Easter Parade

Easter Parade
July 8, 1948
MGM
Musical, Historical
DVD
C+

This movie never quite comes together, but it's a nice attempt.  There's a romantic square, or at least rectangle, where Judy Garland's character Hannah loves Fred Astaire's Don, but he seems to be hung up on his ex played by Ann Miller, who's interested in Peter Lawford's Johnny, who falls in love with Hannah at first sight.  And none of the four couples make any sense!  In particular, we have no idea what's motivating Ann Miller's Nadine, except for maybe ambition and/or spite.  Another failure in the writing is that the musical number that Nadine's maid reports is an embarrassment for Hannah actually is embarrassing to watch.  (It's not just that Judy's in hobo drag, it's that she's so smirky about it.)  The other numbers, especially Fred's "Stepping Out," are much better.

This is only my third Technicolor movie (I'm not counting The Women), and it's just coincidence that they're all Judy Garland vehicles from MGM.  The color, especially on the 1912 costumes, looks fine, although we never actually see the title parade (more of a stroll by pedestrians).  In fact, it's hinted more than once that Nadine will have her "nose put out of joint" when she sees Hannah strolling by in her Easter finery, but one, it's hardly Judy's best outfit in the movie; and two, we never see Nadine's reaction!  On top of that, the "magazine cover" number only reminded me of better sequences in other musicals (including Marilyn's "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend").  Still, this isn't a painful movie like Meet Me in St. Louis.

Sam Harris was in Citizen Kane.  Sig Frohlich was a winged monkey in The Wizard of Oz.  George Noisom, who's the Western Union messenger, was in The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, and It's a Wonderful Life, but this is his last credit.  Ruth Hall, who was Mary Helton in Monkey Business seventeen years earlier, plays a showgirl here.  Robert Emmett O'Connor, who's cast as a policeman, was Henderson in A Night at the Opera.  Ralph Sanford, the hotel detective here, was Liggett in Copacabana.  Dee Turnell was in Copacabana and would go on to Singin' in the Rain.  Angi O. Poulos plays a peddler in this and Singin'.  John Albright and Patricia Jackson would also be in that movie.  Nolan Leary would appear in Ma and Pa Kettle, Helene Heigh in The Kettles in the Ozarks.

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.