Guest Posted January 30, 2008 Share Posted January 30, 2008 I had the pleasure of watching this movie yesterday on TCM, as well as a few other early works of the amazingly talented Judy Garland. I found this film in peticular to be an intersting musical, with a hint of screw-ball comedy. The cast is great, and fanny brice is a great maid. Billie Burke also is great in the movie, and I think not well enough reconized by the film community. (in case you didnt know, she was the wife of Florenz Zeigfeld) I found the film delightful and under acknoledged. what did you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d120421 Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Gotta admit, I'm not crazy about this one, although, as a fan of Judy's, I enjoy most of her numbers. Ditto Fanny Brice's. But, despite a very talented cast of marvelous character actors (e.g., Billie Burke, the Reginalds Owen and Gardiner, Allan Jones, Henry Armetta, etc., etc.) I find most of the comedy forced and unfunny and the acting often shrill and mannered. Some of the songs are pretty bad, too, such as that "Shall I Sing a Melody" tune Judy does in the finale. Still, Judy's "Swing Mr. Mendelssohn" is great, as is her "swing" performance of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," even if her obvious "pickaninny" blackface disguise makes for uncomfortable viewing. I also like her duet with Brice to "Why? Because!" because it gives us a chance to see the two great performers onscreen together. In his MOVIE AND VIDEO GUIDE, Leonard Maltin said of this film: "After loud finale you'll be waiting for sequel EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" I didn't dislike the film THAT much, but if you're looking for wonderful musical films with a touch of screwball comedy, stick with the early Deanna Durbin vehicles from Universal. They did it much better than MGM, in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Film_Fatale Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Regardless of how people react to the movie, I'm surprised there's still a few musicals with Judy Garland that are not yet out on DVD, especially after they released the Rooney/Garland set late last year. Hopefully they'll be released at some point, at least until that happens we can watch on TCM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts