KING OF BURLESQUE

Alice Faye and a bevy of chorus cuties

KING OF BURLESQUE (1936). Director: Sidney Lanfield.

Kerry Bolton (Warner Baxter of Just Before Dawn) has been very successful as a producer of burlesque entertainment, but he longs for Broadway respectability and embarks on a new career. He also decides to romance a society lady named Rosalind Cleve (Mona Barrie), who is down on her luck and already engaged to handsome singer, Stanley Drake (Charles Quigley of The Crimson Ghost). In a bizarre development Rosalind agrees to marry Kerry if the latter will back Drake financially for a career in opera as well as give him the lead in a high-brow Broadway show. Obviously this is not a recipe for marriage -- or musical -- success. In the meantime, Pat Doran (Alice Faye), who's been carrying the torch for Kerry, is heartbroken and leaves his employ. Will true love win out in the end? Since not enough is made of the strange marital triangle, we're left with some winning production numbers, especially when Bolton finally stages his big show for a comeback. You have to see the gals swinging like trapeze artists over a supper club set to believe it. Fats Waller sings "Got My Fingers Crossed;" little Gareth Joplin tap dances his little heart out; Kenny Baker does a sterling rendition of another of the catchy numbers; and a piece with the chorus boys adroitly tap dancing with Faye is also delightful. The leads are all fine, with nice work from Jack Oakie as Kerry's pal, Joe; Dixie Dunbar as secretary turned singer, Marie; and especially Gregory Ratoff [All About Eve] as a man who impersonates a wealthy Russian backer of the revue. This is a near-MGM style musical from Twentieth Century Fox. Remade as Hello, Frisco, Hello, also with Faye and Oakie, and John Payne replacing Warner Baxter.

Verdict: The story takes a back seat to the snappy numbers. ***.

LOVE ON A BUDGET

Wise Women: Spring Byington and Florence Roberts

LOVE ON A BUDGET (1938). Director: Herbert I. Leeds.

"Somewhere in that deep, dark breast of yours lies the spirit of Carnivale."

Bonnie Jones (Shirley Deane) and her new husband Herbert (Russell Gleason) are having trouble making ends meet and have little furniture in their attractive new home. Along comes Bonnie's free-loading Uncle Charlie (Alan Dinehart), who has Herbert cashing in his bonds not to buy furniture but to invest in a scheme that ultimately leaves him deeper in debt. Shirley wants to move back in with her parents, or file for divorce, and things aren't helped when Herbert and Charlie go out dancing with the former's employee, Millie (Joyce Compton of Dark Alibi), who looks sensational without her glasses. Love on a Budget is an amusing trifle with Granny Jones (Florence Roberts), in particular, in top form, dispensing wisdom and put-downs to Uncle Charlie in equal measure. The scene when Bonnie prepares her first dinner for the whole family is also quite funny. Mayor Jones (Jed Prouty), Mrs. Jones (Spring Byington), Jack (Kenneth Howell), Roger (George Ernest) and sister Lucy (June Carlson) are also along for the ride, as is a much more subdued Dixie Dunbar as Jack's date, apparently a different character from the crazy gal she played in previous Jones Family movies. Leeds also directed Bunco Squad. Shirley Deane was Princess Aura in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. Florence Roberts was the Widow Peep in Babes in Toyland. This is the eighth movie in the series.

Verdict: Pleasant minor comedy. **1/2.

BACK TO NATURE

Kenneth Howell and George Ernest 

BACK TO NATURE (1936). Director: James Tinling.

A third Jones Family programmer was rushed out in 1936 and proved a touch funnier than the previous installments. In this Father Jones (Jed Prouty) goes to a convention and is pressured into bringing the whole family along [a premise that was used again in The Jones Family in Hollywood and probably others]. He buys an $800 trailer and most of the family foolishly ride inside it during the trip. There's a scene involving the trailer and a cliff that prefigures The Long, Long Trailer, but is less elaborate. At Crystal Lake, Jack (Kenneth Howell) dates a loopy gal named Mabel (Dixie Dunbar, carried over from the previous film, Educating Father, but playing a supposedly different character), and the two are involved in a near-disastrous boat ride just as they were nearly in a plane crash in the last installment. Tony Martin [Here Come the Girls] plays a romantic interest for Bonnie (Shirley Deane) -- and plays it very well, with suave flair and assurance -- but the romance decidedly hits a snag. Excellent performances help put this over, although Dunbar and her character are rather irritating. You keep hoping she'll run into Jason Vorhees from that other Crystal Lake in Friday the 13th!

Verdict: Palatable hijinks with the Joneses. **1/2.