(80 min) Released 1938-05-06
Director: Frank Tuttle
Stars: Bing Crosby, Mary Carlisle, Beatrice Lillie
Genres: Comedy | Musical
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030078/
Watched online, fuzzy print uploaded in 6 segments.
Didn't hold my attention. The beginning seems completely unrelated to the bulk of the movie; a reunion held in a menagerie of 4 high school teammates who sing. Their reunion continues until they're in underwear (doesn't this sound like a different sort of film altogether?), and the zoo keeper decides to free the animals. Huh? What? He gets in the water with a seal, who bites him on the ass, so he catches the seal (yeah, right, it's Andy Devine, not Johnny Weissmuller) and bites IT on the ass.)
Later, we see that one of the 4, Bing, is an MD, who threatens a plump (not obese) middle-aged patient that either she work off the fat, or he'll cut it off with the long carving knife he holds. (Where's a cop when you need one?)
Somehow this doctor has time to substitute for a policeman friend in a body-guarding gig, and the aunt, Beatrice Lillie, of the guardee is putting on a benefit for the policeman's fund. (I was hopeful when I saw her name. But I'm not sure anyone could have made this palatable. She has only 7 credits; I remember her from Thoroughly Modern Millie ('67).)
So we get some songs, a big gypsy dancing number at the benefit (near the end), and some extra mysteries to solve. Oh, I get it now: they had a special file cabinet/dumpster with discarded ideas, reached in, grabbed a handful, and made this movie. Of course.
Recommended for insomnia sufferers who won't go OCD trying to follow the plot.
I didn't rate it 4 because I didn't/couldn't pay sufficient attention to be sure that's deserved.
Emanuel Cohen Productions (as Major Pictures Corp.), distr. Paramount, dir. Tuttle; 5
