Hollywood Spectator (1937-39)

Hollywood Spectator Page Nine gether with their singular adeptness at song and tripping the light fantastic, create good entertainment, if you are not a stickler for credibility in a story. It all begins when Dick Powell’s maritime buddies take up a collection and send him to New York to participate in an amateur radio contest, accompanied by a comely miss from San Diego, also a contestant, who at the crucial moment can produce only trepidation before the microphone and must content herself with becoming secretary to her companion, upon whom fame and fortune descends immediately. The latter understandingly loses his equilibrium a bit, failing to make an expected call on some fellow Marines in Brooklyn, and when he returns to his ship, which is sailing for Shanghai, his pals outdo themselves at misunderstanding — in fact, they are geniuses at it — and the rift grows deeper and deeper. In Shanghai, where his agents have followed him, in order to present “The Singing Marine” on an international huck-up and to establish him in a night club, the rift grows even deeper, until at last he throws up his career to become a pal again to his buddies. The chump. Warren and Dubin provided some tuneful songs for the show, outstanding of which are “I Know Now,” sung appealingly by Doris Weston, and the infectious “Just Because My Baby Says It’s So,” sung by practically everybody, and almost constantly by Hugh Herbert. “Night Over Shanghai” is somewhat too suggestive of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” for my approbation. UlRECTOR Ray Enright has kept the piece moving at a sprightly pace, and has made full use of every opportunity for laughs,. The production numbers, staged by Busby Berkeley, are elaborate in the best Warner Brothers fashion, and for the most part are cleverly conceived and executed, though one or two become a trifle tedious. Dick Powell is a painfully girl-shy, kicking-his-toe-inthe-ground kid during the first portion of the picture, and not only gets away with it, but evokes considerable appeal, a fact which might be suggestive to the Brethren Warner in choosing his future parts. This one at least is a great improvement on the egotistical drug store cowboy roles he has played so frequently in the past. Unfortunately his juvenility is lost with amazing rapidity in The Singing Marine, a single month of success in New York and the wiles of a torrid movie actress apparently working wonders. Ifl OST of the comedy is contributed by Hugh Herbert, who is immensely funny as the nit-witted agent, his fluttering hands and falsetto ejaculations keeping the audience hilarious throughout most of his scenes at the performance at which I was present. A highlight of the picture was his brief appearance as his sister, with blond wig, long eyelashes, highly arched lips. Doris Weston showed a pleasing personality and sang pleasantly. Jane Darwell, Allen Jenkins, Marcia Ralston and Addison Richards were competent. Lee Dixon, with his usual buoyancy, performs one dance, and could have performed two to good effect. Larry Adler is most dexterous in drawing a wide variety of musical sounds from the harmonica, sometimes with tuneful results, sometimes too loudly. Love According to Fancj LOVE IN A BUNGALOW, Universal. Directed by Raymond B. McCarey; associate producer, E. M. Asher; screen play by Austin Parker, Karen DeWolf and James Mulhauser; original story by Eleanore Griffin and William Rankin; photographer, Milton Krasner, A.S.C.; film editors, Bernard W. Burton and Irving Brinbaum; musical director, Charles Previn; production designed by John Harkrider; associates (sets), Scollard Maas, (frocks), Vera West; sound, William Fox and Edwin Wetzel. Cast: Nan Grey, Kent Taylor, Jack Smart, Hobart Cavanaugh, Richard Carle, Louise Beavers, Margaret McWade, Marjorie Main, Minerva Urecal, Florence Lake, Jerry Tucker, Joan Howard and Joan Breslau. rHE setting for Love in a Bungalow, which is the background for the whole story, is a model bungalow, and it is the gayest, whitest, most bizarre creation to be seen in some time. Within and about this airy dream-house takes place a tale with an engaging novelty — the real estate agent’s hostess falls in love with a young ne’er-dowell whom she finds helping himself to a bed one morning, the two write a letter for a radio contest offering $5000 for the nation’s happiest married couple, win the prize, and are then faced with the problem of providing a happy home and children for the inspection of the donors of the prize. The story is told in a breezy style, and with grace and charm, but it just misses its mark because of irrelevancies in the story, which result in a lack of proportion and emphasis in the plot structure. There is also too much talk, and the film slows up noticeably in spots. A more frequent use of music would help a great deal to carry the film along. Raymond B. McCarey has given excellent direction to the picture. He demands an economy and precision of movement from his players which could well serve as a model for many another magaphone wielder. He also evidences a keen sense of humor in his handling of the scenes. if AN GREY is most attractive and has the promise of a distinctive style in her playing, but in this part she reVeals signs of inexperience — emotional transitions just a bit too abrupt, frequently a lack of thorough motivation behind what she says or does. The influence of the director upon her is sometimes rather plainly evident, the actress not having quite gotten the knack of completely losing herself in a character, and of being intuitively motivated by that character. Miss Grey shows a great deal of promise, however, as I have said, and it is perhaps unfortunate at this stage of her career that she should be obliged to bite off a bit more than she could chew. Kent Taylor is pleasantly whimsical and easy in his part, though I do not think he has exhausted its possibilities. I doubt very much if his little mustache is one of his acting assets. Jack Smart is an amusing Babbitt, and Richard Carle is capital as the complacent donor Bisbee. The amiable complete revolution of his head as a departing gesture was fetching. A comedy highspot of the picture is the carryings on of Margaret McWade and Marjorie Main, the two maiden Bisbee sisters, one of whom is deaf. Florence Lake is funny, though her part in the early portion of the picture was one of the irrelevant elements. The production was designed by John Harkrider, with Scollard Maas as an associate worker on the setting.