capsule reviews: the busby berkeley collection, volume two

in the final stretch now. films are gold diggers of 1937, hollywood hotel, varsity show, and gold diggers in paris.





gold diggers of 1937 (1936)
dir. lloyd bacon, busby berkeley
dick powell, joan blondell, glenda farrell, victor moore, lee dixon, osgood perkins, charles d brown, rosalind marquis, irene ware, william b davidson, olin howland, charles halton, paul irving, harry c bradley, joseph crehan, susan fleming, george beranger, antonio filauri, harrison greene, gordon hart, max hoffman jr, selmer jackson, frances morris, jack mower, cliff saum, george sorel, bobby watson, iris adrian, loretta andrews, william arnold, sheila bromley, mary cassidy, irene coleman, joe cunningham, virginia dabney, sheila darcy, dudley dickerson, don downen, ruth eddings, frank faylen, eddie fetherston, eddie foster, harry harvey, arthur stuart hull, bobby jarvis, john lester johnson, naomi judge, lucille keeling, milton kibbee, lois lindsay, shirley lloyd, betty mack, miriam marlin, jane marshall, carl mcbride, betty mcivor, edmund mortimer, louis natheaux, david newell, jack norton, wedgwood nowell, tom ricketts, ronald r rondell, jacqueline saunders, louise stanley, myrtle stedman, charles sylber, fred 'snowflake' toones, victoria vinton, william wayne, marjorie weaver, pat west, tom wilson, eric wilton, jane wyman
dvd, personal collection.

producer j j hobart (victor moore) has a new project in the works, but he's unaware that his two partners (charles d brown and osgood partners) have lost all his money playing the stock market. quickly, the partners try to get hobart set up with a million-dollar life insurance policy, courtesy desperate insurance salesman rosmer peck (dick powell), so they can off him and collect the money.

I'm confounded by why dick powell looks so pleased with himself in this film, as he's rocking the worst facial hair the world has ever seen. it could be that it's his recent romance with joan blondell (they married in 1936, so they were either engaged or newlyweds during filming); the two are really obviously in love and undressing each other with their eyes every other line.

but the material, unfortunately, is weak, far below the talents of either of them. by this time, the plot was growing shopworn, and the picture doesn't really do enough to capture or maintain interest. admittedly, the 'off our partner for his insurance money' premise is a semi-new twist on the old variation, but any comedic potential said premise has is squandered on unfunny comedy -- victor moore is Not Funny at all in this film -- and glenda farrell's bland, moralising role as a good-hearted gold digger. (farrell is a joy to watch, as she was in gold diggers of 1935, but the bad-girl spark that made her an interesting character is gone. preachiness? in my gold diggers? it's more likely than you think, and just as loathsome.)

and snappy, smart joan blondell -- ugh. like farrell, she's been stripped of all the bite that makes her good, and despite the fact that she's the female lead, she feels like a second-class player, good enough only to show up to hang onto powell's arm every now and then. her real-life chemistry with powell is there, but the on-screen relationship is badly underwritten.

so let's ask: do the musical numbers save this from being entirely wretched? nope! 'speaking of the weather' is a half-decent number at a garden party, enlivened by some snazzy tapping and acrobatics, and the finale, 'all's fair in love and war,' does have some neat flag-waving imagery. but neither song is particularly catchy, and the numbers measure up poorly to some of berkeley's best work. perhaps if it hadn't followed such superlative examples of the musical genre, then it wouldn't be such a disappointment; but since we know what berkeley was capable of, its failings are that much more glaring.




hollywood hotel (1937)
dir. busby berkeley
dick powell, rosemary lane, lola lane, hugh herbert, ted healy, glenda farrell, johnnie davis, alan mowbray, mabel todd, allyn joslyn, grant mitchell, edgar kennedy, louella parsons, frances langford, raymond paige, jerry cooper, ken niles, duane thompson, benny goodman, benny goodman orchestra, eddie acuff, pearl adams, don barclay, curt bois, sonny bupp, leonard carey, allan conrad, georgie cooper, william b davidson, alan davis, helen dickson, lester dorr, marianne edwards, sarah edwards, demetris emanuel, betty farrington, fritz feld, jerry fletcher, allen fox, harry fox, eddie graham, harrison greene, george guhl, lionel hampton, john harron, susan hayward, al herman, robert homans, paul irving, harry james, milton kibbee, owen king, gene krupa, carole landis, ethelreda leopold, jean maddox, wally maher, jerry mandy, william mansell, frances morris, jackie morrow, jack mower, david newell, spec o'donnell, george offerman jr, george o'hanlon, jean perry, ronald reagan, john ridgely, constantine romanoff, joseph romantini, clinton rosemond, jeffrey sayre, janet shaw, al shean, dina smimova, libby taylor, david leo tillotson, rosella towne, joan valerie, bobby watson, billy wayne, perc westmore, leo white, teddy wilson, dan wolheim, william worthington
dvd, personal collection.

happy days are here again for saxophonist ronnie bowers (dick powell): the same day he lands in hollywood to fulfill a ten-week contract, the studio heads request him to attend a film premiere with the glamorous mona marshall (lola lane). but mona, who's just thrown a fit over losing out on a plum role, refuses to attend, so the heads quickly hire her stunt double (rosemary lane) to fill in. ronnie soon falls for 'mona,' who's unable to reveal her true identity.

hey, did you know olivia havilland's dreamboat is benny goodman? neither did I until I watched hollywood hotel, a very good comedy that stops just short of being great.

the problems could have been easily remedied: mabel todd's character, the kid sister of egotistical actress mona, should have been dispensed with entirely. while todd keeps cropping up as the 'comedy relief' (hah!) in a lot of these films, she's worse than usual here, playing a character who is so stupid that I thought she was literally retarded. hugh herbert, as mona's braindead father, is equally useless, and provides the same number of laughs todd does. his most cringe-inducing spot comes in a brief blackface bit, which is even more gratuitous than usual.

while they were chopping out todd and herbert, they could have dispensed with a couple of musical numbers, like 'sing, sing, sing' and 'I've got a heartful of music,' both performed in an interminable scene by the benny goodman orchestra. (it's not the orchestra's presence I object to; it's the fact that the movie halts dead while they perform and the scene feels about four times the length of any other.) because the film runs an hour and fifty minutes, and many of the musical numbers are stashed in the second half of the film, it gets kind of tiresome to have long musical number after long musical number -- and none, it should be noted, with excessive busby berkeley staging! -- especially some of the blander ones.

but the soundtrack is often quite good, too. 'let that be a lesson to you,' albeit another overlong number, sparkles; 'I'm like a fish out of water,' a powell/lane duet, is cute; and 'sing, you son of a gun' and 'hooray for hollywood' are new favourites of mine.

like everything else, the plot could have benefited from some trimming to avoid some of the endless mistakes and misunderstandings, but it's solid and funny from the outset. rosemary and lola lane both relish their roles -- and rosemary really is a dead ringer for her sister -- and glenda farrell is back in top wisecracking form as mona's erstwhile secretary (hooray!). as always, hollywood nails it when it comes to satirising its inner workings, and there's an sassy pleasure to watching this film. it's probably the closest thing to berkeley's pre-code efforts -- not quite there, but almost.




varsity show (1937)
dir. william keighley
dick powell, fred waring and his pennsylvanians, ted healy, rosemary lane, priscilla lane, walter catlett, johnnie davis, ford washington lee, john william sublett, fred waring, sterling holloway, mabel todd, scotty bates, george macfarland, poley mcclintock, lee dixon, halliwell hobbes, roy atwell, edward brophy, ben welden, emma dunn, kenneth anspach, veda ann borg, buck and bubbles, glen cavender, robert clayton, don downen, jane doyle, john george doyle, earl dwire, sarah edwards, maxine fisher, sol gorss, john harron, buddy henry, harry hollingsworth, stuart holmes, robert homans, tom kennedy, carole landis, wade lane, al lloyd, wilfred lucas, jack mower, spec o'donnell, virginia pitman, cliff saum, ferris taylor, rosella towne, tom wilson, betty wonder, tommy wonder, walter young
dvd, personal collection.

the students of winfield college are trying to put together their annual varsity show, but their stodgy faculty advisor (walter catlett) refuses to allow anything modern or hip in the production. the students decide to turn to winfield alumnus chuck daly (dick powell), a broadway star, and have him direct the show. unbeknownst to them, however, daly is all washed up in hollywood.

I can't help it. ever since good news, I've had a soft spot for collegiate musicals, and this is no exception. it's silly as all-get-out, and nowhere near the same league as sparkling mgm triumphs like best foot forward and of course,good news, but it has that winsome amiability that wins me over.

dick powell, thank god, got rid of that awful facial hair he was sporting in gold diggers in 1937, and while the tiredness and irritation with his chorus-boy roles is written all over his face, the weariness fits his character. (after christmas in july, I'm falling in love with the cynical side of dick powell, I gotta say.) his partner in crime, ted healy, is the unrestrained powell, openly grumpy and a good balance to the brightness of our 'college students.'

I say college students in quotes because -- as usual -- they all look about thirty-five, but everyone has the pep and spirit to make up for it. lee dixon and sterling holloway are standouts, cracking constant one-liners that made me wistful for the sharper, earlier warners comedies. a standout in a bad way is mabel todd, who I first met in gold diggers in paris and who I still can't stand. she's up there with judy holliday and singin' in the rain's lina lamont on the list of 'irritating brainless blondes with shrieky voices,' and I shared healy's dislike for her. (poor guy gets stuck with her as a romantic interest.)

berkeley's numbers in this volume are comparatively disappointing when looked at against those phenomenal performances in volume one, but the finale in varsity show is one of the better ones in the collection. instead of hordes of beautiful women, we have armies of college students marching in time and spelling out the letters of various colleges -- notre dame, yale, stanford, and so on -- and the effect is pretty cool, I'll admit. as always, the numbers leading up to it are pretty low-key, some 'eh' and some rather catchy. I was fond of 'I'm dependable,' 'working our way through college,' and johnnie davis' gravelly 'old king cole.' interspersed throughout, and finally getting their due in the finale, are african-american dancers and singers ford washington lee (buck) and john william sublett (bubbles). they're both immensely talented and wonderful onscreen, but their careers were sadly limited by their skin colour. their number here, then, is a rare treat -- one to savour.




gold diggers in paris (1938)
dir. ray enright
rudy vallee, rosemary lane, hugh herbert, allen jenkins, gloria dickson, melville cooper, mabel todd, fritz feld, curt bois, edwarweard brophy, victor kilian, georges renavent, armand kaliz, maurice kass, eddie 'rochester' anderson, rosella towne, janet shaw, carole landis, peggy moran, diana lewis, lois lindsay, poppy wilde, jack mower, spec o'donnell, murray alper, sam ash, andré cheron, pedro de cordoba, georges de gombert, charles de ravenne, carlos de valdez, suzanne dulier, ruth eddings, freddie fisher, john harron, al herman, charles judels, ethelreda leopold, alphonse martell, george offerman jr, paul panzer, lee phelps, joseph romantini, jeffrey sayre, victoria vinton, leo white, the schnickelfritz band
dvd, personal collection.

a representative (hugh herbert) of the paris international dance exposition is sent to america to invite the academy ballet of america to a contest, but mistakenly invites the owners, terry moore (rudy vallee) and duke dennis (allen jenkins) and dancers of the bankrupt club ballé instead. terry and duke hire ballet teacher luis leoni (fritz feld) and his only pupil, kay morrow (rosemary lane) to quickly teach their girls the dance routines before heading off to paris. when the head of the real ballet academy, padrinsky (curt bois) discovers the deception, he and his ballerinas head off to paris to find the impostors.

well, that's the last of the gold diggers films -- the fifth and final of warners' money-making series. it doesn't come close to the greatness of its early predecessors like gold diggers of 1933, but it's a sight better than the dreadful gold diggers of 1937. hugh herbert is the only returning cast member from some of the earlier films (unless there's repeats in the chorus girls), so it is kind of unsettling to not see dick powell or joan blondell in even a cameo -- it hardly feels like a diggers film.

rosemary lane, at least, is game enough, though the script demands she get herself into a number of insipid scrapes and puts her through one of those romantic obstacle courses all movie relationships apparently require. (oh no! misunderstanding! oh no! will they get together? oh no! he'll be rejected!). on the other end of her relationship is singer rudy vallee, who acts half the time, phones the rest of it in, and does a mean maurice chevalier imitation. I had one of those 'seriously, what' moments at the 'development' of his romance with lane -- precisely because there is no development. they hate and spit at one another in one scene, and then, the very next scene, she's cooing at him about what a glorious guy he is. (arguably, she's cooing over him because he just took her to paris, but no -- the feeling is shown to be way too genuine for that to hold water.)

it is doofier than usual, yeah -- including a running gag with a strident ventriloquist (mabel todd, whose voice made my ears hurt) and her 'talking' dog -- and the musical numbers are again a disappointment production-wise, though the tunes are catchy. the musical component is saved, however, by the frequent numbers by the schnickelfritz band, a comedy musical group. I think a lot of people would find them tiresome and hokey, but I liked their over-the-top antics, which provided the logic-defying numbers one expects in a berkeley musical.

and yet I kind of loved it. it's dumb and nonsensical and most assuredly second-tier berkeley, but at least it's fun, and the contest in paris is a slightly different spin on the tired 'we have no money to put on a show :(' spiel. if nothing else, it's gold diggers of 1937 penance -- thank god!