(120 min) Released 1937-09-04
Director: William Keighley
Stars: Dick Powell, Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians, Ted Healy, Rosemary and Priscilla Lane, Johnie Davis, Buck and Bubbles, Lee Dixon.
Busby Berkeley ... creator: finale / director: finale; Oscar nom'd; Oscars 1938
Genres: Musical
DP and Fred Waring are credited above the title, others through Buck & Bubbles are credited after, Lee Dixon not until post-film titles. There must be a (sad) story behind the fall. He appears throughout the film, but has no featured dance.
This is Johnie Davis' first of 13 credits; 3 more appear on this quest. His singing, especially of Hooray for Hollywood in Hollywood Hotel ('37) iu quite welcome. Each Lane sister gets a song and plenty of plot; this is the first of PL's 22 credits (last in '48).
This list of Musical numbers is not worth reading:
- Ch 2: We're Working Our Way Through College sung by ensemble walking through campus
- Ch 3: Old King Cole sung by JD rehearsing the varsity show in the gym; B&B, as janitors, turn the plot by suggesting DP is needed to shape the Varsity Show, but they kowtow
- Ch 7: We're Working Our Way Through College sung by DP and ensemble on Senior Walk
- Ch 9: I'm Dependable sung by PL and FW at a school dance
- Ch 10: On With the Dance sung by RL at the same dance
- Ch 11: You've Got Something There sung by DP to RL on an evening campus walk
- Ch 13: You've Got Something There danced by John Bubbles in a school boiler room
- Ch 19: Have You Got Any Castles, Baby? sung briefly by PL & ensemble in dress rehearsal
- Ch 20: Buck and Bubbles medley in off-white top hat and tails, mostly danced by Bubbles; the pair are alone on stage; are Buck's clothes always poorly fit?
- Ch 21: Finale medley, military drill
- Ch 22: Finale college songs, lots of reverse footage to "precision" letter forming
- Ch 23 of 23: Finale, Love Is on the Air Tonight, now the entrance footage in reverse
I can't believe the Finale was Oscar nom'd; could only be for Berkeley's prior work.
No matter how cheerful the cast, this is one dreary film. I ran it more than once. I slept in between. If I hadn't made the scene list before watching the film, this blog would be a lot shorter. I'm pushing my rating down to a 5. The only reason to put this in the player is for ch 20, and that's not worth the effort either. Whatever contributions Bubbles made to the evolution of tap, they are either subtle, or just absent here. (And yes, B&B's dancing scenes could easily be excised by the regions that did such things. When they appear in the story, they are very deliberately submissive.)
The cartoon Have You Got Any Castles?, included as a bonus feature (also on GC2), is nice, does the song more justice, and includes a nice Bill Robinson moment.
