1h 10min | Musical | 1 August 1944
Directors: Joseph H. Lewis, Edgar G. Ulmer (uncredited)
Stars: Benny Fields, Gladys George, Alan Dinehart, Roscoe Karns.
Jack Boyle ... choreographer (as Johnny Boyle)
Watched on AmazonPrime, also on a megapack. OK print.
I really need to stop rolling my eyes when I see PRC. Of the 6 of their musicals I watched since Dec 6, I rated 3 of them a 6, with 455 for the others.
This one has 2 Oscar noms: 1 for best original song "Remember Me to Carolina", and 1 for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture to Leo Erdody and Ferde Grofé Sr. And I concur on both counts.
Ferde Grofe, perhaps best known as the composer of Grand Canyon Suite (violins make donkey sounds; if I ever rode down the Canyon on a burro, I'd want his album playing in my headphones), had a sparse H'wood career: 14 Movie Soundtrack credits, active 1929-1979 (7 years posthumous), 5 Movie Composer credits, active '35-'77 and 3 additional Movie Music Dept credits. This is the 5th film in this quest for which he's credited.
This is the last of 3 movie credits for Benny Fields. I've heard of his wife, Blossom Seeley, but I don't know why. In his trivia, it says Bing Crosby called him the original crooner, and I definitely hear that style in the 6 songs he sings here. The 7th, the title song, is only danced by a soloist, Jack Boyle, the choreographer above. In the Tap! Appendix for Judy Clark, Benny Fields; not sure I saw BF tapping, did see JC dancing.
As excuses go for putting blackface onscreen, this one is reasonable: it chronicles the life of a minstrel performer (which BF's bio says he was too). And the fact that modern ('44) producers want to mount a minstrel revival is given extra credence because they're trying to capitalize on the daughter of a (thought dead) former minstrel star. I think they mention that minstrel is now passe. The most recent film where I mention minstrel in these posts is Babes on Broadway (1941).
At one point I wondered if he performed in cork because he's slightly ugly. But then he performed without cork, and it was much better: his face was able to act what he sang. I'll never understand why minstrel was popular, especially in non-slavery regions.
I won't reveal any more plot here, in case I want to watch it again.
PRC, dir. Lewis & Ulmer; 6
