53min | Comedy, Musical | 31 October 1941
Director: LeRoy Prinz
Stars: Frances Langford, Johnny Downs, Marjorie Woodworth
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033323/
watch on AmazonPrime; also have on a megapack
You know that when spoofing Brynn Mar and Princeton, the best the writers do is rename the schools to Mar Brynn and Quincton, your expectations should be low.
FL (1913-2005) had 29 film credits (1935-1954); this is her 11th. And she's a little long in the tooth to play a co-ed.
I suppose JD is the guy stuck impersonating a co-ed at MarB. I forget why the Q'ton boys wanted to infiltrate - some sort of revenge.
Director L.Prinz has 91 credits for choreography, which might explain why we have no dance director credit, despite having a lot of chorus dancing. I don't think I blame him for the weak film; the writers raised their hands early for that. He directs only 1 other film.
In the Tap! Appendix for Johnny Downs. Unfortunately, I didn't look for that, and don't remember his tapping.
And the cast is not exciting either. Other than FL, the only familiar faces were Alan Hale, Jr. and Noah Beery, Jr. (looking sooooo young, oh father of Rockford), and they appeared onscreen together a bit. Very Hollywood 2.0. Oh, I'm sensing a deliberate casting stunt: 2 other Jr's appear in the onscreen credits. Although Joe Brown Jr's IMDb bio says nothing about his paternity, his middle initial is E. The 4th Jr does link to a silent actor father. And one of the writers: Hal Roach Jr. Plus Margaret Roach was in the uncredited cast.
One other face was kinda familiar: Harry Langdon. You know, Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, ..., Langdon. He was a significant character in Hallelujah I'm a Bum ('33). Had I been paying better attention I might have noticed Marie Windsor as the Carrot Queen.
Total fluff that wasn't terribly pleasant, so I'll agree with my prior rating. But FL sang some songs.
Hal Roach Studios, distr. UA, dir. Prinz; 5
