Movie review - "Gold Diggers of 1933" (1933) ***

 Some of this is amazing - Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon and Ginger Rogers as chorus girls (Ruby Keeler is also in it), some fun character actors, excellent songs - 'We're in the Money', 'My Forgotten Man'.

It's weird script wise. It's set up there's a Depression (great), then a producer wants to put on a show (great), then in one scene he hears Dick Powell play tunes and gets him to do the score only he's got no money and Powell says he's got money. So the show goes on, Powell steps up for the lead as well, the show's a hit, Powell gets outed as a rich boy... and his brother and lawyer turn up hoping to break up Powell and Keeler. So Joan Blondell and Aline MacMahon decide to "take them for a ride" by having Blondell pretend to be Keeler and have Williams and Kibee buy them things. Powell is all for it. Williams and Blondell fall in love sometime (they don't even have a nice scene or song... just a few lines would've done it) and so do Kibbee and MacMahon (ditto)..

There's no stakes because the show's a hit and Powell won't break up with Keeler. They needed to have the show be the stakes... so easy to fix up! Have them need money, send in the girls to raise it off the guys... complicated by love.

Anyway so much talent involved. The ending number thrown in 'My Forgotten Man' has power but it is this random dose of hardness.

Ginger Rogers pops in and out- as if she wasn't in the film originally but they kept finding upsestt o put her in.

Movie review - "42nd Street" (1932) ***** (re-watching)

 Great musical. Aged well due to its accepting look at humanity - George Brent is a gigolo basically, Guy Kibbee only invests in a musical bc he wants Bebe Daniel, Ginger Rogers is on the make, Una Merkel gets a part because she's sleeping with the dance director, men are lechy to Ruby Keeler such as dancer Edward Nugent.

It's also very positive - Daniels supports Keeler, Rogers gives up the lead for Keeler, Merkel pushes for Keeler to get in the chorus... actually the whole film is about people helping Keeler (Dick Powell too) who can't really act or sing that well but she is sweet. But really Rogers should've played that lead she was prettier, a better singer, and dancer.

Warner Baxter smokes and waves his arms around. I'm not sure he's a very good director too panicky but it is great at the end, he's slumped in the staircase listening to people say he did nothing.

Dick Powell smiles and croons but his pan faced sincerety is a nice  break from all the cynicism. Bebe Daniels is splendid. George Brent is fine. Merkel and Rogers are great fun. Ditto Guy Kibbee.

The numbers are stunning - Busby Berkley throwing away the rule book and going full cinema. Some first rate songs. There's even a few black people in it - playing maids and singing but they are at least there.

I clapped at the end. The film deserved it.

Movie review - "Ziegield Girl" (1941) ****

 Fantastic example of MGM at its peak. A three girl movies where the girls are played by iconic stars each in a specifically defined role - Lana Turner as a shabby poor girl (elevator operator) who can't resist the money, Judy Garland as a super talented girl who isn't as hot as the others but is the one made for showbiz, Hedy Lamarr as the refugee.

Turner and Lamarr have controlling partners - James Stewart (adding affability and star power) as a truck driving boyfriend,  and Lamarr with her sooky violinst husband Philip Dorn. Garland isn't given a girlfriend but an actor dad whose career she helps.

Lamar's subplot looks promising when sleazty singer Tony Martin goes after her but then his wife somes along and asks for her to back off and she does and gets back with violinist Dorn. This plot needed a little more kick and for Lamar to interact with the girls. There's not enough girl interacting.

But Turner's is a lot of fun as she embraces booze, rich men (Ian Hunter, then they get sleazier - one of them is Dan Dailey), and Stewart becoomes a bootlegger. It's basically implied Turner becomes a hooker, she has a lovely final scene with Stewart then goes to see a show, and basically dies which is grand OTT wonderful MGM crap as are the production numbers.

Female writers so the women are depicted sympathetically, even the cuckolded wife, and gold digger Eve Arden, and the men are unreliable (even Stewart winds up going to prison before bouncing back). Jackei Cooper is cutely bumbling as Turner's brother - kept waiting for her to hook up with Garland but didn't happen. Paul Kelly is nicely ruthless as a stage manager and Edward Everett Horton is part of the Ziegfield organisation - two recogniseable types.

Lots of fun. Turner's film more than Garland's too which is part of its charm.

Movie review - "Night World" (1932) ** (warning: spoilers)

There's a sub-genre of movie which could be called "a bunch of stories going on at a night club" films. I think they come out of musicals, where you'd have all these plots in the one location to justify songs.

This isn't a musical per se - it doesn't have time, clocking in at only an hour - but does have some dance sequences. Busby Berkley was involved and you can tell because you've got shots of chorus girls and their legs with POV shots through them.

This is a pre-code movie so it's a bit racy - low cut tops for the girls, there's a gay character (an effeminate man) at the club, lots of drinking, a sympathetic depiction of a dead man's mistress.

It's weird that the hero role is a drunken rich playboy - Universal were probably keen to find a lead role for Lew Ayres, who'd been in All Quiet on the Western Front. He's more comfortably cast than Boris Karloff, who plays the nightclub owner, who presumably they were looking to cast in something, anything after Frankenstein. Still Karloff's Karloff and it's fun to see him. Mae Clarke, then during her brief vogue as a star, pops up as the female lead. George Raft has an early role as a womaniser.

This start off fun, with all that movement and action but slowed down and became silly. Ayres is such a weak wet hero - I didn't believe it for a second when he punched out Raft. I did believe he would fall for Clarke, who is warm and lovely. It's a bit yuck how Ayres blames everything on his greedy bitch of a mother.

The ending feels really rushed and awkward and hilariously over the top with these gangsters rocking up and shooting Clarence Muse (whose wife has just died) and Boris Karloff and his wife (another shrewish bitch) and going to shoot Ayres and Clarke and then being shot by a cop. I wish Raft's role had been bigger - I kept expecting him to come back at the end.

Movie review - "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949) ***

The majority of Esther Williams movies were focused on her - she was the big attraction, the story was devised to get her around a pool, etc. They were extremely profitable - I think only Jupiter's Darling lost money - but never enjoyed the critical kudos of the musicals made by the Freed unit.

This was her one experience with that unit - she didn't enjoy it, which is a shame because this is a fun movie. It's got A list talent all over the place - Busby Berkley directed, Gene Kelly, Frank Sintara and Jules Munshin do numbers, Betty Garrett supports... many of these went straight into On the Town.

The story is a bit all over the place. Kelly and Sinatra are vaudvillians who play baseball - so they want to make it in vaudeville and baseball, which splits focus. Williams inherits the baseball team bt doesn't seem to have many plans for it. Sinatra likes Williams and so does Kelly but Sinatra backs off pretty quick so the drama is minimised. The "baddie" Edward Arnold is introduced in the last third.

Kelly and Sinatra are lively, as is Betty Garrett. Williams isn't as sparky as she is in her best vehicles; she said she didn't enjoy filming and you can tell. I so didn't like this movie as much as I thought I would; it's very messy, doesn't seem to love baseball that much. It's still got all that MGM skill.

Movie review - "Romance on the High Seas" (1948) **

No slowly-working-your-way-up-the-cinematic-food-chain for Doris Day - like Errol Flynn before her, her first Hollywood film was a well-funded, specifically-crafted starring vehicle (though one I assume was devised for another star) and a hit, launching her straight away. And why not - she sings like an angel, is perky and pretty, full of good humour. 

The film isn't much, despite some superb colour - the plot was really confusing, with married Janis Paige getting Day to take a trip pretending to be Paigein order to find out if Paige's husband Don de Fore is cheating on her, and de Fore getting private Jack Carson to go on the trip as de Fore to find out if Paige is cheating on him. Therefore there are no stakes because you know one honest chat will clear everything up - it's like the weaker Astaire-Rogers musical plots; like those movies there's a lively support actor, Oscar Levant, as piano player in love with Day.

De Fore and Paige are pretty uninspiring, I got Carson and De fore mixed up at times and Caron is an odd person to have in a musical - he sings a song and tries, but just felt weird. Levant was fun even if he too looked similar to de Fore and Carson. Day is a delight, bubby and fun and gets to sing some nice tunes. 

There is some Hollywood backlot recreation of Caribbean ports including one number "The Tourist Trade". Day sings "It's Magic" which became a hit for her. Day fans will want to catch this; others not so much.

Movie review - "Easy to Love" (1953) **1/2

The challenge of Esther Williams movies was finding different excuses for the swimming related musical numbers - this one handles it well by setting the action at Cypress Gardens, a water ski theme park in Florida. It's run by Van Johnson whose star attraction Esther Williams keeps threatening to quit.

Williams is pursued by three men here - Johnson (though he's only doing it to keep her with his business... what are the chances she's genuinely fall in love), singer Tony Martin (who does a lot of singing) and fellow water skiier John Bromfield (who spends most of the movie walking around with his shirt off).

Williams wears a huge variety of outfits and some of the musical numbers are done very well, including one on a pond covered in flowers, one where Esther is dressed as a clown, and a truly spectacular water skiing finale. Carroll Baker pops up in a small role as a woman interested in Martin.

It's done with professional sheen and all of MGM's skill - which was then still considerable - but I couldn't warm to the movie. Something about the central romance struck me as a bit yuck - Johnson was a horrible boss to Williams and there was no good reason for her to love him other than he's played by a movie star; I didn't much like her for doing it either.

Movie review - "42nd Street" (1932) ****

This movie as a famous one line description - the tale of a plucky understudy who has to go on when the star twists her ankle and is a fabulous success. Actually that doesn't happen towards the end, right before the climax. The actual driving force is the Depression, which has forced now-broke director Warner Baxter to come out of retirement and try to make a comeback. During the course of this he has to deal with investors (Guy Kibee) who insist their paramours be starred (Bebe Daniels), squabbling chorus people, his dodgy ticker, stage managers (George E. Stone) who ensure their girlfriend Una Merkel) is cast, the discovery his star Daniels is still seeing her past-it lover (George Brent) who then falls for a chorus girl (Ruby Keeler), even though she's desired by one of his juveniles (Dick Powell).

That's a lot of story, and it's consistently interesting, helped by the fact this was a Pre-Code work so all the sex can be emphasised. (The novel had a romance between Baxter and Powell's characters as well; I can understand why that couldn't fly at the time but it's a shame they didn't give Baxter a love interest). It's full of corruption, greed, wisecracks and self interest - with some unexpected sweetness in the love between Daniels and Brent, the relationship between Brent and Keeler (I forgot how much screen time this took up), the camaraderie between chorus girls (Ginger Rogers gets a chance for stardom but turns it down in order to help Keeler).

There are bizarrely no musical numbers until the last act - when we see the show and get three big ones in succession. (To be fair they are pretty terrific with lots of Busby Berkeley choreography.)

Despite the strong book and score, and zingy dialogue, some of the casting is weak - Keeler is a damp squib and never convincing for a moment as someone who could carry off a big musical. Brent and Daniels are bland too; I didn't mind Baxter. The supporting parts (Rogers, etc) are first rate. I'd love it if they made a film adaptation of the stage musical version.

Book review – “Million Dollar Mermaid” by Esther Williams

Million dollar whiner, more likely. This bio of the famous star, a genuine box office giant for a few years after World War Two with her aquatic musicals (considered the second if not third tier of the classic MGM musicals) is fascinating – the mere concept of Esther Williams alone is fascinating – but also reveals Esther to be a real whiner.

She whines her family didn’t love her enough, she missed out on the Olympics, she was sexually harassed by Johnny Weismuller (sounds believable), sexually harassed by just about everyone , had a lousy job, joined MGM who gave her a hard time, made films which was really really hard, never got respect from Louis B Mayer but he was better than Dore Schary who was awful (because he gave Athena to Jane Powell and tried to get Stanley Donen to direct a film with her – how evil!), had lousy plots, got a hard time from Debroah Kerr about her films, married a dull doctor who didn’t want kids, then married an alcoholic gambler, then married a former film star who wouldn’t let her see her kids, had directors who didn’t care, had agents who didn’t care, etc, etc.

Williams goes on and on about having to do everything for herself, as if the world owed her a living – she achieved so much on her own but doesn’t seem to take much enjoyment out of it, except when she talks about swimming, for which she seems to have had a genuine love. This book could have used a few more laughs. Instead we get lots of bitching and talks about erections, particularly Fernando Lamas’.

I mean, I liked it, particularly evocation of MGM at the time, portraits of directors like I-don’t-care Mervyn Le Roy, just-shoot-it Richard Thorpe (who Esther tries to slag but he comes across quite engaging, hating actors and asking Esther not to be too cheerful in the morning) and boozing Busby Berkeley (the one filmmaker she seemed to really respect), plus producers like Sam Katz (who tried to get her in to bed all the time but actually did a lot of good for her career) and the bland leading men she was saddled with including Peter Lawford and Ricardo Montalban. I just wished she took a walk on the sunny side every now and then – no one made her marry three duds (she stuck with number two and three a long time), or lose all her money (she could have kept an eye on it). How about a few laughs?

What makes her a bitch in particular is her reaction when she discovered Jeff Chandler was a cross dresser – although they’d gone out for years, he was a lovely guy, etc, he liked to wear a dress and Esther freaked out, told him to see a therapist. What a cow. Aussies will find interesting the section on making Million Dollar Mermaid (Annette Kellerman met her and said she wished Esther was Australian – good on you, Annette)