On the surface, this is a Laemmle era Universal attempt to capture the magic of the Busby Berkeley musicals over at Warner Brothers made the same year. But look deeper, and it is actually much more done with much less.
In a small town, songwriter George Dwight (Roger Pryor) meets and teams up with music store owner Sally Upton (Mary Brian) with George composing and performing his songs in her store, upping foot traffic, boosting sales, and ultimately saving the business. Then George gets a letter from a music publishing business in New York, and off he goes, pledging to write. But he never does.
It's not that George gets a big head, he's just busy and he is a success, eventually leading to him putting on his own Broadway show, "Moonlight and Pretzels". Sally decides to come to New York and find George herself, but he initially doesn't even remember her, even when she shows up as a chorine in one of his numbers. Complications ensue.
This thing is an original. You can't say that Pryor and Brian are just standing in for Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler over at Warner Brothers, because the situation is much more complex than just a couple of kids in a show falling in love. And the story throws every Depression era backstager plot device in the book into the script, and yet it all works - crooked businessmen out to cheat George, the big time gambler where easy comes and easy goes, the girl from the sticks who gets a big head, the fast talking wise cracking stagehands, and Bobby Watson as the rather effete dance director.
The numbers are originals and the music memorable. Bobby Connolly is obviously copying Berkeley's style, and the musical finale is much like the Forgotten Man number in 42nd street, but then Berkeley's numbers could be described as numbers shot at angles in such a way that could never be done on a stage. This finale actually has newsreel footage in it! Well I guess that is no crazier than Winnie Shaw's face being transformed into the island of Manhattan in Golddiggers of 1935.
I'd recommend it.. It is certainly one of a kind among the second wave of early sound musicals.
In a small town, songwriter George Dwight (Roger Pryor) meets and teams up with music store owner Sally Upton (Mary Brian) with George composing and performing his songs in her store, upping foot traffic, boosting sales, and ultimately saving the business. Then George gets a letter from a music publishing business in New York, and off he goes, pledging to write. But he never does.
It's not that George gets a big head, he's just busy and he is a success, eventually leading to him putting on his own Broadway show, "Moonlight and Pretzels". Sally decides to come to New York and find George herself, but he initially doesn't even remember her, even when she shows up as a chorine in one of his numbers. Complications ensue.
This thing is an original. You can't say that Pryor and Brian are just standing in for Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler over at Warner Brothers, because the situation is much more complex than just a couple of kids in a show falling in love. And the story throws every Depression era backstager plot device in the book into the script, and yet it all works - crooked businessmen out to cheat George, the big time gambler where easy comes and easy goes, the girl from the sticks who gets a big head, the fast talking wise cracking stagehands, and Bobby Watson as the rather effete dance director.
The numbers are originals and the music memorable. Bobby Connolly is obviously copying Berkeley's style, and the musical finale is much like the Forgotten Man number in 42nd street, but then Berkeley's numbers could be described as numbers shot at angles in such a way that could never be done on a stage. This finale actually has newsreel footage in it! Well I guess that is no crazier than Winnie Shaw's face being transformed into the island of Manhattan in Golddiggers of 1935.
I'd recommend it.. It is certainly one of a kind among the second wave of early sound musicals.