A busy girl in 1933, Ginger Rogers made her R.K.O. debut in this programmer; third of ten films in a year that ended with her meeting Fred Astaire in FLYING DOWN TO RIO. Tart-tongued off-the-air, as a radio personality Ginger plays sweet romantic babydoll to plug Gregory Ratoff’s dishrags. But she’s threatening to blow her top on air, and refusing to sign her new contract if they don’t let her paint the town and enjoy life (she’s fixated on a night in Harlem) just as a rival dishrag outfit is trying to poach her services. As compromise, country boy fan Norman Foster is brought up North as marriage bait. The two hit it off, but then he takes her home to Hicksvillle! What’s a mid-list celebrity gal to do? Silly stuff, played a mile-a-minute under William E. Seiter’s sketchy megging of Maurine Dallas Watkins’ script. And that script is the main interest here since Watkins wrote the base material pulped into Big City comic gold in CHICAGO (aka ROXIE HART, played by Ginger in ‘42). The tone here is equally caustic, if not nearly as shrewd, and closer to NOTHING SACRED meets TAMING OF THE SHREW. So, spankings & a punch in the jaw for Ginger. Yikes! As slambang crazy comedy goes, it’s a bit of a mess, but not without the pleasure of a gaggle of supporting comic players (Frank McHugh, Allen Jenkins, Zasu Pitts, Franklin Pangborn, Sterling Holloway). And, for a change, a proper opportunity for gorgeous Theresa Harris to sing, dance & strut her stuff as Ginger’s atypically young & saucy Black maid. A scene that has her filling in for Ginger on-the-air, while we watch hubby Foster get all hot & bothered listening in, isn’t something you expect even in a Pre-Code pic.
DOUBLE-BILL: Jean Harlow goes thru similar paces in M-G-M’s BOMBSHELL released later in ‘33, more polished/classier/far better worked out. Victor Fleming directs. (see below)
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: IMDb gives Ginger credit on her vocals. Really?
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