BEAUTIFUL BUT BROKE

Joan Davis

BEAUTIFUL BUT BROKE (1944). Director: Charles Barton. 

Dottie Duncan (Joan Davis) works for a talent agency run by Waldo Main (John Eldredge). Since war broke out, Main has had trouble putting together bands for clients, so Dottie offers him an all-female orchestra. Waldo winds up giving the agency to Dottie, who puts together a band with the help of friends Sally (Jane Frazee of Hellzapoppin) and Sue (Judy Clark of Junior Prom). Through a series of misadventures, the threesome and the band members wind up in a small town after Dottie loses their train tickets, and they provide entertainment so as to raise cash for a day care. Sally and Sue fall in love, with Army men Bill (John Hubbard) and Jack (Bob Haymes of Blonde from Brooklyn) respectively, so it's a question if Dottie can get them to fulfill their contract in Cleveland. 

Judy Clark swings it!

Beautiful But Broke is amiable nonsense with a patriotic slant and some amusing sequences, such as when the women, thrown out of their hotel, wind up in a house that's on a field being tested for missiles! Joan Davis gives her usual spirited performance, and Frazee and Clark are decorative and have some pep, but are otherwise stuck in a minor key. There is a lot of generally forgettable if snappy swing music. A protracted scene in which Joan, with her foot stuck to a plank, interacts with some construction men and causes more destruction than anything else, seems to go on for half the movie and isn't even funny. 

Verdict: As usual, Davis could use better material. **1/4. 

HAPPILY BURIED

Rita Oehmen and John Hubbard

HAPPILY BURIED (1939 MGM short). Director: Felix E. Feist.

In this musical comedy short, the owners of two rival waffle companies -- Evelyn Foster (Rita Oehmen) and Richard Wright (John Hubbard of Up in Mabel's Room) -- decide to form a merger and get married. Unfortunately, Evelyn wants to stick with the round "magic circle" waffle iron while Richard insists they only offer the "four corners" square waffle iron. Of course, they could decide to manufacture both waffle irons, but that would be too easy. Richard decides to perk up business for his company by putting himself in a transparent coffin for the publicity value, while Evelyn exhibits the world's largest (round) waffle iron -- which can hold an orchestra and dancers -- at the 1939 World's Fair, an exhibition which Richard sabotages. While both parties are stubborn, Richard is so obnoxious that it's staggeringly sexist that Evelyn would happily take the creep back at the end. Both Oehmen (who had a lot of heartbreak in her life) and Hubbard (who was billed as "Anthony Allan" for this and other early film appearances) have pleasing personalities and Hubbard has a smooth and attractive tenor voice. He had a very long career, especially on television in his later days. Oehmen's only starring role was in a western programmer, Gun Law, and she had only three other credits, Happily Buried being the last of them. Her daughter, Charmian Carr, appeared in The Sound of Music. Benny Rubin plays an Hindu prince who can walk on coals. Incidentally, The songs are by Wright and Forest of Kismet fame. Incidentally, does this silly short forecast the fact that round waffle irons seem no longer to exist except as antiques on ebay? What a shame!

Verdict: Pleasant short with some singing. **. 

UP IN MABEL'S ROOM

Mischa Auer, Dennis O'Keefe and baby

UP IN MABEL'S ROOM (1944). Director: Allan Dwan.

Gary (Dennis O'Keefe) is married to the easily excitable and almost neurotically jealous Geraldine (Marjorie Reynolds). Years ago Gary had a drunken fling in Mexico City with Mabel (Gail Patrick), and gave her some intimate lingerie with a love message embroidered on it with his name. Mabel, who is engaged to Gary's prospective business partner, Arthur (Lee Bowman), thinks Gary should be honest about it and they can all laugh about it and forget it -- very sensible -- but not-so-sensible, nervous Gary wants to get the notorious slip out of Mabel's hands and destroy it. To that end he hires Boris (Mischa Auer) to help him get it when the two couples and others converge at a house party. Somehow, after much hiding under beds and marital misunderstandings, the rumor gets around that Gary and Mabel's big secret isn't a mere slip, but a "slip" of a baby! Up in Mabel's Room is based on a creaky old farce that might have been hilarious in its day, but this attempt to turn it into a wartime screwball comedy just doesn't come off. There are some talented players in this -- O'Keefe certainly tries hard, Patrick is quite likable as the sophisticated Mabel, and Mischa Auer gets the film's only laughs (and there are far too few of them) -- but Marjorie Reynolds [Bring On the Girls] and most of the others show no gift for farce. If the picture were really funny you might overlook that most of the characters are quite stupid. John Hubbard [The Mummy's Tomb] and Binnie Barnes play another couple, and Charlotte Greenwood is an older woman who thinks Boris is a burglar and tries to shoot him. Allan Dwan also directed the terrible Brewster's Millions with O'Keefe.

Verdict: Pick any Mexican Spitfire movie and it will be a lot funnier -- this is leaden. *1/2

THE MUMMY'S TOMB

THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1942). Director: Harold Young.

A generation after the events of The Mummy's Hand, Steve Banning (Dick Foran) is a widower and senior citizen telling his sister (Mary Gordon), son John (John Hubbard), and John's girl, Isobel (Elyse Knox) about his adventures in Egypt as recounted in the previous film. Little does he know that both the mummy, Kharis and his High Priest Andohep (George Zucco) are somehow still alive and up to mischief. Andohep sends Mehmet (Turhan Bey) and Kharis to the small town of Mapleton, Massachusetts where Banning lives in order to wipe out all members of the family of the man who dared to desecrate Kharis' tomb. Shuffling, creepy Kharis manages to cause a lot of mischief in this one. An older and more serious "Babe" (Wallace Ford) also shows up (with a new last name). Lon Chaney Jr. plays the mummy and is completely unrecognizable. He shuffles around as well as anyone. Followed by The Mummy's Ghost.

Verdict: Somewhat creepy and lots of fun. ***.