Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)

“Why don't you go back and see Gordon?”

“I will not!”

“You *came* here to see him, didn't you?”

“Yes, but I still have a little pride left.”

“So's Gandhi, but he's getting awful thin.”

            I was very excited to see TCM airing The Broadway Melody of 1936 because I loved its follow up The Broadway Melody of 1938. I had so much fun watching every minute of this film.

            Bert Keeler (Jack Benny) is a reporter who keeps announcing what high society person has had kids. Hi editor wants him to stop with the birth announcements and get some scandalous news. Bert’s friend Snoop was looking out the window when he sees a party going on across the street. He spots Broadway producer Bob Gordon (Robert Taylor) dancing the rich widow Lillian Brent. Bert immediately starts thinking they are together so Lillian will finance Bob’s new show.Bob does need money for his new show but he does not want Lillian to help him even after she offered. Bert sees this paring as the other wanting something the other one has.

            Irene Foster (Eleanor Powell) shows up at Bob’s office looking for a job the following day. She knows Bob from when they were in high school in Albany and have not seen each other in five years. Bert also shows up at the office to speak to Bob to see if Lillian is backing his show. Bob comes back to the office. He looks Irene right in the face and he does not recognize her at all. Bob refuses to see Bert. Through his secretary Kitty (Una Merkel) Bob tells Bert that if he wants publicity he will call a publicity man.

            Irene gets a room. As she outs away her clothes she sees through the skylight in her room two people dancing on the roof. The two dancers are brother and sister Ted and Sally and they are singing before they eat breakfast. Irene joins them in an adorable song and dance routine. Irene tells Ted and Sally about her meeting with Bob and how she knows him. Sally tells her she should go see Bob again. Irene replies that she has too much pride.

            Bob finds a pin in his office. It is the college pin he had given Irene before he left. She gave it to Kitty to leave for Bob. He is all excited and wants to find her. Unfortunately Kitty never got Irene’s address. At the same moment Lillian storms furiously into Bob’s office. She shows him Bert’s column and what he wrote about her backing Bob’s show. Bob wants Bert to come to his but Bert gets back at him and tells Bob to come to his office. Bob storms over to the newspaper. Bert was hoping to get a little something for giving Bob publicity in his paper. Bob punches both Bert and Snoop in the face.

            Kitty asks Snoop to have Bert put in his column that Bob is looking for Irene. Bert puts the items in his column more so as a jab at Bob. Ted reads the column to Irene. He tells her Bob can get dancers a dime a dozen she needs to have something else. Suddenly Irene breaks out in a Katharine Hepburn impression from the film Morning Glory and she is really good (watch it here please you must!). The next day Irene surprises Bob at the auditions for his show. She wants to be the star they used to talk about together. Bob tells her Broadway is really tough it is not what they imagined. Bob is called away to speak to Lillian. While Bob is away, Irene imagines what it would be like to be a star in a show dancing on stage for an audience.

            Lillian feels since she is putting up the money for the show she should be its star. Bob wants a name though he asks her to give him two weeks to go to Hollywood to get a name and if he cannot find a star he will out her in the show. Snoop hears the whole thing from standing behind the open door. He tells Kitty he will not say anything if she goes out to dinner with him. So Kitty goes along and Bert just happens to walk in. He manages to get it out of Snoop what Bob is up to.

            Bert comes up with the idea to spread word about a famous French actress who has come to New York City. The actress is from his own imagination and her name Mademoiselle LaBelle Arlette is from a cigar company. He wants the word about this actress to reach Bob so he will look like a fool trying to get the woman for the leading role. Bert sets up shop in a hotel and has Snoop at first playing the French actress but when he cannot get his voice high enough Bert makes him the secretary. All Snoop has to say is that Mademoiselle cannot come to the phone she is very busy and to have a record playing a French woman singing (the song playing is a French version of “All I Do Is Dream of You”).

            Kitty keeps trying to get a hold of this Mademoiselle Arlette for Bob. When she calls Snoop picks up and when Kitty tells him who she is Snoop breaks character and says “Hiya Kitty.” Figuring something funny is going on Kitty goes to the hotel. She sees Snoop sleeping in full woman’s wig and clothes on. When Kitty gets back to the office Irene, Ted, and Sally are waiting in the office. Bob has seen Ted and Sally in their act in a small city a few years before. He remembers he liked them and puts them in the show. As for Irene he talks her out of wanting to work on Broadway by saying he does not want to see her talent go to waste as a chorus girl never landing the parts she wants. He gets her a ticket back home to Albany.

            Irene and Kitty have other plans. Instead of going home Irene gets off at the next train stop and Kitty is there to meet her. Kitty returns to the office along with Mademoiselle LaBelle Arlette. If you could not guess Irene is disguised as the French actress. Bob is ecstatic over the most talked about actress coming into his office. He was just about to sign the contract that Lillian had signed for her to be the lead actress in the show.

            Bert receives a cable from Paris that there is a real Mademoiselle Arlette and she will sue if her name goes on being used the way it has been. He goes to Irene to tell her the news. At first he does not tell her about the potential lawsuit until she says she does not care she will keep up the disguise. After Bert tells her what will happen Irene tells him he is in just as much trouble as she is and comes up with a plan.

            Needless to say it is a happy ending for Irene and Bob. She performs an awesome dance routine with the song “Broadway Rhythm.”

            Oh my god where do I even begin with to describe how amazing this cast was! Eleanor Powell did not even want to do this film. She thought that by demanding a lot of money she would not get the part and MGM gave in. This was Powell’s first real starring film and she gave a fantastic performance. Powell was unbelievably perfect and adorable right from her first scene. I think I nearly died from her adorableness in the scene where she impersonates Katharine Hepburn from Morning Glory. It was so spot on it was scary! Powell was such an awesome dancer. I never care how long her routines are I enjoy watching her dance so much. You can tell by her face and the way she moved that she truly enjoyed dancing. I just cannot get enough of her incredible dancer’s legs. I want her thighs! Robert Taylor was so handsome. At the beginning of the film when Bob is out with Lillian they both sing “I Got a Feeling You’re Fooling.” Yes, Robert Taylor sings and this was the only film he ever sang in. He was really good. I liked his pairing with Eleanor Powell they fitted very nicely together. Una Merkel I enjoy so much. I crack up whenever I see her face. Merkel was also paired with Powell and Sid Silver who played Snoop in Born to Dance. All three together worked wonderfully in both film. I laughed so hard with Merkel in one scene: Lillian was walking out of the office and she passed Kitty’s desk and Kitty gave her a look. It is hard to explain without seeing it but the look on Merkel’s face was so damn funny. This was Buddy Ebsen’s first film. He looked like such a doof the whole time. I loved his dancing with his real life sister Vilma Ebsen. Jack Benny I have only ever seen in To Be or Not to Be before this. He was good he fit the character very well.

            All the songs in this film were written by the excellent writing and composing team Arthur Freed and Herb Nacio Brown. If you know all the songs in from Singin’ in the Rain then you will know all the songs here (except for the one Irene sings on stage). The film opens with two separate singers singing “Broadway Melody” and “Your Are My Lucky Star.” I always get so excited when is see where the songs from Singin’ in the Rain originally came from because I love them all so much. The compositions are much different than they are in the later film.

            I had such a fantastic time watching Broadway Melody of 1936. From beginning to end I enjoyed it so much. Every character, every song, every dance routine, and every actor were perfect. I cannot wait to own Broadway Melody of 1936 on DVD.  

To Be or Not To Be (1942)



“If I shouldn't come back, I forgive you what happened between you and Sobinski. But if I come back, it's a different matter”

            To Be or Not to Be is one of the best satire films ever made. Made before America entered World War II and Hitler and the Nazis could be seen as a non-threatening idiot, the film cleverly and wittingly takes a stab at the madman and his followers. The film pokes fun at the Nazis not being too bright and allowing the actors of an acting troupe to get the best them.

            Josef Tura and his wife Maria (Jack Benny and Carole Lombard) are two of Poland’s most famous actors… depending on who you talk to. At the beginning of the film the theater is rehearsing for a new play about Hitler and the Nazis. Unfortunately officials come in telling the troupe that they are no longer allowed to stage the play because of growing tensions between Poland and Germany. Instead the theater announces that Hamlet will now be showing.

            In the audience is a young Polish soldier named Sobinski. He is in love with Maria and has seen many of her performances and read about her in all the papers. He gets to go backstage and meet his crush. Maria is very taken with the young man and tells him when Hamlet starts his soliloquy to come back to her dressing room. Sobinski gets up when the line “to be or not to be” is spoken and causes a big to do. Josef is none too pleased and gets thrown off. For the next few days the same thing happens again and again. Before Josef has time to find out why the soldier keeps getting up the Nazis storm into Poland and Sobinski heads to England with the troops.

            In England the Polish soldiers are manipulated into giving a doctor as well as fellow countryman the names of their families and where they live so when he goes back he could give word to them that their families are ok. Sobinski’s family are safely out of the country so he tells the doctor to send along the message “To be or not to be” to Maria.

            The doctor as it turns out is really a Nazi spy. He took the names of the pilots so the Nazis could kill them and their families. The message Sobinski has given to the doctor is taken to mean some kind of a hidden message. The Nazis find Maria and tell her to go to Nazi headquarters to talk to the doctor. The doctor talks to Maria playing to her vanity of fine living and of being an actress asking her to be a spy for the Nazis. If she does she can have all the nice things she used to have and more.

            Meanwhile, Sobinski was sent to Poland to find the doctor and bring the man back as a criminal. He finds Maria after he has been on the run and she lets him stay in her apartment. Josef comes back to the apartment while Maria is with the doctor. He notices the man looks like the one who used to get up in the middle of Hamlet. He recites the line and on instinct Sobinski gets up out of bed. Before he can get really angry Maria rushes into the room and tells them both of the doctor’s offer. They make a plan for Maria to go back to the doctor the next day and the theater company will dress up like Nazis telling the doctor to come to their headquarters in town which is actually the theater so they can kill him.

            All the dressing up and acting as Germans lands the group, especially Maria and Josef in some trouble along the way. The acting and trouble leads to many funny scenes. The dialogue is comes fast in some instances and said very subtly like most 1940s screwball comedies. I found in the first half hour to forty-five minutes many of the lines were the funniest. I enjoyed the first interaction between Maria and Josef; they are both such egotistical actors it seems amazing they are still married. Maria says to Josef “It's becoming ridiculous the way you grab attention. Whenever I start to tell a story, you finish it. If I go on a diet, you lose the weight. If I have a cold, you cough. And if we should ever have a baby, I'm not so sure I'd be the mother” and he replies “I'm satisfied to be the father.” A line I found to be clever was when Josef was dressed up as a Gestapo he asked the real Gestapo if he had ever heard of “the great actor Josef Tura” and the other man says that yes he has heard of Tura he even saw him once in Hamlet and “What he did to Shakespeare we’re doing to Poland.” Another scene with Josef in disguise someone says about the Germans putting people into concentration camps “We do the concentrating and the Poles to the camping.”

            The first piece of information you will find when looking up To Be or Not to Be is that this was Carole Lombard’s last film before she died in a plane crash. Knowing this fact kind of tarnishes the film in some way, I don’t know maybe it is me who only sees it that way. Many have said this was the role for Lombard that had she lived would have propelled her to a new level of comedy and to a new level as an actress. You can see that, you can see she was on to a new path in her career. Lombard was very good as Maria Tura. The character was good. I enjoyed watched Lombard as the egotistical, love hungry but caring actress. Maria cared for her country and did what she had to do. A scene I liked her in was at the beginning when Sobinski firsts comes backstage to see her and he tells her he is a bomber and that he can drop three tons of dynamite in two minutes. Right away we can see this is some kind of subtle sexual innuendo and Maria finds this fascinating. The way Lombard played the scene was excellent. You can always tell when an actor or an actress is really good when they can make a reaction look real. In a scene with Josef as a Gestapo he once again asks a real Gestapo if he has ever heard of the “great actor Josef Tura” and I believe the Gestapo officer tells Josef the Shakespeare and Germany doing the same to Poland line. Josef’s face and ego fall so hard and all Maria does is look away and laugh because she knows the blow it caused. Lombard’s reaction was perfect; it looked like she was really taken with how funny the reaction was.

            Jack Benny was fabulous as Josef Tura. Before this film Benny had been in some films but none of them were really big hits. He was a popular radio personality with his own show. His running gag in the film would be asking people if they have “ever heard of the great actor Josef Tura.” The gag does not even get old it just gets funnier because most of the peoples’ responses are different and his reactions to their responses is always different. It was funny how he wanted to be a good Pole and help his country when the whole time all he wanted to do was wrong Sobinski’s neck for walking out on his soliloquy and for sneaking around with his wife.

            To Be or Not to Be was not well received when it was originally released in 1942. By that time America was involved with the War and Carole Lombard had died. I read someone compare this film with Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator; many people felt that these films were in poor taste due to what was truly happening in Europe. Unfortunately these films were released after America entered the War and the humor was lost.  Many critics and viewers were sore with Ernst Lubitsch for the Shakespeare joke and many did not get the joke. Lubitsch put his view of the film the best in a response to one critic:

            "What I have satirized in this picture are the Nazis and their ridiculous ideology. I have also satirized the attitude of actors who always remain actors regardless of how dangerous the situation might be, which I believe is a true observation. It can be argued if the tragedy of Poland realistically portrayed as in To Be or Not to Be can be merged with satire. I believe it can be and so do the audience which I observed during a screening of To Be or Not to Be; but this is a matter of debate and everyone is entitled to his point of view, but it is certainly a far cry from the Berlin-born director who finds fun in the Warsaw."

Today To Be or Not to Be is considered one of the best films made in America. It is an entertaining film with many good lines and excellent acting by not just Carole Lombard and Jack Benny but by the entire cast. To Be or Not to Be is a comedy film not to be missed.