I recall seeing this film when it first came out. It was one of a number of similar light romantic comedies built around a name dance band, and featuring cameo performances of stars as night club acts. One of the cameos in this one is Leo Carrillo doing one of his very funny stand-up comedy routines. Before he became a film star, Leo did the night club, vaudeville circuits and Broadway, as a dialect comedian and chalk-talk cartoonist. Leo's act is worth the price, as he appears as a night club act, doing one of his Italian dialect routines as a character named "Tony" using a telephone booth to contact an array of imaginary characters. Beyond some really good laughs, this routine should be mandatory for any aspirant to doing stand-up comedy. For real fans of Leo, you'll have to excuse the mispronouncing of his name by the master of ceremonies, as "Leo Car-ee-yo", (s/b "ka-reel-yo") sorry that. But don't miss this one, or the cameo by the late great Frances Langford, or the early electric guitar of Alvino Rey!
3 Reviews
Unfortunately, many of the notes are flat.
mark.waltz30 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Certainly there are some great comedy acts and musical novelty numbers, but plot wise, there's not much going on other than country boy Eddie Quillan going to the Big Apple to try to make it in the big band circuit. He leaves girlfriend Ann Rooney behind and ends up falling for Big City sophisticate Mary Beth Hughes, getting a job in Leon Errol's Irish cafe where forgotten stars like Frances Langford and Leo Carrillo pop on out of the blue and end up getting billing above the title. Seeing a ridiculous scandalous headline of Quillan in the local newspaper, Rooney and disapproving father Samuel S. Hinds head to the Big Apple where they become involved in the confusion, that is when there's room in between the musical numbers.
This is a film that was strictly released for the music, for distractions going on in the war, yet them reminder of what was being fought for. The music of course is terrific, and the specialties are wonderful. You might as well watch a series of 1940's soundiies, basically the music videos of their time, because the plot takes up maybe 15 minutes of the hour long film. There are some great comic bits, particularly rubber legged Errol's reaction to having a musical instrument inserted over his head. Universal seem to make dozens of these films every year during wartime, and many of them are simple entertainments with little plot but great moments of a cultural walk down memory lane. Instead of The Andrews Sisters, we get the King Sisters, basically the same difference with the exception that The Andrews Sisters are still remembered.
This is a film that was strictly released for the music, for distractions going on in the war, yet them reminder of what was being fought for. The music of course is terrific, and the specialties are wonderful. You might as well watch a series of 1940's soundiies, basically the music videos of their time, because the plot takes up maybe 15 minutes of the hour long film. There are some great comic bits, particularly rubber legged Errol's reaction to having a musical instrument inserted over his head. Universal seem to make dozens of these films every year during wartime, and many of them are simple entertainments with little plot but great moments of a cultural walk down memory lane. Instead of The Andrews Sisters, we get the King Sisters, basically the same difference with the exception that The Andrews Sisters are still remembered.
The 26 Year Old Robert Mitchum
Single-Black-Male3 November 2003
This film is one of many that Mitchum was offered to pad out his career. As an actor, he needed to have work experience behind him in order to be hired. Therefore, his agent sent him for every role being offered, paying Mitchum between $75 per day and $100 per week. I think we can safely call this film padding.
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