Hallelujah, I'm a Tramp (1933)
"Hallelujah I'm a Bum" (original title)

A New York tramp (Jolson) falls in love with the mayor's amnesiac girlfriend after rescuing her from a suicide attempt

Director:

Lewis Milestone

Writers:

S.N. Behrman, Ben Hecht (story)

Stars:

Al Jolson, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Al Jolson	...	Bumper
Madge Evans	...	June Marcher
Frank Morgan	...	Mayor John Hastings
Harry Langdon	...	Egghead
Chester Conklin	...	Sunday
Edgar Connor	...	Acorn
Tyler Brooke	...	Mayor's Secretary
Louise Carver	...	Ma Sunday
Dorothea Wolbert	...	Apple Mary
Tammany Young	...	Frank the Jockey
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vince Barnett	...	(scenes deleted)
Heinie Conklin	...	(scenes deleted)
Gino Corrado	...	(scenes deleted)
Bodil Rosing	...	(scenes deleted)
Sidney Skolsky	...	(scenes deleted)

Storyline

A New York tramp (Jolson) falls in love with the mayor's amnesiac girlfriend after rescuing her from a suicide attempt

---

Plot Keywords:

mayor | suicide attempt | park | poverty | hunting | 

---

Genres:

Musical

---

Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 February 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lazy Bones

Filming Locations:

Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lewis Milestone Productions, Feature Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min 68 min (re-release)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Both Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart have cameos in the film. In the scene where Frank Morgan is photographed with a baby, there is a shot of the photo team. Rodgers is on the left. When the story shifts to Bumper being employed at the bank, Hart is the teller who refuses to cash a $5 check - he has one line but Rodgers has none.

---

Goofs

A cameraman's arm is reflected in the partially opened window of the Mayor's limousine when the Mayor meets Bumper at the casino.

---

Connections

Featured in Going Hollywood: The '30s (1984)

---

Soundtracks

"My Pal Bumper"
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Sung by Edgar Connor, Al Jolson, Harry Langdon and chorus

User Reviews

hallelujah, thank Jolson for this movie

Slap-happy musical film that tries to use music and images together to meld a new format -- and ends up entertaining and likeable. Many of the songs are "recited" in operatic fashion, as when Jolson, the "Mayor of Central Park" (a famous bum) sings his case in court against a singing tribunal that he's been brought before on chargest of betraying his office by taking a job at a bank. A wonderful tracking shot introduces his job through sucessive levels of importance, beginning with high rollers and ending up with lyricist Lorenz Hart telling a customer he doesn't have a dime to give him. After we see all the varying levels of importance in the bank, we finally come on Jolson and his friend, doing the banking equivalent of peeling potatoes. Wonderful charm of Jolson and Langdon is dulled slightly by Morgan and Evans' stiff leads.

Rodgers music and Hart's lyrics are splendid, making this one of the most original, best written original musicals of all time. It should be noted that in his years later working with Oscar Hammerstein, Rodgers only wrote one original play for film (excluding the televised "Cinderella") -- "State Fair" -- which in my opinion, though charming, has got nothing on "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum!" After the failure of this and several other Rodgers/Hart film projects, the duo returned to Broadway to become almost its only reliably successful writers in the later 30s. They left behind this little Hollywood gem to be rediscovered.