(97 min) Released 1938-06-01
Director: Ray Enright
Stars: Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins.
Busby Berkeley ... dance numbers created and directed by
Genres: Comedy | Musical | Romance
I find 2 things comforting: that I bought this in a box set, so it sorta cost nothing, and both Warner cartoons on this disc have not been released elsewhere. The obsessive collector in me might have bought the disc just for those.
So, for a film with plot centering on a nightclub chorus line sailing to France to compete in an international ballet contest, you'd think we'd get a lot of rehearsal, and girls bucking the proscribed technique to wriggle back to swing. Yeah, not so much. We only get showgirls wiggling in Ch 3, and the real ballet corps for a few moments in Ch 24, and some snippets of the competition (with camera askew) in Ch 26. Finally, in Ch 27, after a lot of singing, we get a Rockettes-style kick/tap line, again shown with camera askew (why not upside down, BB?), and for less than a minute. More dancing in Ch 28, but not much. And by the way, the only Gold Digger is RV's ex-wife.
I should start a list of mistaken identity plots. I wonder if every musical has at least 1 such thread. Here the signal for the kidnappers is a briefcase, which is given to the wrong man. It's a minor twist, completely excisable.
Soundtracks:
- Ch 3: I Wanna Go Back to Bali, Sung by Rudy Vallee and the showgirls, Played by The Schnickelfritz band
- Ch 4: Listen to the Mockingbird, Performed by the Schnickelfritz Band
- Ch 11: Daydreaming (All Night Long), Sung by Rudy Vallee
- Ch 12: Colonel Corn, Performed by the Schnickelfritz Band
- Ch 13: Old Hank, performed by the Schnickelfritz Band
- Ch 15: A Stranger in Paree, Sung by Rudy Vallee and Rosemary Lane
- Ch 17: Tiger Rag, performed by the Schnickelfritz Band
- Ch 27: The Latin Quarter, Performed by Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Allen Jenkins and Mabel Todd, Performed by the Schnickelfritz Band
- Ch 28 of 29: I Wanna Go Back to Bali, Performed by the Schnickelfritz Band, Sung by Rudy Vallee and the showgirls, danced by many but very briefly
The Schnickelfritz Band was needed in 7 of 9 musical numbers? There's a story behind this, but I don't know what. On this site about the band, it says they were hired last minute, so their scenes are mostly alone with reaction shots cut in. Did BB get "sick" and not choreograph enough?
I've not yet learned to like Rudy Vallee. Maybe a tiny bit when he does a decent send-up of Maurice Chevalier. Really, Allen Jenkins carries this movie for me. I like some of the songs, so it doesn't get a 5.
Warner, dir. Enright; 6-
