HIGHER AND HIGHER (1943)

Frank Sinatra’s acting debut had him play . . . Frank Sinatra!  And why not?  With his skinny frame swimming in suits & sport jackets no matter how they were cut, he’s mostly just ‘the entertainment’ at a servants’ ball in this silly (make that lousy) adaptation of a dud B’way musical Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart wrote just before their great leap forward with PAL JOEY.  (That musical also became a lousy film in 1957 for . . . Frank Sinatra!)  Billed below Michèle Morgan & Jack Haley (sole retainee from the B’way cast), Sinatra doesn’t sing a note by Rodgers & Hart*, R.K.O. keeping but one number from the stage show, and having new tunes written by Jimmy McHugh & Harold Adamson.  (Two of those lifted from classical music themes.  The one from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony a particular horror.  Though one original, ‘You’re On Your Own,’ has a singing ensemble for the ages what with Sinatra, Dooley Wilson, Mel Tormé, Victor Borge, Mary Wickes and others chiming in.)  The story?  Well, it seems master of the house Leon Errol is about to lose the family manse, but with help from his long unpaid staff and with connections made at the afore mentioned Annual Servant’s Ball, he’ll pass off scullery maid Morgan as a wealthy Fifth Avenue type to wed rich foreigner Victor Borge.  Problem?  She only has eyes for fellow staff servant Haley.  It plays even worse than it sounds.  Especially under Tim Whelan’s strikingly unnuanced direction, all lit as if we were in a hospital operating room.  One more like this (STEP LIVELY/’44) before Frankie was poached by M-G-M for films which, if not much better, were at least better produced.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  Returning from a largely unhappy stay in Hollywood during the worst of The Depression, Rodgers & Hart went on a tear with six hits in a row on B’way (1935-1939) before missing with TOO MANY GIRLS and this.  (We’re comparing apples to oranges, but it’s still a shock to note that the output of Rodgers’ talented daughter Mary totaled four shows over three decades (only one successful), and of his even more talented grandson Adam Guettel totaling three shows over three decades.)  Even HIGHER managed one classic American Songbook standard in ‘It Never Entered My Mind.’ naturally dropped for the film in spite of being a perfect number for Frankie.  Something Sinatra was very well aware of, recording the number three separate times, including this version from what’s often listed as his greatest album, ‘In the Wee Small Hours.’    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Z3oKVLkaM