pictures for that effect, rather than just painted matte shots. And, the special effects of the volcano are very good.

Lots of black actors got employed as natives, great in number, ready to kill our would-be miners.

[Spoiler]The event that saves our protagonists came from Haggard's 1885 novel, and is used in 1889's Mark Twain novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a Bing Crosby movie released in 1949. Because I'm familiar with both, that made the event seem overused to me, but apparently not. I'm not familiar with any of the other movies on this list about this topic.

As with all my ratings, the rating is for the movie overall, not as a musical.

Gaumont British Picture Corporation, dir. Stevenson & Barkas; 7

Rhythm in the Clouds (1937), 6-

Struggling songwriter Judy Walker talks her way into the apartment of a famous composer, and finds that he's on vacation. Homeless and without any money, she decides to stay at his place ... 
(62 min) Released 1937-06-21
Director: John H. Auer
Stars: Patricia Ellis, Warren Hull, William Newell

Genres: Comedy | Music
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029482/
Public domain copy, but pretty good quality.

I rated this more than 3 years ago, and actually remembered the basic plot; the way she gains entrance to the apartment is memorable. The film is pleasant enough, but I'm glad I got it cheap in a 50-title box set. The cold-cream magnate is a hoot.

Republic, dir. Auer; 6-

They Learned About Women (1930), 5+

When Jack and Jerry are not playing professional baseball with the Blue Sox, they are packing them in on the Vaudeville circuit. Jack is engaged to Mary, but a gold digger named Daisy has ... 
(95 min) Released 1930-01-31
Directors: Jack Conway, Sam Wood
Stars: Joe Schenck, Gus Van, Bessie Love, Nina Mae McKinney

Genres: Musical | Drama
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021464/

This is the antecedent to Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). But only in the sense that it's about 2 ballplayers who sing&dance in vaudeville in the off-season. This is a drama, and since it's made in the first year+ of the sound era, it feels very stiff.

Stiff until Nina Mae McKinney comes along at 53:45-57:35. Literally, I was doing other stuff, sort of listening to the movie, and my attention was drawn to the screen. Someone lively was singing. And I looked, and looked, and it was Nina Mae. I hadn't pre-scanned the full cast, and I don't really recognize her voice, but the vigor she projected, and the lively nature of the number she was performing, contrasted sharply with the rest of the movie. She has maybe 20 chorus girls in similar skimpy costumes and 2 male tappers in tuxedos. A couple of child specialty dancers perform separately. No credits for anyone but Nina Mae. She sings and dances well. Listen for Cliff Edwards singing the song Harlem Madness toward the end while everyone is dancing.

I can eliminate Van and Schenck as a reason to watch a movie, but won't use them as a reason to avoid one.

MGM, dir. Conway & Wood; 5+

A Day at the Races (1937), 8+

Veterinarian Dr. Hugo Hackenbush posing as a doctor, a race-horse owner and his friends struggle to help keep a sanitarium open with the help of a misfit race-horse.
(111 min) Released 1937-06-11
Director: Sam Wood
Stars: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan, Margaret Dumont, Douglass Dumbrille, Sig Ruman
Dave Gould ... musical numbers staged by; Oscar nom for "All God's Children Got Rhythm". Oscar 1938

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Sport

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028772/

This is the 7th of 11 MB films, the second at MGM. (A Night at the Opera was 2 years ago.) Someone on IMDb actually titled their review "The Last Great Marx Brothers Movie." My sentiments exactly. The rest are mostly good, but only 6's and 7's. This was the last one with Irving Thalberg's guidance; released in June. Thalberg had died Sept '36.

Iconic comedy and musical numbers:

• Scene 6: Tootsie-frootsie ice cream (the Groucho-Chico negotiation over racetrack tip books)
• Scene 11: On Blue Venetian Waters sung by AJ, lots of dancing by ensemble and ballerina Vivien Fay on beautiful set with 3 footbridges (where did they find/setup those vertical fountains?)
• Scene 12: dancing spree (GM switches partners between MD and the other woman)
• Scene 13: piano by Chico 
• Scene 14: harp (supposedly piano innards) by Harpo
• Scene 17: wallpapering the other woman
• Scene 19: examining the patient (MD) in a barber chair, 3 MB exiting on the horse
• Scene 20: Tomorrow Is Another Day sung by AJ to MS in barn, leads to:
• Scene 21: Gabriel Blow that Horn (Harpo playing recorder, piping local chillun), leads to:
• Scene 22 of 27: All God's Chillun Got Rhythm sung by Ivie Anderson, with great jitterbug dancing

We saw Ivie briefly with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in The Hit Parade (1937), about 4 films ago. She gets much better face time here. We have a lot of black actors/singers (The Crinoline Choir, and according to the commentary, some members of the Duke Ellington Orchestra) employed here, but they're shown living in dilapidated shacks, wearing ragged clothes, sporting exaggerated facial expressions, and using under-educated language. But at least they're getting paid instead of blacked-face whites. If certain theatres wanted to excise them, they'd have to cut scenes 20-22 and 27. I wonder if some did.

Although we have 5 more scenes after the big 3-scene production number, the pace is very good at the end. The craziness of the horse race topped by the musical victory strut is terrific.

Inventory: Groucho & Chico negotiate; Chico and Harpo have piano and harp solos respectively. (Duck Soup is the only place we didn't get musical solos from CM and HM.)

So why not a 9? It's a little long, mostly in the first half.

MGM, dir. Wood; 8+

My post on Oscar, Best Dance Direction, 1936-38

Sweetheart of the Navy (1937), 4 {nm}

Singer struggles to make her new nightclub succeed in a naval port after her partner leaves with the funds but not the bills.
(61 min) Released 1937-06-08
Director: Duncan Mansfield
Stars: Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Roger Imhof

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029625/
Watched online, decent copy.

Only watched it b/c IMDb classified as Musical; it's NOT. Soundtracks list 2 songs. I'm not going back to see if that's right.

Of course, this is an indie production in the golden age of the studio system, so no face is familiar. The plot could be reasonable with better everything (writing, acting, sets, musical numbers, etc.), but nothing for me here.

B. F. Ziedman Film, distr. Grand National, dir. Mansfield; 4

In Old Kentucky (1935), 6 {nm, but...}

Horse trainer Steve Tapley is caught between the feuding Martingale and Shattuck families. He sides with young Nancy Martingale and her grandfather Ezra, and the feud is to be resolved by a... 
(86 min) Released 1935-11-28
Director: George Marshall
Stars: Will Rogers, Dorothy Wilson, Russell Hardie, Bill Robinson

Genres: Comedy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026524/

This was WR's (1879-1935) last released film, one of 2 released posthumously.

Although there was no soundtrack listing for this film, my gut told me that Bill Robinson (1878-1949) would not appear in a film of this vintage without dancing, and boy was I right. He dances MORE in this film than in The Big Broadcast of 1936. Here's what and where:

• 6:45-7:26 kitchen, washing dishes
• 15:30-16:40 entry to distract 
• 37:00-41:55 setting table, "humming", then teaching WR a simple step
• 58:45-1:01:10 entertains at party with black orchestra, dancing to medley of songs

BR in an integral part of the story, interacting frequently with WR and other characters, and appears throughout. He has 14 film credits, 1930-43.

This is an OK comedy, having none of WR's political humor or life wisdom, but still illustrates why audiences loved WR. He is very natural onscreen and likable, shy yet able to stand up for what's right. I like the comment that he conquered every medium he attempted (vaudeville, Broadway, radio, silent and sound movies, print), and if he'd lived long enough, he'd probably have succeeded on TV too.

Fox, dir. Marshall; 6

Shall We Dance (1937), 7+

A budding romance between a ballet master and a tap dancer becomes complicated when rumors surface that they're already married.
(109 min) Released 1937-04-29
Director: Mark Sandrich
Stars: Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Harriet Hoctor
Harry Losee ... ballet stager
Hermes Pan ... ballet stager

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029546/

Random thought: Who got custody of the painting of FA as Petrov in ballet pose?

Songs by Gershwin, George and Ira:

• Scene 7: Slap That Bass, sung and danced by FA, accompanied by engine workers with musical instruments, in the cleanest, shiniest-floored, roomiest engine room imagined
• Scenes 9&11: Walking the Dog - Promenade, walked by FA & GR
• Scene 12: Beginner's Luck, sung by FA aboard ship, on deck in moonlight
• Scenes 17 song, 18 dance: They All Laughed, sung by GR, danced by FA and GR in ship's nightclub, where GR finally sees that FA is hip and dances her language sublimely
• Scene 22: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, sung and danced by FA and GR on roller skates in NYC 
• Scene 25: They Can't Take That Away from Me, sung by FA to GR on foggy ferry from NJ wedding
• Scene 30: Shall We Dance, danced by FA and Harriet Hoctor in the ballet sequence opening Petrov's B'way show, transitions to
• Scene 31 of 32: Shall We Dance, danced by FA and many GR replicants, and finally GR in the closing sequence 

The plot doesn't allow GR to fall and stay in love with FA. She has great fun with him in scene 18, but fighting the rumor that these two are long-married, and the titled European who wants FA for herself, and GR's desire for privacy and to quit showbiz, interfere until the final scene. 

And the absence again of any Ensemble dancing is a big missing ingredient for me. I like to see large number of well-rehearsed, well-choreographed dancers in pretty costumes making pretty patterns in time with pretty music. The closest we get are the GR replicants, but they are just chorus-girl support to FA, not a dancing unit unto themselves. It's like they're pilot fish to FA's shark. I want to see a school of fish making pretty patterns of their own.

Like mediocre Hitchcock, it's still much better than the average musical. I wouldn't recommend it as a novice's first F&G musical, but it represents all musicals well. And the Gershwin tunes are far superior to those of a typical musical.

RKO, dir. Sandrich; 7+

The Hit Parade (1937), 5+

Agent Pete Garland is fired by society singer Monica Barrett after he got her a new radio contract, because she thinks her lawyer friend Teddy Leeds fits in better with her social status. ... 
(83 min) Released 1937-04-26
Director: Gus Meins
Stars: Frances Langford, Phil Regan, Max Terhune

Genres: Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029003/
Watched online, very fuzzy copy, and only 67 min, titled I'll Pick a Star, which is the 1950 re-release.

I like Frances Langford (1913–2005); she has a low voice, something like Alice Faye, although Faye could also dance well and acts a bit better, although this is earlier in FL's career. This is FL's 6th of 29 acting credits ('35-'54), and her 4th in this quest; 24 of the 29 are classified as music/musical; it wouldn't surprise me if all of them should be.

I did the stats on Phil Regan on Happy Go Lucky (1936), 5+. There I commented that PovRow and indie listings had less Soundtracks info, but this one has singers and other performers as well as the songs. We get 2 quick (partial) songs (not his) played by Duke Ellington & Orch., Ivie Anderson singing on 1, in a nightclub. Eddie Duchin plays a Johann Strauss tune while a pair of professional ballroom dancers spin and twirl.

The plot is shrug-worthy, as is any comedy, and no dancing to speak of. Only watch again if a pristine print, preferably full length.

Republic, dir. Meins; 5+

The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935); 5+

Spud Miller hopes to save his struggling radio station by winning a broadcast competition, with the help of the Radio Eye, an invention that can display live events from anywhere in the world.
(97 min) Released 1935-09-20
Director: Norman Taurog
Stars: Jack Oakie, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Nicholas Brothers, Bill Robinson, Lyda Roberti, Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman
LeRoy Prinz ... stager: dance ensembles; Oscar nom'd for "Elephant - It's the Animal in Me"; Oscars 1936

Genres: Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026113/
No official release; bootleg copy; very very blurry, but good audio.
Just received this; chronologically belongs between Here Comes Cookie and Shipmates Forever.

At 4:30 Harold Nicholas starts tapping over the radio. We shift to tapping feet in a barber chair: Bill Robinson. He takes his taps out to the street, collecting pedestrians like a Pied Tapper, eventually tapping on the traffic cop's pedestal. Back in the studio, both Fayard and Harold are tapping up a storm until 7:35. A few seconds later, they start a time step and Jack Oakie joins in. The Brothers are part of the story for a while, but they don't dance again. The Dandridge Sisters are in the cast, likely in BR's street scene, but they don't sing; they might be the girls in pinafores bending over to watch BR's feet.

At 33:45 Bing sings I Wished on the Moon very sweetly.

At 41:30 Harold sings Why Dream in several styles, with Fayard on piano.

Yes, the wire-hair terrier is Asta; his character name is Snoopy. He has an impressive filmography: 17 movies in 13 years ('32-'45); The Thin Man was '34, he missed the 5th of 6 in the series, but he's also in The Awful Truth ('37) and Bringing Up Baby ('38). OK, wait just a second: he has a SOUNDTRACK credit? After the Thin Man ('36, performer: "Irish Washerwoman" - uncredited). He also howled on cue while Cary played piano in The Awful Truth as I recall.

Charles Ruggles and Mary Boland are a little too mean, so skip them if you're not in the mood.

1:20:55 The other dance sequence was originally filmed for We're Not Dressing ('34): It's the Animal in Me, sung by the Merm, and danced by chorus girls mimicking manipulated footage of dancing elephants. Watch for the elephants paying tribute to BB.

The plot, and the "comedy" of the destructive Stooge-like builders, is tedious, so FFWD might be appropriate. Burns and Allen are more violent than usual, so they're skippable too. But play the Lyda Roberti bits; she's delightful, and sings Double Trouble at 49:00.

To wrap it up, we get a big chase scene with horse-drawn carriage followed by a posse in dinner clothes. Of course we're in hilly terrain so going fast around the steep curves adds tension. Do the good guys survive? Do the bad guys get their just desserts? I'll give you one guess.

More fun to write about than to watch.

Paramount, dir. Taurog; 5+

My post on Oscar, Best Dance Direction, 1936-38

Maytime (1937), 8

An elderly Miss Morrison recounts her life as the once young and beautiful opera singer Marcia Morney-then the toast of Napoleon III's Paris. One evening, she encounters an American voice ... 
(132 min) Released 1937-03-26
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Stars: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore

Genres: Drama | Musical | Romance

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029222/

Did the exhibitors hate this for being too long, or did audiences appreciate all the singing and singing and singing? I sure do. Lots of arias and non-opera. 

We begin with JM in old woman makeup. I wouldn't have expected such a good job from that time. Then we enter the flashback...

JM conveys amour well. Here she falls in love at first listen, hearing NE before seeing him. At that meeting, he is exuberant and singing well a song suited to his voice, so Marcia is fully justified in her admiration. And he looks splendid, as does she.

At about 1.25 hours, no end was in sight so I checked the length. I wasn't bored, just amazed at how much music was dished up for us. A lot of time could have been spared by slashing an aria or three, and the story wouldn't have suffered. Clearly Louis B. Mayer, or Thalberg, or the other 3 producers, wanted to indulge us with so much music. I checked: this is the longest of JM's movies, although only a minute longer than The Firefly (1937), and 10 minutes more than Follow the Boys (1944) and The Girl of the Golden West (1938). The median and mean are 102.5 and 100.4 min for her films. The median and mean for the 135 musicals I've watched so far: 88 and 89.2 min.

Costumes and sets are beautiful too; never once thought about color. I wonder if I would have loved these at a younger age. I was attending opera 30+ years ago, so probably yes. Oh well, I've got them now.

MGM, dir. Leonard; 8

Waikiki Wedding (1937), 6

A beauty contest winner of the "Miss Pineapple Princess" pageant takes part in a publicity scheme in Hawaii, and is pursued by an advertising executive for the agency doing the promotion.
(89 min) Released 1937-03-23
Director: Frank Tuttle
Stars: Bing Crosby, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, Shirley Ross
LeRoy Prinz ... choreographer, Oscar nom'd for "Luau". Oscar 1938

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029742/

Of Bing's 75 acting credits, 56 are classified as music/musicals, and The Road to Hong Kong is not (but should be.)

Here goes another treasure hunt: no song is named "Luau" in the Soundtracks, so which scene was Oscar nom'd? The dvd has no chapters/scene selection, but chapter stops do appear coordinated to scene transitions. Only 1 luau in the movie, at chapter 10 (43:20 min). Starts with a pair of "native" dancers, moving atop giant drums to rhythm provided by a dozen "native" drummers (not the feet providing beats). Romantic/ comedic interlude starts 44:30. 45:50 SR sings, large ensemble performs hula-based dance, SR & BC sing. High-angle shot dissolves to night, and single sword dancer provides tension. Complete by 48:45. So 5:25 minus 1:20 give 3:05 of singing/dancing. I'm not impressed by the quantity nor the choreography.

I wonder if this would be better in lush Technicolor, which is still a novelty in '37. (Just took several hours to research color feature films; separate post precedes this.)

The plot involves a lot of deliberate deception. Shirley Ross is not leading lady material to me. Martha Raye is doing her usual shtick, as is Bob Burns. Anthony Quinn plays a "native" Hawaiian, which he doesn't resemble in the least, but he's part of the deception, so he has a dual role, which is evident. The cast of "natives" is mixed with whites and others passing for Hawaiian, and some genuine Hawaiians.

So a lot of the film depends on Bing, and he does deliver some guilt about his deceit, plus a lot of good singing, but it's not enough to recommend the film.

Paramount, dir. Tuttle; 6

My post on Oscar, Best Dance Direction, 1936-38

Color Films after Becky Sharp (1935)

From IMDb, these are all-color live-action American feature films in the 3-strip Technicolor era, in release order. I'm not sure that IMDb should be trusted. Some of these are not on a Wikipedia list of films with ANY color, but that's flawed too because Dancing Pirate and Ramona are absent from that Wikipedia page. Also, the total number of titles is more suspicious in earlier years, because it likely includes some short subjects whose length is absent.


1 of 597 titles in 1935

• Becky Sharp (1935), Pioneer Pictures/RKO distr.; (MC Cooper)

7 of 579 titles in 1936

• The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), Wanger & Paramount
• Dancing Pirate (1936), Pioneer Pictures/RKO (MC Cooper) *musical
• Ramona (1936), Fox
• The Devil on Horseback (1936), George A. Hirliman Productions (as Condor Pictures Inc.)/ distr. Grand National (Hirlicolor) *musical
• The Garden of Allah (1936), Selznick/UA
• The Bold Caballero (1936), Republic (Magnacolor)
• We're in the Legion Now (1936), George A. Hirliman Productions / distr. Grand National (Magnacolor)

5 of 580 titles in 1937

• God's Country and the Woman (1937), Warner
• A Star Is Born (1937), Selznick/UA
• Vogues of 1938 (1937), Wanger/UA *musical
• Ebb Tide (1937), Paramount
• Nothing Sacred (1937), Selznick/UA

10 of 508 titles in 1938

• The Goldwyn Follies (1938), Goldwyn *musical
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), Selznick/UA
• Gold Is Where You Find It (1938), Warner
• Her Jungle Love (1938), Paramount *music
• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Warner
• Men with Wings (1938), Paramount
• Valley of the Giants (1938), Warner
• Heart of the North (1938), Warner
• Sweethearts (1938), MGM *musical
• Kentucky (1938), Fox

I didn't analyze the following lists at all; some animated features and/or length-missing shorts might be included. 

• 17 of 535 titles in 1939
• 15 of 528 titles in 1940 
• 21 of 536 titles in 1941 (This is still pre-war for us. That's a different double feature 5+ nights/week.)
• 15 of 516 titles in 1942
• 22 of 431 titles in 1943
• 30 of 411 titles in 1944
• 32 of 411 titles in 1945
• 42 of 423 titles in 1946 (I was expecting a bigger jump post-war.)
• 51 of 423 titles in 1947
• 70 of 423 titles in 1948  (U.S. Supreme Court decides Paramount et al antitrust case - May 03, 1948 that studios must divest themselves of distribution and exhibition divisions; TV begins to infiltrate homes.)
• 64 of 390 titles in 1949
• 80 of 417 titles in 1950 (Eastman Color provides alternative to Technicolor.)
• 83 of 407 titles in 1951
• 121 of 361 titles in 1952
• 154 of 370 titles in 1953 (First modern widescreen movie, The Robe, released in December in Technicolor.)
• 168 of 292 titles in 1954 (First TV broadcasts in color.)
• 152 of 296 titles in 1955
• 142 of 306 titles in 1956
• 106 of 349 titles in 1957
• 111 of 313 titles in 1958
• 93 of 241 titles in 1959 
• 97 of 208 titles in 1960
• 108 of 240 titles in 1961
• 109 of 227 titles in 1962
• 124 of 228 titles in 1963 (Cleopatra finishes Fox as the last studio to operate as a movie factory.)

Swing It Professor (1937), 4

A music professor is fired from his job for not knowing enough about modern "swing" music. He goes to Chicago to learn more about the subject in hopes of getting his job back, but he winds up getting mixed up with gangsters.
(62 min) Released 1937-03-13
Director: Marshall Neilan
Stars: Pinky Tomlin, Paula Stone, Milburn Stone

Genres: Comedy | Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029628/
Watched online, fuzzy faded print.

Yes, Milburn Stone was Doc on Gunsmoke (1955-75, 605 episodes for him). He also has 153 movie credits ('35-'57); 15 are music/musicals, only 2 were also westerns. Only 20 Western genre films overall. Here he plays a gangster involved with a swing club (night spot). 2nd billed Paula Stone was Milburn's cousin. She has 12 credits, and will appear in at least 1 more film in this quest.

The songs here are not penned by Pinky Tomlin. The professor gets involved with the gangster's nightclub through a very circuitous route (and we never again see the hobos who had helped him when he was down.) He seems to have been swayed off the idea that swing music is bad, which cost him his job(!), by a single tap dance. If he came "to Chicago to learn more about" swing, I missed that exposition. Seems like he just drifted there.

Bad acting, mediocre music and dancing, horrible plot, unappealing leads, dreary sets. Another '37 Tomlin film is online. Will I watch it? Probably, but third strike might eliminate others.

Same production company as With Love and Kisses (1936), 5+, also with Tomlin, watched 1 week ago; talked mostly about Toby Wing there. Couldn't find the intervening title online.

Conn Pictures Corporation, dir. Neilan; 4

Swing High, Swing Low (1937), 7

In Panama, Maggie King meets soldier Skid Johnson on his last day in the army and reluctantly agrees to a date to celebrate. The two become involved in a nightclub brawl which causes Maggie... 
(92 min) Released 1937-03-12
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Stars: Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Charles Butterworth, Dorothy Lamour, Anthony Quinn

Genres: Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029626/
Public domain print; very fuzzy.

Really not a musical, but a drama involving people who make music professionally, with plenty of performances shown.

A good comedy/drama as befitting both stars.

Lombard (b. 1908), despite her early death at age 33, has 61 film credits; 19 of them released before '29 (the year of bulk transition to talkies), starting in '21. This film was released between My Man Godfrey ('36) and Nothing Sacred ('37), so she's in her prime here. She was between husbands: divorced W.Powell in '33, married C.Gable in '39. This is her 3rd of 4 films in this quest, although she has more music/musicals in her CV.

MacMurray (also b. 1908) was actually a musician, earning a living with his saxophone in earlier days. (He doesn't do well fingering the trumpet here.) Despite my youthful impression that he was just a somewhat befuddled dad (My Three Sons ran 1960-72), he's actually a 6'3" hunk in his salad days, as really shown off in No Time for Love ('43) with Claudette Colbert (a frequent costar) and same director Leisen, where he plays a sandhog, a worker digging out tunnels under water. (Colbert's a reporter.) This is his 14th film of 85 (throwing away the 3 bit parts in '29) since '35. The last was in '78; died in '91. He made only 9 music/musicals; we'll probably see him 6 more times in this quest.

Nice to see Butterworth take on some serious scenes; he's usually just the wealthy incompetent; here he's one of the musicians.

Fourth film for Dorothy Lamour; 2nd with a character name. The first Road to ... picture is Singapore ('40), and she does 11 films before that. (Yes, she's in all 7 with Hope & Crosby.) She'll be in a lot of films on this quest.

Anthony Quinn (b. 1915) looks that young, very handsome and virile, and a lot like son Francesco. We only see him in the bar fight early in the film. His lines are in Spanish (we're in Panama), and you can feel the heat when he's onscreen. This is his 6th of 139 credits, and we'll look for him again shortly in Waikiki Wedding,

If someone rescues this film from public domain hell, I'd like a restored copy. It's screwball, it's intimate, it's tragic, it's jazzy, it's good. One of those proving that lapsed copyright can happen to good films, even those produced by a major studio.

Paramount, dir. Leisen; 7

Ready, Willing and Able (1937), 6+

Two songwriters want to cast a British star in their new show.
(93 min) Released 1937-03-06
Director: Ray Enright
Stars: Ruby Keeler, Lee Dixon, Allen Jenkins, Wini Shaw, Jane Wyman.
Bobby Connolly ... musical numbers staged and directed by; Oscar nom'd for "Too Marvelous for Words"; Oscar 1938

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029467/

I enjoyed Lee Dixon again, his 2nd of 4 musical features. Unfortunately #3, The Singing Marine ('37) is not on dvd and not online. I have #4, and it's in '37.

Jane Wyman has a substantial small role as the receptionist of a successful producer (sponsor?). She gets several lines, is very sassy/savvy, managing the flakes who want to see her boss. She has more than one scene. And she was actually in the SCREEN credits after the finale. BIG step up in her career.

The singing & dancing:

• First scene after credits: The World Is My Apple, sung & danced by LD without pants for a total of 1 min.
• Enter the tailor, and they can't pay. LD sings him There's a Little Old House, offering half the revenue as payment instead.
• 15:05: RK with 32 chorus girls singing and tapping Handy with Your Feet, in a nightclub aboard trans-Atlantic liner, London to NYC. At the time, a "Handy" was a game to symbolize a famous saying or idiom with the hands, sometimes as pantomime, others with homonyms.
• 26:30: LD plays a fast-paced reprise of There's a Little Old House on his dispossessed piano on the sidewalk while the movers tap dance.
• 28:05: LD plays a sweet reprise of same on (player!) accordion to his landlady, attempting the same deal as with the tailor.
• 46:00: RA's dubber sings, and RK and LD dance to Just a Quiet Evening at a party for the imported Jane Clark (RK) in NYC. Ginger Rogers would have rejected that dress.
• 1:11:15: The "real" Jane Clark (WS), sounding like Helen Morgan, sings Sentimental and Melancholy at rehearsal.
• 1:26:30: RW&A is first of 11+ film appearances of the Whiting/Mercer standard Too Marvelous for Words, sung by WS echo/enhancing RA's dictation, then by his dubber and chorus girls. Message received by RK, she starts typing a reply, and we get a giant typewriter where she and LD tap on keys and chorus girl legs strike the "paper." (Cute dance generates + on my rating, not a place on the 'worthwhile dancing' list.  Oscar nom'd? Well, it didn't win.) Curtain.

It was great to have RK matched with LD; their dancing styles are complementary. But I miss Dick Powell: the quality of his voice and his acting. We don't really have enough comic support here, and he delivers some of that too.

This may be the last of RK's 9 movies in this quest. She only does 4 more, '38 straight drama at RKO, '41 musical at Columbia (I can rent/buy a copy online), one in '70, one in '89. Seems that she retired to marriage/family with 2nd/final husband.

This was the last of 17 credits for Ross Alexander. He was also in Flirtation Walk ('34) and Shipmates Forever ('35), but died in '37 (before the film was released), self-inflicted. Mini-bio makes it sound like guilt. He was a great presence here with a wonderful voice delivering rapid-fire dialog with authority, as one of the two songwriters trying to mount a show.

Warner, dir. Enright; 6+

My post on Oscar, Best Dance Direction, 1936-38

Trouble in Texas (1937), 4- {nm}

Rodeo stars are being killed with poisoned needles, and Tex Ritter is next on the list.
(63 min) Released 1937-03-06
Director: Robert N. Bradbury (as R.N. Bradbury)
Stars: Tex Ritter, Rita Hayworth, White Flash

Genres: Action | Comedy | Musical | Romance | Western
(4 genres removed when I looked at this 14 Mar 2018)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029694/

This disc was a "bonus" with a Playboy doc'y about Rita. Both audio and video quality are poor.

In the print I have, likely a re-release, RH is the name above the title; in IMDb, she's billed 3rd, and "as Rita Cansino". She appears immediately in the first scene. In the second,Tex Ritter sings. He does look a bit like his son John and grandson Jason. And a bit like Roy Rogers and Clint Black, or is that just the squint from needing sunglasses?

I guessed from Rita's wardrobe that we're in modern times, but she's traveling by stagecoach, so probably not? But the rodeo had stagecoach races, so maybe it was just being transported to the rodeo...? I never did figure it out.

This is primarily a cowboy movie. Lots of rodeo footage that looks shot silent, as in the playback is just a little too fast.

Rita sorta dances for 2 min starting at 34:40ish. The cowboy tapper before her is much better. And they shot her from the waist up for most of her time. Rita really can dance. See her 2 movies with Fred Astaire (You'll Never Get Rich ('41), You Were Never Lovelier ('42)) and 1 with Gene Kelly (Cover Girl ('44)); great when she had good choreography.

Well, this illustrates why I'm not including musical westerns in my quest, and I own a 50-pack just of Western public domain material. I found out that I really don't like them. I would throw them away, but at some point I'll get curious, and there are some famous ones on there.

prod. Boots and Saddles Pictures, distr. Grand National Pictures, dir. Bradbury; 4-

Head Over Heels (1937), 6-

Cafe entertainer has ambition, but teams with a disloyal partner, throwing her career and her love life into disarray.
(84 min) Released 1937-01-15
Director: Sonnie Hale
Stars: Jessie Matthews, Louis Borel, Robert Flemyng
Buddy Bradley ... dances arranged by

Genres: Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028983/
Watched online, pretty good print.

If this were my first JM movie, I might not have pursued more. She clearly has great singing and dancing skills, but they aren't used well here. And I can't tell the difference between the young men she's pursuing/ who're pursuing her (were there 2 or 3?). So I couldn't really follow the in's and out's of her love life. The only other topic is her career, so that's a big loss.

One of the songs JM sings here begins identically to (and repeats throughout) the song Always in All Ways sung by Jack Buchanan in Monte Carlo ('30). I couldn't tell you which song here, and without fast forward, I'm not going to try to find it now. But if I ever watch this again, I'd like to update this. The songwriters are different between the 2 movies.

Here's hoping future JM movies are better.

Director Sonnie Hale was JM's husband 1931-44.

Gaumont British Picture Corporation; dir. Hale; 6-

When You're in Love (1937), 6-

Artist Jimmy Hudson (Cary Grant) is stuck in Mexico unable to pay his hotel bill. Meanwhile, Louise Fuller (Grace Moore) opera singer is stuck in the same town unable to return to the US ... 
(110 min) Released 1937-02-12
Directors: Robert Riskin, Harry Lachman (uncredited)
Stars: Grace Moore, Cary Grant, Aline MacMahon, Henry Stephenson, Thomas Mitchell
Leon Leonidoff ... choreographer

Genres: Romance | Musical | Comedy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029761/

I would have acquired this to have a complete collection of CG (b. 1904) films. The quality is poor, although standard for a bootleg or public domain copy. (Hmm. April 2016, LATimes reports that GetTV has a restored copy it was to air that May. Interview about restoration. Searched in their Nov & Dec schedules; not mentioned.)

The Awful Truth ('37), CG's ripening in romcom, is the 3rd film released after this one. This is his 26th film; first one released in '32.

Got a kick out of the opening title: Grace Moore on her own card, then the movie's title and "with Cary Grant". So it reads "When You're in Love with Cary Grant." Raising my hand: "guilty".

But not in love with this film. He definitely shows indications that he'll arrive at comedy greatness, and he plays petulant and cynical well. But this plot doesn't make much sense. I doubt that a restored print would bridge the structural gaps. Or maybe the writers were just playing with daisies: he loves her, he loves her not, repeat. And while GM never explains to CG why she has to give the concert which motivates most of the plot, I missed the explanation too.

This is Riskin's only directing credit. A lot of his 37 writing credits (including this film) are among the best of classic Hollywood, but they are also the films he created with Frank Capra.

I was not so aware of GM (b. 1898) being older than CG as I had been in The King Steps Out (1936) with Franchot Tone. Maybe it was CG's cynicism, maybe it was the fuzzy print.

We get some decent operatic singing from GM, and her rendition of Minnie the Moocher is surprisingly good. So I'd watch a restored print, but maybe not this one again. Oh, who'm I kidding? If I watch all CG films in sequence, I wouldn't leave anything out.

Columbia, dir. Riskin & Lachman; 6-

On the Avenue (1937), 6+

Broadway producer satirizes an important New York family. The family sues but their daughter falls in love with producer.
(89 min) Released 1937-02-04
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Stars: Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye
Seymour Felix ... dances staged by

Genres: Musical | Comedy | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029345/

IMDb Trivia: "Remade as "Let's Make Love" (1960) but with the genders of the leads reversed: Marilyn Monroe played Dick Powell's role and Yves Montand played Madeleine Carroll's." Yes, well, same studio, and they shared the premise of famous person spoofed in a theatrical show, but with a huge difference. In 1960, the spoofed mogul learns to sing, dance and tell jokes to infiltrate the show's company as an impersonator of himself, and romances MM as a fellow actor. In 1937, the actor knows he's dating the heiress herself, and said actor is also writer/producer.

Most of the songs are by Irving Berlin. The best: I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm. Good production numbers here, but all bound by the realism of being staged in a theatre. Commentary says that Seymour Felix was loaned to Fox from MGM for this film, and Zanuck wanted the realism. AF dances well (again), and does excellent comedy work in the theatrical show. Very strange that AF pines for DP, and he treats her like a pal at best, and no one pines for AF.

I'm really not thrilled by the Ritz Brothers. Somehow I want them to come out of the manic performance and be real people once in a while. Not for a whole film, just let us see 2 sides in the same story. (I may have said this before: the Marx Bros were manic with a purpose (depose pomposity/authority), and climbed out of their mania to perform music, or show compassion for others. Ritz Bros are just manic because fast is funny and funny is their only purpose.) I must point out that the Ritz Bros dance really well. I'm tempted to put them on my list of worthwhile dancers, but enduring the mania is too high a price for enjoying the dancing. Their athleticism is used well here in the Slumming on Park Avenue number (scene 19), and their dancing in He Ain't Got Rhythm (Harry as an astronomer, lyrics about scientists), starting 5:50 for about 2 min.

This is already the 8th Alice Faye film on my musicals list: 3 in '35, 4 in '36, and I don't have her 1st 3 films. (I previously made an effort to collect as much of her work as I could.) According to the commentary on this disc, AF (b. 1915) graduated 8th grade at age 13 and went to Broadway to be in the chorus. Rudy Vallee discovered her. No wonder she looked so bad in the Jean Harlow shaved brows: she was too young in '35 (and it didn't suit her personality). Her eyebrows are more natural here.

Fox, dir. Del Ruth; 6+

T-Men (1947), 5 {nm}

Two US Treasury agents hunt a successful counterfeiting ring.
(92 min) Released 1947-12-15
Director: Anthony Mann
Stars: Dennis O'Keefe, Wallace Ford, Alfred Ryder, Charles McGraw

Genres: Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039881/

ClassicFlix was generous to live-stream their restoration of this film today. My rating is based on whether I'd want to watch this again, and I don't. The print is beautiful, and if you want to watch a film about this topic, this is well-acted and gritty enough to convey how dangerous this line of work must be. (I wonder how much longer counterfeiting currency will be a problem, given how much we transact electronically now, and supposedly in China, phones are already the primary mode of payment, not cash or cards.)

Of interest to me: the career of Dennis O'Keefe. I've seen his name on many musicals as a dancing extra, but not spotted him yet. Looking at his 250 movie credits (1930-64), he doesn't consistently play a character with a name until a few films after Saratoga ('37, about his 183rd credit), where, according to his IMDb bio, Clark Gable helped him along. In my musicals list, I'm at the beginning of '37, and he has credits in 23 of the 127 musicals I've watched. I thought Betty Grable, Lucille Ball, Jane Wyman and Paulette Goddard had to be persistent before they got noticed; their trajectories were vertical compared to his. (BTW, he was used in non-musicals in those early years too.) He has 6 musicals where his name appears high enough on the credits to show in a non-compact, non-thumbnail view on IMDb (49 musicals total), plus 4 more (of 8) with genre Music. None of them include the film that I envision when I hear his name: Brewster's Millions ('43), which is a comedy, and has eight (8!) incarnations thus far - oh, the last one is "in development", inflated to Billions.

T-Men's production companies have about 50 and 80 credits respectively; the distributor was active only from '47 to '50, so for noir/crime aficionados, it's a miracle this film is available, much less looking like it was duped fresh off the negative. Kudos to ClassicFlix for their work here.

High Hat (1937), 5

An opera singer whose career is on the wane finds newfound fame doing popular songs on the radio.
(70 min) Released 1937-01-01
Director: Clifford Sanforth
Stars: Frank Luther, Dorothy Dare, Lona Andre

Genres: Comedy | Music | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028999/
Watched online; fuzzy print, only 66 min.

I found nothing to recommend this. Everything is shrug-worthy: songs, stars, acting, plot. Some faces are familiar, but we have no male lead worth watching. Frank Luther made a few films, and composed most of the songs here, but doesn't have a lot of credits in IMDb, which makes sense to me.

I've seen Dorothy Dare a few times by now, and she looks good here, but isn't really credible as a failed opera singer who hates jazz music - and yet tap dances competently (there's no tap dancing in opera, and the closest you get to an opera singer who dances at all is Salome undulating with her 7 veils or John the Baptist's head, or in stories set later in history, whirling around a ballroom). 

Supporting players Franklin Pangborn and Robert Warwick add some familiarity, but it doesn't help.

Imperial Productions was active 1928-38, plus a couple of later credits that might not belong.

I've hit a couple of Republic musicals that were worthwhile, so I'm trying to stay open to Poverty Row and independent productions, but this one makes me want to narrow the field again. I won't... for now.

Imperial Productions, dir. Sanforth; 5

Dancing Feet (1936), 7-

Peyton Wells (Ben Lyon) rescues Judy Jones (Joan Marsh) from a very dull young man, at a sedate party given for her by her multi-millionaire grandfather Silas P. Jones (Purnell Pratt.) Judy... 
(70 min) Released 1936-01-20
Director: Joseph Santley
Stars: Ben Lyon, Joan Marsh, Edward J. Nugent

Genres: Comedy | Music
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027495/
Watched online.
Release falls between Strike Me Pink and Anything Goes.

Starting at minute 6:15, Nick Condos dances for a minute. At 1:04:20 the OTA radio dance lesson program begins, and various individuals are shown dancing at home or work, including chef Nick Condos dancing atop everything in his kitchen, including a 3-tier organizer where he reminds me of Bill Robinson dancing on his custom staircase in Harlem is Heaven ('32). The whole number, at 6 different venues with 1-2 dancers each, lasts only 4 minutes, but it's very good. Oddly, at the radio station, we glimpse a Condos brother in the audience (not dancing) on the right side of the screen; is it Nick too, or a brother?

The story is pretty good, and the actors look different enough that I can follow it despite their being almost all strange faces to me. Isabel Jewell will be one of the crash survivors in Lost Horizon ('37); in High Sierra ('41) her credit is "Blonde", which likely would be more apt in lower case. Lloyd Bridges is listed in the cast as "Young Man", but I didn't look for him.

Really only recommended because of Nick Condos (fore and aft appearances), and the rest of that closing number.

Republic, dir. Santley; 7-

The Singing Kid (1936), 6+

Singing star loses his voice, recuperates in the country, meets aspiring playwright and her daughter.
(85 min) Released 1936-04-03
Directors: William Keighley, Busby Berkeley (uncredited)
Stars: Al Jolson, Sybil Jason, Beverly Roberts, E.E.Horton, Allen Jenkins
Bobby Connolly ... numbers staged by
William Keighley ... numbers staged by

Genres: Drama | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028257/
Release falls between The Great Ziegfeld and Captain January.

Jolson keeps singing his hits, reprising them from movies he already made, and previewing them for movies to come. Some are in my head from cartoons. It's a little confusing, because some of those song titles are also movie titles. And this title is too similar to 1928's The Singing Fool. But I like him. And his songs.

Welcome addition: Cab Calloway and his orchestra. Even though we have 2 dance directors, and 1 is BB, the dancing didn't impress me.

Full songs by AJ:

• 3:00 I Love to Sing-a, sung by AJ & CC w/orchestra on facing penthouse balconies (great matte work!)
• 24:00 The Swingin'est Man in Town, sung by CC w/orch & black chorus girls and dozens of extras on stage for theatre performance, joined by AJ in blackface; shifts to
• 26:00 Save Him, Sister, above joined by Wini Shaw in blackface
• 59:30 You're the Cure for What Ails Me, AJ & Sybil Jason (child) while fishing in country
• 1:05:30 I Love to Sing-a, AJ broadcasting, moves out to the street, still singing with Yacht Boys, blending in Mammy. They're trying to convince him to update his style: become a crooner.
• 1:22:00 reprise of Cure by CC and Sing-a by AJ

Nice to see integrated cast. Too bad there's so much blackface.

Warner, dir. Keighley & Berkeley; 6+

So Big! (1932), 7 {nm}

Following the death of Selena's father, she's offered a job as a teacher in a small town and a new chapter of her life begins.
(81 min) Released 1932-04-29
Director: William A. Wellman
Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Dickie Moore, Bette Davis

Genres: Drama | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023491/

This is even better than I remembered. Ayn Randian almost, but without large-scale human endeavor. The heroes are a farmer and 2 artists; the holder of shallow values is shamed, but will he change? Great stuff to walk out of a theatre contemplating, and to dare pose the question in the height of the Depression is amazing.

Stanwyck starts out a little shaky; I wonder if those scenes were filmed early. Bette Davis is wonderful and so with very attractive makeup for her. Dickie Moore is impressive in his portrayal. REALLY glad I got a copy again. And that I have multi-region players. The print is so-so; if a studio release is ever available, might be worth the investment.

This is the 2nd of 5 pairings of Stanwyck and Wellman, and now I have them all.

Warner, dir. Wellman; 7

The Singing Fool (1928), 6+

A singing waiter and composer (Al Jolson) loves two women (Betty Bronson, Josephine Dunn), conquers Broadway and holds his dying son, singing "Sonny Boy."
(105 min) Released 1928-09-19
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Stars: Al Jolson, Betty Bronson, Josephine Dunn

Genres: Musical | Drama
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019388/

This is the next integrated sound film, or at least the next musical; no trivia entry to confirm either. Good to see this transition film between The Jazz Singer ('27) and the all-talkies of 1929. This has a large portion shot silent, accompanied by music and title-carded, but a much larger portion of talking and singing than TJS.

This is definitely a drama, and Jolson interacts well with the small child playing his son. (AJ didn't have children of his own, adopted, until '35.) It was nice to see divorcing parents behave civilly. I wan't particularly drawn into AJ's grief, but he didn't overplay it. (I'm used to seeing him in blackface, so I don't think that was a factor.)

Full songs:

• 14:15 It All Depends on You, AJ on nightclub stage
• 22:30 I'm Sitting on Top of the World, AJ on nightclub stage. At one point they go in for a closeup at a slightly different angle, and the sync is seamless, as though they were filming with 2 cameras.
• 26:00 There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder, AJ on nightclub stage
• 48:00 Sonny Boy, AJ in son's room, as lullaby
• 1:12:20 Keep Smiling at Trouble, AJ in backstage office playing piano
• 1:23:20 Sonny Boy, AJ in son's hospital room, again as lullaby.
• 1:37:10 Sonny Boy, AJ onstage in blackface

Despite the poster, there's very little dancing here, and it's shot from a great distance and silent, playing back too fast.

Although this is an official studio release, parts of the film are very damaged. But I didn't notice that during the songs, so either they're in better shape, or AJ's performance distracted me.

Warner, dir. Bacon; 6+

One in a Million (1936), 7-

American theatrical manager (Menjou) discovers Henie preparing for the Olympics in Switzerland and brings her to Madison Square Garden.
(95 min) Released 1936-12-31
Director: Sidney Lanfield
Stars: Sonja Henie, Adolphe Menjou, Jean Hersholt, Don Ameche, The Ritz Bros
Jack Haskell ... skating ensembles, Oscar nom for "Skating Ensemble"; Oscars 1937
Lew Schreiber ... assistant choreographer
Nick Castle ... choreographer (uncredited)

Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028063/

SH's first of 10 musicals ('36-'45; 13 acting credits total).

I like Henie, Menjou, Hersholt, Ameche, and the Ritz Brothers didn't irritate too much. The music is pleasant, the plot is coherent (except a skip at the end), and the ice dancing and other musical numbers are distributed well throughout (although more ensemble skating would have been welcome).

It's not at all clear to me which "Skating Ensemble" is the nominated scene. Perhaps it's the accumulation of them? Here's where we get Henie skating to music (other songs and musical interludes are not listed here):

• 17:30 Greta's (SH) practice turns into Spencer's (AM) fantasy of a production with lots of women skaters dressed in gowns to suggest they are mobile snow-covered trees through which Greta can dance. (4 min)
• 44:30 Greta dances an exhibition without other skaters, so this would not qualify as "Ensemble". (2 min)
• 1:13:30 Greta gives her Olympic competition performance. (2 min)
• 1:25:00 Greta performs at Madison Square Garden with a bunch of male supporters for a few seconds, then alone. (2.5 min) Then we get a bull+toreador routine on ice by the Ritz Bros. Well at least 1 Ritz; the other 2 are in costume as the bull.
• 1:31:15 Big ensemble (male and female) skate in pairs for 0.5 min, then Greta stops them with her skating for 2 more min.

So the Oscar nom MUST have been for the earliest routine. At least there the women moved on ice while Greta moved. And they did a nice concentric circles thing while she spun in the center.

Hopefully Fox will increase the length of these routines. We're used to fantastic situations where the scenery changes improbably (even with reflective floors sliding over canals), and which last 8 minutes or more. Perhaps the ice, or SH's sensibilities, will keep them locked into a more realistic, and therefore shorter, presentation. We have to wait until Sept '37 to see the next installment.

If you don't know much about Sonja Henie, invest some time in reading about the scope and duration of her Olympic accomplishments (3 Olympiads! plus 10 World and 6 European titles), how she shaped competition both in the style of skating and the style of costumes worn. She is the mother of modern Olympic skating. I can recommend this documentary on Amazon Prime, which also covers her conquering Hollywood. She was no shrinking violet.

Fox, dir. Lanfield; 7-

My post on Oscar, Best Dance Direction, 1936-38

Sitting on the Moon (1936), 5

A pair of hit songwriters fall in love with an ex-film star and her friend, but a blackmailer arrives to disrupt the romances. Based on William Field's short story "Temperamental Lady."
(66 min) Released 1936-09-11
Director: Ralph Staub
Stars: Roger Pryor, Grace Bradley, William Newell

Genres: Comedy | Drama | Music | Romance
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028260/
Watched online at Amazon Prime.

Watched out of sequence; falls between Swing Time and Stage Struck.

I confess to not watching too closely, and not following the plot. The title song was sung too often. The male leads weren't handsome; all the leads were boring. Ended abruptly.

Republic, dir. Staub; 5

College Holiday (1936), 6+

Expecting to put on a musical show, singing and dancing college students are brought to a struggling hotel to be guinea pigs in an ancient Greek-themed eugenics experiment.
(86 min) Released 1936-12-19
Director: Frank Tuttle
Stars: Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen
LeRoy Prinz ... choreographer
Dave Gould ... ensembles (uncredited)

Genres: Comedy | Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027456/
Watched online; pretty good quality.
Watched out of sequence; falls between Stowaway and Three Smart Girls.

I found this more enjoyable than some of the Burns & Allen films I have on disc. For instance, B&A dance, which I like. (They contribute greatly to my enjoyment of the Astaire film A Damsel in Distress ('37).) Plus we get a lot of other dancing, as predicted by credits to 2 dance directors, but not enough that I'll add this film to my "with worthwhile dancing" list.

Too much time is spent by players in blackface performing the "College Minstrelsy" number. They do a camera trick where they change the stage lights and Martha Raye alters from blackface to regular makeup, and later back again; did I miss the film cut for that transition?

We have some nice supporting couples: a young Leif Erikson paired with young (and pretty) Marsha Hunt, and Johnny Downs tapping with Eleanore Whitney. (The dancing pair are not on the radar of this Watching Musicals quest. Neither was this movie, btw.) Both pairs are welcome additions.

Yes, the eugenics storyline is offensive now, but currently we talk about altering genes to remove hereditary diseases from individuals. That idea is on the same continuum as eugenics. And this film doesn't take the idea very seriously. Toward the end of the movie, the woman providing financial backing for the project is swayed to discard eugenics just because she's found something new.

Paramount, dir. Tuttle; 6+

Happy Go Lucky (1936), 5+

A singer (Venable) believes her marine pilot husband, accused of treason, has died in the Pacific. She finds a man who looks exactly like her husband dancing in a club act. Realizing it is her husband, and thinking he must have amnesia, she sets out to help him recover his memory and clear his name.
(69 min) Released 1936-12-14
Director: Aubrey Scotto
Stars: Phil Regan, Evelyn Venable, Jed Prouty

Genres: Musical | Comedy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027718/
Watched online. Found on Amazon Prime and on YouTube. The print is fuzzy and dark.
Watched out of sequence; falls between (Born to Dance, then) With Love and Kisses and Stowaway.

Phil Regan (1906–1996) has 23 film credits ('33-'46), including 4 already blogged here. Evelyn Venable (1913–1993) has 24 movie credits ('33-'43), including The Little Colonel ('35) as mother to ST and Yankee stepdaughter to former Confederate Lionel Barrymore.

I'm sensing a trend for the Poverty Row and indie productions: lack of full documentation on the Soundtracks page. Here we have 3 songs and no singers.

The only justification for the genre Musical is Regan singing frequently, sometimes on stage, once to communicate his escape plan. He has a good voice and is handsome and athletic. No idea why he didn't become more prominent. He has at least as much personality as Tony Martin, who had more success. I have no idea why the synopsis describes Venable as a singer here. She didn't sing, and no one said she was a singer.

The film has some entertainment value from the strange plot, with fighting and errant plane flying. The resolution is a bit too quick, especially with regard to Venable's character. But don't seek this out as a musical or as a comedy. It's just a spy | mistaken identity | adventure thriller with some songs and some comic relief. Wow, that could describe a bunch of Alfred Hitchcock films; I can even think of a couple with singing. So you have plenty of better choices out there.

Republic, dir. Scotto; 5+

With Love and Kisses (1936), 5+

A naive farmer writing songs tries his chances in New York. Unlucky, he is helped by a crooner who lusts after one of his songs. Ignoring the real value of his composition, he sold it for ... 
(67 min) Released 1936-12-07
Director: Leslie Goodwins
Stars: Pinky Tomlin, Toby Wing, Kane Richmond

Genres: Comedy | Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029787/
Watched online; bad fuzzy print.
Watched out of sequence; falls between Born to Dance and Stowaway.

Pinky Tomlin (1907–1987) has 14 actor credits (1935-52), and 20 soundtrack credits (1935-2004) almost all as writer (music and lyrics), some as performer. Trivia item says he was briefly engaged to the much-engaged Toby Wing.

Glad I got to see Toby (1915-2001) act. She has 11 acting credits in silent features (1924-6), 33 more in talkies (1931-8), of which 4 are as BB's favorite showgirl (1931-3). Her singing seems dubbed here, but I can't be sure (none of the Soundtracks list any singer). She's completely competent as an actress, although not much is required here. But she doesn't sound like a bubbleheaded showgirl, as her non-speaking roles would suggest. She plays the competent sister of a drunken showbiz lawyer/agent, and they help country bumpkin songwriter Tomlin get his proper compensation, despite his having been fleeced by gangsters to sell his songs for a small flat fee.

The cow on the poster doesn't just inspire Tomlin's writing on his farm. He actually sends for her to come to New York to help him fulfill his songwriting obligations. So this is not your usual musical.

Pleasant but not compelling. If I hadn't been aware of Toby from BB, I wouldn't have paid any attention to this.

Conn Pictures Corporation (as Melody Pictures Corporation), distr. Ambassador Pictures, dir. Goodwins; 5+