Sick Product of a Sick System

Just perfect...

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

" . . . if you're willing to obey." No, this is NOT a line of dialogue from the latest FIFTY SHADES DARKER trailer. Rather, it comes as part of the lyric for the powerful closing number of an otherwise fairly slow-paced GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937, "All's Fair in Love and War." This ten-minute visual wonder emanates from the delightfully demented mind of Real Life World War One Drill Sergeant turned Broadway and Hollywood choreographer Busby Berkeley, and is about the closest thing to a live-action Looney Tune ever committed to screen. Call it BUSBY IN WACKYLAND: a tap-dancer strutting his stuff on the seat of a five-story tall rocking chair, a battle of the sexes clinched by womanly weapons of mass deception, Chorines popping out of Cannons, and flag twirlers first performing in mid-air, and then reaching hurricane strength. Otherwise, the plot of this edition of the GOLD DIGGERS series is mostly a vigorous (and prophetic, from Warner Bros.' Early Warning System) defense of the U.S. Affordable Care Act (aka, ObamaCare), with a plot centering on Broadway Producer J.J. Hobart's Pre-existing medical condition. (Spoiler: J.J. will be slain in a New York Minute under the Donald J. Rump Administration.)

For reasons best known to themselves Warners decided to go with two songwriting teams on this one, despite the fact that the number one team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin were already batting .600. Nevertheless they tapped Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg to provide half the score and the clash of styles is an apt metaphor for this hybrid movie which is neither fish nor fowl. Dick Powell was also a joke as a tenor and by saddling him with a moustache the producers only gave us cynics more to scoff at. Given the fact he was married to co-star Joan Blondell at the time the chemistry between the two is lackluster to say the least. Victor Moore has the key role which is ... er, Victor Moore, maybe he should have paid the two dollars and bought himself out of this one. Glenda Farrell does what she can but still winds up married to Moore - it's that kind of film. One the other hand musical buffs and Golddigger completists will welcome the chance to add this to their collections.

The high point of Gold Diggers of 1937 is Busby Berkeley's staging of "All's Fair in Love and War," an all-American dose of surrealism, like a militarized, scrubbed and bleached opus by Bunuel or Dali. It hypnotizes and amuses, mixing silliness and wisdom, finesse with crudeness. And it never hurts to have at one's disposal such raw materials as a superior Harry Warren melody, and in this case, a better-than-average Al Dubin lyric.The other songs in this light-dark comedy fare less well. The two main entries by E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen ("Speaking of the Weather" and "Let's Put Our Heads Together") are routine and interchangeable; when they merge in a poolside extravaganza, it's hard to tell where one leaves off and the other comes in. Harburg and Arlen also contributed the cynical "Life Insurance Song," performed only fragmentarily by Dick Powell, but it's quite sharp ("You'll get pie in the sky when you die, die, die…."). Sadly, Warren and Dubin's splendid "With Plenty of Money and You" is deprived of a big splashy production number all its own.The plot is actually not bad for movies of this type. Various bad guys, in cahoots with gold digger Glenda Farrell, try to profit from sick old theatrical producer (Victor Moore) by taking out a million dollar life insurance policy on him (innocently sold to them by Dick Powell) and then putting him into unhealthful situations which will maximize the chances of his quick and convenient demise. The proceeds will finance their new musical, which will be a big money- making hit. It's a nasty scenario when you think about it, spun out with a pretty good share of racy double entendres.Powell, in his 4th year of warbling wholesomely for the brothers Warner and sporting an unflattering mustache, looks like he's just about to roll back his eyes and shout "Enough!" but he manages to deliver the twinkle, the vitality and the sonorous vocals that made up his screen persona. Joan Blondell as his love interest is also beginning to show signs of wear. Her voluptuous chorine days are drawing to a close, but she can still pull off the act; as usual, she doesn't even attempt to sing and merely speaks her lyric lines. Victor Moore, Broadway veteran and seasoned character comedian, brings great nuance and even pathos to a role that might have been played as sheer low-minded slapstick by a lesser actor. Lee Dixon as one of Powell's fellow insurance salesmen comes off as a rather eccentric supporting actor in search of a screen personality until it is revealed that his primary talent is tap dancing, which he displays with great energy in the poolside number. But when you see the truly amazing footwork of the dancers in the 1929 Gold Diggers of Broadway (fragments of which are included as an extra feature on the Busby Berkeley Collection Volume 2), you realize that Dixon by comparison was an eager but clumsy beginner.So this late entry in the gold diggers series isn't as bad as one might expect. It would have been better, perhaps, if some of the performers had been more youthful and less sick and tired of playing the same types year after year and if there had been more socko musical numbers.

Fairly disappointing following the 1933 and 1935 entries in this series, this film sees Dick Powell in insurance and Joan Blondell as a showgirl who gets a job in his firm. He has a silly name and everyone is chasing a million dollar policy. Cue Victor Moore, that great comic actor, as the creaking gate who just has to be kept alive / not kept alive, depending on who you are. Not that big on songs or routines, two stand out - the garden party with all the duets on the weather, and All's Fair in Love and War, where the girls beat the boys with ... well, that would be giving it away...