Mame

Mame
March 27, 1974
Warner Bros.
Musical, Comedy, Historical
VHS
B-

Yes, Lucy and the little boy can't sing.  Yes, she's miscast in other ways (age, appearance, demeanor, etc.), but I enjoy this film about as much as the 1958 non-musical Rosalind Russell version, and not just as cheese.  For one thing, it has the better Vera Charles, the wonderful Bea Arthur, who gets a good duet with Lucy and knows how to deliver a zinger, as she was then proving on Maude and would later prove on The Golden Girls.  (The duet does have a reference to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, but on the surface the two of them are presented as straight.)  I also like seeing Don Porter as Mr. Upson, since even as a bigot he's fun to watch.  Oh, and I was pleasantly surprised that Ito, while still sterotyped, seemed to have more dignity and didn't giggle.

That said, I don't know why they cast John McGiver as Mr. Babcock and gave him less to do than Fred Clark did.  I don't know why Pegeen has been changed from an interior decorator to a maid and interacts even less with Patrick.  Or why Agnes Gooch has been blended with Norah Muldoon, and the father of her child made a complete mystery.  By 1974, unwed pregnancy was a lot less controversial or shocking than it was in the '50s, so this time Mame can open a home for "single mothers."

But, yes, it is campy.  Though it tugs at the emotions with what must be at least fifty hugs (there's even a hug montage towards the end), it's even less plausible than the Russell version, to say nothing of the Patrick Dennis novel, reviewed here http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/06/auntie-mame-irreverent-escapade.html.  I mean, there's a scene where Mame and her nephew are sitting on a spoke of the Statue of Liberty's tiara!  And what about the HUGE production number about how Mame has given the South back its pride by capturing a fox, with her charm!  The movie was considered, with reason, to be dated upon its release, but watching it now it seems more like a warm-up for the overdone musicals of the later '70s, such as Sextette and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Burt Mustin had a small role in a Merlin Jones movie and was 90 when he appeared here as Uncle Jeff.  Barbara Bosson, who plays Emily, had a minor role in The Love God?  Ruth McDevitt was in Change of Habit and plays Cousin Fan here.  Leonard Stone, who plays the stage manager, was Mr. Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.  Jerry Trent was a dancer in The One and Only...Family Band as well, while Kenneth Grant, Sr. would dance in Sgt. Pepper.

Room Service

Room Service
September 30, 1938
RKO
Comedy
VHS
C

It's not a good sign that William Seiter also directed Roberta, although of course the main problem here is that Morrie Ryskind had to tailor a successful non-Marx play to the Marxes.  Unlike the whimsically titled Paramount movies, this is even more literally titled than the MGM movies, with at least two title-drops in the mostly hotel-set story.  You can make an entertaining movie set in a hotel, but there have got to be more interesting events than here.  (Same Time Next Year succeeds partly by not just saying the word "sex," as Groucho does here, and by covering a much longer span of time.)  Yes, there's a flying turkey and fake suicides and one of the fastest courtships ever (five days, although admittedly Ann Miller is pretty cute).  And, yes, it's nice to see Lucy, no longer blonde, with a more substantial role.  But she and the Marxes seem restrained most of the time.  (Chico hardly seems Italian, or awake.)

I kept thinking the movie might make it to sort of funny, as with the topical references to Gypsy Rose Lee and FDR.  As it is, the frequent exclamation of "JUMPING BUTTERBALLS!!" is unintentionally more amusing than any of the intended gags.  This may well be the Marx movie I own that I've seen the least, and when I got a phone call about half an hour before the ending, I forgot that I hadn't finished watching, until I went through the living room again.  Furthermore, while the music in their MGM movies hasn't been anything amazing so far, it beats two renditions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot."  This film's only for the Marx completist.

Donald MacBride (the "butterballs" shouter) and Bruce Mitchell would go on to The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, Phoebe Campbell and Cliff Herd to Citizen Kane.  Charles Halton, who's "Dr. Glass" here, would appear twenty years later, in his 80s, as the school principal of High School Confidential!, with a pivotal role as the bank examiner of It's a Wonderful Life along the way.

Funnier than the actual movie.

Follow the Fleet

Follow the Fleet
February 20, 1936
RKO
Musical, Romance, Comedy
DVD
B+

Although Fred & Ginger are again sharing the bill and the screen with another couple, and the other man is played by Randolph Scott, this is far superior to 1935's Roberta.  It helps that the other woman, as Ginger's mouse-turned-knockout sister is Harriet Hilliard, AKA Ozzie Nelson's wife, and she sings in a likable, realistic way, unlike Irene Dunne.  True, she doesn't look all that much different after Lucille Ball gives her a makeover, but this isn't the most realistic movie.  (Lavish stage sets on a boat?  Which never rocks?)  Yes, Lucy has more to do here than in Roberta, and as "the tall blonde angel" puts a sailor in his place with a memorable putdown.  As for Scott, he's playing a bit of a heel here (as he admits), but he's not beyond redemption.  He has a fling with a rich divorcee, who's not presented as a bad girl, although a bit of a dumb blonde.  Also surprising, Ginger and Fred slip some naughtiness past the Code, as when Ginger, who sings in a dime-a-dance club, says she convoyed a fleet of sailors on the dance floor, "on my feet."  Fred even leads an all-male-couples dance lesson!

Mostly though, he's dancing on his own or with Ginger, and she gets a solo turn as well.  In their dance contest number in particular, they're remarkably fluid, helped by the bellbottoms they both wear, although it's back to gown and tux for the final production number, which is about renouncing suicide!  And there's a monkey in a sailor suit.  Maybe Flying Down to Rio isn't their most surreal film.  In any case, this has their best chemistry so far, and I loved how they banter about who's going to propose to whom.  They also work well with their best friends in the movie, she with Hilliard of course, and he with Scott.  While this is much less of a drama than Roberta, the emotions feel more genuine.  Plus the Irving Berlin et al. score is great, although there are probably too many reprises of "We Joined the Navy."  Overall, this film is a delight!

Mary Stewart and Eddie Tamblyn were in Flying Down to Rio.  Jane Hamilton, Maxine Jennings, and Kay Sutton were in Roberta.  James Pierce was in Horse Feathers as one of the "attempted kidnap victims" of Harpo and Chico.  Harry Beresford was the doctor in Little Women.  Allen Wood later appeared in Fred & Ginger's The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.  Billy Dooley would go on to A Day at the Races,  Lita Chevret to The Women, Frank Jenks to His Girl Friday, Tony Martin to The Big Store, and Russell Hicks and Dick Purcell to The Bank Dick.  I can't tag everyone, and most of these are minor roles, here and elsewhere, although Martin gets far too much screen time in Store.

Roberta

Roberta
March 8, 1935
RKO
Romance, Musical
DVD
C+

As with the W. C. Fields films, I got a package of four Fred & Ginger movies, in this case just for Flying Down to Rio.  This film is disappointing, considering one, it's based on a book by Alice Duer Miller (whose Come out of the Kitchen is a fun read:  http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2012/03/come-out-of-kitchen.html); two, it has some good songs, including the Oscar-nominated "Lovely to Look at"; and three, Fred & Ginger aren't as peripheral as they are in FDtR.  Unfortunately, they're still playing the supporting couple, and this time the main pair are both charm-free: Randolph Scott, coming across as a killjoy Joel McCrea, and Irene Dunne, who ruins "Lovely" and "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by singing in that horrific mid-'30s to early-'40s pseudo-operatic style that too many female singers used in the movies.  Watch this one with your hand on the remote, fast-forwarding till you get to any scene with Fred in it, and even then be prepared for too much Scott and Dunne.  (Ginger has much less to do than Fred.)

OK, and you can keep an eye out for various cameos.   Not only is one of the fashion models Lucille Ball, but William "Fred Mertz" Frawley plays a bartender!  And another fashion model, Wanda Perry, would have a small role in Ball's Mame.  Model Donna Mae Roberts would appear in 1943's The Gang's All Here.  Of the Wabash Indianians, Hal Borne was in Flying Down to Rio, while "tricky-voiced" Candy Candido would do a memorable voiceover as an apple tree in Wizard of Oz.  Rita Gould would appear in The Women.  No one plays Roberta; it's just the name of the design studio Scott's aunt owns.  The fashions range from forgettable to regrettable to acceptable.