1h 43min | Biography, Comedy, Musical | 30 April 1942 | Color
Director: Irving Cummings
Stars: Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, John Sutton, Carole Landis.
Hermes Pan ... choreographer
Val Raset ... choreographer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035103/
Bootleg, mediocre print.
In the Tap! Appendix for Rita Hayworth, Hermes Pan. Their number (On the Gay White Way) is ok, but it's ballroom not tap; HP gets his hair mussed. She has another number (On the Banks of the Wabash) partially partnered by a male (but not HP, I don't think) that makes a few tapping sounds. Later the chorus does a soft shoe with her (Me and My Fella and a Big Umbrella).
Soundtracks lists 11 songs. Probably half are danced by RH. But it's mostly old-timey stuff, and all on the stage with dull camera work.
I was able to tolerate VM in Song of the Islands because he was relentlessly upbeat. Here he does plenty of brooding, and I especially dislike that. And why they put someone who cannot sing or dance in a musical escapes me. His voice double is not convincing.
The biopic nature of the story is not interesting. And being in color makes me more aware of the sets being artificial.
I'm happy to watch Mae West standing and singing songs of this period, especially given her bawdy twist on things. But this movie makes the era seem dull.
Fox, dir. Cummings; 6
