1h 38min | Musical | 30 May 1941
Director: Herbert Wilcox
Stars: Anna Neagle, Ray Bolger, John Carroll, EE Horton, Helen Westley.
Aida Broadbent ... choreographer
Leon Leonidoff ... choreographer
Watched on AmazonPrime; poor print, especially poor audio; your megapack copy at Classic Musicals 50, disc 1B is better.
I had seen and rated this before. The enjoyable parts are the dance/production numbers within the circus and at his family home. (I think the synopsis above should say that HIS family objected to the love match; I don't see any of her relatives in the film.)
The opening Ringmaster song here reminds me of The Greatest Show on Earth number from Lady in the Dark, which was on Broadway Jan 23, 1941 - Jun 15, 1941. The first film version of Sunny ('30) does not list this song; its Soundtrack is full of 1925 tunes from the Kern/Hammerstein/Harbach stage show, 4 of which appear here. (Lady in the Dark's song has more depth, since it begins a dream sequence illuminating the roots of the title character's psychological problems. I have a copy of the '54 TV production; the '44 movie omits that number.) Ray Bolger is the ringmaster, and dressed in top hat and tails, he performs much of the same routine as he did in The Great Ziegfeld ('36, but the costume here was horrible).
The songs Who? and Sunny are familiar because they are both featured in the Jerome Kern "bio-pic" 'Til the Clouds Roll By ('46). Anna Neagle and Ray Bolger dance together beautifully to Who? They both play male sailors in Jack Tar and Sam Gob, singing and dancing a little bit.
At his home, AN sings Those Endearing Young Charms, which wins family matriarch Aunt Barbara (Helen Westley). At the wedding, a comedy couple dances a strenuously funny adagio to a nicely arranged rendition of Who with Ravel's Bolero structure and rhythms. Makes me wonder if that can be done with any song.
The same couple dances again back at the circus. Then Bolger does another tap dance to a jazzy rendition of Who. In the Tap! Appendix for "Ray Bolger, Anna Neagle (possibly)", but Anna Neagle doesn't tap in this one (don't think I've seen her tap yet.)
If a version came out from a reliable source (VCI, Image), I'd consider buying a good copy of this for the dancing.
Suffolk Productions, distr. RKO, dir. Wilcox; 6
