SHAKE, RATTLE & ROCK

Holloway, Dumbrille, Dumont and Helton

SHAKE, RATTLE & ROCK (1956). Director: Edward L. Cahn.

"Rock 'n' Roll is destroying the youth of our nation."

DJ Gary Nelson (Mike "Touch" Connors) is the host of a teen rock and roll program which inspires the ire of a group of old fogies who are offended by its alleged vulgarity. They form the Society for the Prevention of Rock and Roll and the Corruption of American Youth or SPRACAY. The most interesting thing about the movie is that the members of this group include no less than Margaret Dumont [Little Giant], Douglass Dumbrille, and Percy Helton [The Crooked Way], all of whom are marvelous (Dumbrille is especially wonderful in his comic portrayal, but the others score as well). Unfortunately, while these veterans are aware that they are in a comedy, the same cannot be said for Mike Connors and Lisa Gaye as his girlfriend, who display little skill at humor. As Connor's good right hand, Sterling Holloway [Wild Boys of the Road] is pure camp as an early "Maynard G. Krebs" type. Shake, Rattle & Roll tries to have it both ways by trying to be "serious" at times, but it certainly doesn't work in this picture. The movie displays its own prejudices when it introduces a lisping nerd as the voice of classical music (although even he ends up "rockin'" at the end). Some rock and "swing" movies (from an earlier decade) respected classical and operatic music while celebrating the new type of sounds, while others got defensive and put down classical stuff the same way others derided rock 'n' roll; this is in the latter category. Raymond Hatton is fun as Dumont's hen-pecked but eventually liberated husband, Clarence Kolb plays a judge, and Fats Domino sings a couple of numbers. Much more screen time should have been given to Dumont, who can be very, very funny.

Verdict: Very amusing at times, but the fun eventually peters out and a lot of opportunities for great comedy are muffed. **1/2.

WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD

Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips

WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD (1933). Director: William A. Wellman.

During the depression, two friends, Eddie (Frankie Darro of No Greater Glory) and Tommy (Edwin Phillips), decide to leave town and look for work when it is clear that their desperate parents haven't enough money to provide for them. On the rails the fellows meet a young lady named Sally (Dorothy Coonan) who is hoping to hook up with her aunt. Things don't quite work out as planned for any of them ... Wild Boys of the Road, a rather heavy-handed message film, purports to be a study of the situation of homeless youth in the thirties, but unfortunately it has too much of an Eastside Kids sensibility to be the masterpiece it might have been. The light touch throughout most of the film is at odds with the very grim subject matter, and once the ever-weird Sterling Holloway [Cheers for Miss Bishop] shows up the picture almost loses it completely. On the other hand, the acting is quite good (even if Darro is a little too "gosh darn" at times) and the close relationship between the young men is often touching. A scene when one of the boys is hit by a train is horrifying and very well done. Grant Mitchell makes an impression as Eddie's desperate father, middle-aged and out of work and facing eviction from his home, and there are other able supporting performances. The picture resolves many things a bit too neatly (although there is no assurance of happiness for any of the characters), but this has many very lovely things in it, especially a moving scene between Eddie and his dad when the former sells his beloved old car for needed money. Edwin Phillips was a very talented and attractive actor but he only appeared in three films; he lived until 1981. After appearing in just a few movies Dorothy Coonan married director Wellman the following year, retired from films (aside from one bit credit years later), and had seven children with Wellman. Wellman also directed the original A Star is Born and many, many others.

NOTE: In 1932 William Wyler and John Huston were planning to collaborate on a film about just this situation entitled The Forgotten Boys, but it was shelved when reforestation camps opened to employ these youths that same year and the situation changed. It would have been interesting to see Wyler's version of the story, which probably would have been more powerful.

Verdict: The flaws pale besides the honest sentiment. ***.

BLONDE VENUS

BLONDE VENUS (1932). Director: Joseph von Sternberg.

While on a camping trip in Germany Ned Faraday (Herbert Marshall) comes across Helen (Marlene Dietrich) swimming with other pretty chorus girls and it's love at first sight. In one of the swiftest transitions I've ever seen in any movie, practically the next second  the two are married, living in the U.S., and have a cute little boy named Johnny (Dickie Moore). [I mean there isn't even a two-second shot of their wedding let alone any scenes of courtship.] It develops early on that Ned has a serious illness and needs a lot of money to travel to get treatment, so Helen goes back to work [billed as the "Blonde Venus" in a campy "African" night club number in which she first appears in a gorilla suit] and gets the money from playboy Nick Townsend (Cary Grant). What follows is a series of misunderstandings and recriminations, with Helen on the run with Johnny and Ned in pursuit and so on. This is neither one of Dietrich's best performances nor one of her better movies, and Grant, Marshall and even little Dickie Moore come off better than Dietrich. Blonde Venus is the kind of dopey movie in which even while on the run and hungry for food Dietrich can somehow manage to afford a maid [the always-wonderful Hattie McDaniel]! The "Hot Voodoo" number, while utterly impossible to take seriously, is a hoot, and Dietrich's flat singing as delightfully awful as ever. Sidney Toler plays a police detective hunting Helen, and Sterling Holloway has a small role as a friend of Ned's in the early scenes in Germany.

Verdict: At least Dietrich looks beautiful no matter what her tribulations. **.

CHEERS FOR MISS BISHOP

CHEERS FOR MISS BISHOP (1941). Director: Tay Garnett.

Ella Bishop (Martha Scott) graduates from a small town college and becomes a teacher there. Chances for love pass her by as the years roll on. This may sound like a dull, sappy movie, but it's actually an engrossing, warmly sentimental drama about small-town life and values, but it doesn't have a puritanical streak: at one point Miss Bishop becomes involved with a married man (Sidney Blackmer) whose wife refuses to divorce him. Donald Douglas plays Del, the man she nearly marries before her bitchy cousin Amy (Mary Anderson) steals him away, and William Gargan is the loyal Sam, who probably loves her better than anybody. There are memorable performances from the aforementioned as well as Edmund Gwenn, as president of Midwestern, Dorothy Peterson as Ella's mother, Rosemary DeCamp as Minna, Marsha Hunt as Amy's daughter, and the always-odd Sterling Holloway as the campus janitor. Martha Scott offers a simply outstanding performance as Ella; she's on top of the part whether she's playing the young student or the old lady retiring at seventy.

Verdict: A lovely movie. ****.