At just 80 minutes, this has about 15 minutes of plot and over an hour of sketches, songs and a talented group of performers bringing it all together. The film starts with a sold-out performance of the "Scandals" with Mr. George White himself selling tickets at the box office (standing room only, of course...). Then out comes Alice Faye to sing her first big hit on-screen, "Oh You Nasty Man", a delightfully huge and audacious production numbers. I could have done without the chorus line of moppets repeating this song, thrown in as if they were in hiding from "Annie's" Miss Hannigan. If you thought the chandelier girls in "Show of Shows" and the human harps in "Fashions" were enough to make any mother nervous, wait until you see Mr. White's curtain!
And if you thought Al Jolson "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" was the epitome of bad taste, think again. That spot goes to Jimmy Durante, repeating a bit of his old "Scandals" number "That's Why Darkies Were Born". Young black chorus girls allowed themselves to have dummies of black field workers carrying them around on their back, and a huge mammy rolls in, hiding "pickaninny" chorus girls with similar black children underneath her skirt. This jaw-dropping number offers every tacky stereotype ever used in a minstrel show which could be one reason that Fox Classics hasn't added this to its list of released titles, instead releasing the 1935 version which is audacious but certainly not offensive.
What there is as far as storyline involves leading lady Alice Faye being in love with leading man Rudy Vallee while he dates scandalous society girl Adrienne Ames. Co-stars Cliff Edwards, Durante and Dixie Dunbar scheme to give the "Scandals" a finale it will never forget. Edwards (paired with Dunbar) is hysterical in a "Scenes From a Marriage" sketch called "So Nice!" which shows a couple from their honeymoon through old age, and the three men get together for a big funny production number called "Every Day is Father's Day". The romantic ballads are strangely dull, but there's a cute little sextet of the three men and their women gallivanting around town to "My Dog Loves Your Dog". One number all of a sudden tosses the lyrics on screen as a chorus girl jumps from word to word, pretending to be a bouncing ball. As a musical film with story, it lacks interest, but as a revue, it is a lot of fun, much like the "Scandals" were when they came along to rival the "Ziegfeld Follies" when our grandparents (more probably great grandparents) were youngsters.
And if you thought Al Jolson "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" was the epitome of bad taste, think again. That spot goes to Jimmy Durante, repeating a bit of his old "Scandals" number "That's Why Darkies Were Born". Young black chorus girls allowed themselves to have dummies of black field workers carrying them around on their back, and a huge mammy rolls in, hiding "pickaninny" chorus girls with similar black children underneath her skirt. This jaw-dropping number offers every tacky stereotype ever used in a minstrel show which could be one reason that Fox Classics hasn't added this to its list of released titles, instead releasing the 1935 version which is audacious but certainly not offensive.
What there is as far as storyline involves leading lady Alice Faye being in love with leading man Rudy Vallee while he dates scandalous society girl Adrienne Ames. Co-stars Cliff Edwards, Durante and Dixie Dunbar scheme to give the "Scandals" a finale it will never forget. Edwards (paired with Dunbar) is hysterical in a "Scenes From a Marriage" sketch called "So Nice!" which shows a couple from their honeymoon through old age, and the three men get together for a big funny production number called "Every Day is Father's Day". The romantic ballads are strangely dull, but there's a cute little sextet of the three men and their women gallivanting around town to "My Dog Loves Your Dog". One number all of a sudden tosses the lyrics on screen as a chorus girl jumps from word to word, pretending to be a bouncing ball. As a musical film with story, it lacks interest, but as a revue, it is a lot of fun, much like the "Scandals" were when they came along to rival the "Ziegfeld Follies" when our grandparents (more probably great grandparents) were youngsters.