SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Steve Wren Jeez this is hard to watch and this era would be my favourite. Joan Davis doesn't know whether she wants to be Martha Raye, Betty Hutton or Eve Arden and fails in any comparison to them. Jack Haley is my (and I stress) personal least favourite "leading man" or song and dance man of this era despite the legendary Wizard of Oz being in his resume. Some of the routines are cringe-worthy. Check out Haley's impression of a fly landing on a cube of sugar and a chunk of limberger. Then if you can stomach it, Davis' rendition of an outboard motor trying to start. The sound effects of both were so obviously dubbed over and the paltry effort to be funny so bad, that I couldn't help imagining the embarrassment Davis and Haley must have felt actually standing on set in front of a camera and doing that stuff. Margaret Hamilton saved this horror from a 1 rating. Her cynical spinster shtick is endearing as always. I'm glad I saw it though and I'm consigning the memory to experience rather than pleasure.

vincentlynch-moonoi One of the great screen musicals? Hardly. But that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. Remember, this is not an MGM film...the one studio that really "got" musicals (although they had some misses). This is just little old RKO.I have to admit that I didn't realize Joan Davis had been in so many films. She was very good with the right role...and this is one of those right roles. She fits her talents into this role well without exaggeration.Jack Haley is the male lead here, and although somewhat forgotten now, he figured pretty big in Hollywood for quite a few years, although here he was past his prime. Nevertheless, the part works for him.The other gem here is the wonderful Margaret Hamilton with a bigger role than she often got...and she makes the most of it! A lot of the laughs here belong to her.The musical numbers are "okay", a "Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries" is quite good.The plot is mainly an excuse for entertainment numbers, but it's okay --a man (Haley) is in love with a woman (Davis), but the man's spinster sister (Hamilton) won't have it! Pretty standard fare, although it seems like it might be more at home about 5 years earlier.

bkoganbing I have a feeling that over at RKO they heard that MGM was doing The Ziegfeld Follies and decided to do George White's Scandals. White who was an actor as well as producer appeared in his own shows and in adaptions over at 20th Century Fox. Here however White is played by Glenn Tryon.But White himself is extraneous to this story which concerns two backstage plots. White's number one assistant Philip Terry falls for Martha Holiday whose mother back in the day was chorus girl in the Scandals but who married English nobility and retired. Now Holiday is trying out but lets no one know including Terry. Holiday also has Jane Greer as a rival who is pretty ruthless about getting her way.The second story concerns those lovebirds Jack Haley and Joan Davis who are both in the Scandals. They'd like to get married, but Haley promised his dear old parents that he wouldn't until his sister did. Unfortunately his sister is Margaret Hamilton and if you think the Wicked Witch intimidated the Tin Man in The Wizard Of Oz wait until you see her in this film. They even hire a professional escort for her in Fritz Feld who falls down on the job.That last one is pretty silly, but the players make it work. The best song in the score is the revived Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries which was introduced in the 1931 version of the Scandals on Broadway. It was introduced by Rudy Vallee and too bad they couldn't have gotten him to do it in the film. Vallee and White however came to a nasty parting of the ways and I doubt Rudy would have made himself available for this film.It's not MGM and it shows, but George White's Scandals is a decent enough film and it also features Gene Krupa and his band and Ethel Smith on her Tico Tico organ.Fans of the Wizard Of Oz might like to see Haley and Hamilton as brother and sister. No one is putting a smile on Margaret Hamilton's face.

boblipton This typical mid-40s RKO musical is enlivened a bit by Joan Davis' goofy mugging. The plot, of course, only serves to gives people time to take a break between the comedy bits and the musical numbers. We also have a view of Roach silent comedy star, Glen Tryon as George White.The musical numbers are pretty good, particularly the first one with Gene Krupa, a triumph of choreography and camera-work. Krupa seems a little.... weird in the number, however, like he's on strong drugs and flipping out. Although this is not unheard of in drummers who are not on drugs, it may be significant that Krupa had spent time in jail on a marijuana rap in 1943, and this might have been an attempt to capitalize on his 'bad boy' image.