With Warner Brothers bringing renewed popularity to musicals (42nd STREET; FOOTLIGHT PARADE; GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933), Fox Film Corp. grabbed Warner Baxter from 42nd ST. for this Depression Era revue showcase about a new Presidential Cabinet Post: Secretary of Amusement!* Charged with putting on shows across the country to lift up national spirits, he’s being blocked by a cabal of hidebound businessmen & senators. Will Rogers came up with the idea, and you can see the possibilities, but almost no one involved (in front or behind the cameras) is up to speed in the genre. The dramatic situation is barely touched on; we never see the shows coming together; none of the songs or production numbers are memorable, or even well performed. The sole exception to this dreary mediocrity (and it’s a major exception) is little Shirley Temple. Five going on six at the time, she makes the most of a single scene; a song & dance number with her pop (bland James Dunn); and a quick wave in the finale. Not much screen time, but all she needs to blow everyone else out of the water. She is spectacularly adorable. (Also: For those who can parse the comic smarts behind Stepin Fetchit’s ‘darkie’ act, a deeply odd scene played with a penguin ‘passing’ as Jimmy Durante. Bizarre.)
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Those three Warners musicals mentioned above. All great, all essential.
READ ALL ABOUT IT: *Secretary of Amusement? Not as ridiculous as it sounds. A couple of years later, FDR's Works Progress Administration started up the nationwide Federal Theater Project under Hallie Flanagan, now best known for some of Orson Welles’ early Mercury Theatre productions. (An All Black MACBETH in Harlem; the fascist JULIUS CAESAR on B’way; the blocked/controversial rabble-rousing union musical THE CRADLE WILL ROCK.) Covered as it was happening in 1937 by Willson Whitman in BREAD AND CIRCUSES.
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