Lillian Roth added so much to early musicals like "Honey" and "The Love Parade" - she was a sparkling brunette with dimples and bright eyes who could really belt out a song. But she was already having problems with temperament and alcohol so when the first wave of musicals ebbed away no-one was there to help her get herself together.
Her singing style was often compared to Ethel Merman's and it was Merman's Broadway role she was given in the film version of "Take a Chance" (the only 1933 musical to look to Broadway for it's source) and her "Eadie Was a Lady" was the big highlight (for me) (Vivian Vance was seen on the stairs and given the final chorus and Marguerita Padula (the old gypsy woman in "The Cuckoos"(1930) sang a verse). When Roth wasn't in the picture the movie was pretty lack lustre, having to get by on the forced comedy of James Dunn and "Ukelele Ike" Edwards. Edwards had been brightening up musicals for years with his cheery tunes and risqué patter and he was given a chance to shine here with two songs - the cheeky fantasy sequence "I Did It With My Little Ukelele" in which he sails away from a South Sea Island peopled with miniature "Ukelele Ikes" and also a nice rendition of "Night Owl".
Dunn and Edwards play Duke and Louie, a carnival duo who come to the Great White Way with star struck Toni (June Knight) hoping to follow in Wanda's (Roth) footsteps. She has run out on the carnival, sick of the boy's shyster ways. She puts Toni onto producer Kenneth Raleigh (Chas. "Buddy" Rogers, oddly, billed last in the opening credits but placed closer up at the end!!) and Kenneth likes what he sees. Hard to believe that Toni could be given the lead in a Broadway show on the strength of a pretty ordinary performance where she tries to imitate Lupe Velez and Greta Garbo. June Knight had been the star of the original Broadway show and was brought to the Astoria studios for the movie but she didn't stand out - only when she sang a chorus of "Night Owl".
The movie starts out promising enough with Roth sizzling as Wanda doing an almost striptease to "Come Up and See Me Sometime" and given all the witty lines such as "All the time you're out of jail, you're away from home"!! Another Lillian - Bond was her name was just gorgeous (I wanted to see more of her) as the sulky star who is eventually replaced by lack lustre Knight.
A real low light of the movie was the staging of "Paper Moon" - it was so odd!! A very peppy tune of the early 1930s, recorded by all the top dance bands and already a big hit, it's staging was completely botched by choreographer Bobby Connelly who staged it as a Romeo and Juliet swashbuckling operetta (I am not joking) where Rogers jumped around like Errol Flynn. Fortunately Dorothy Lee brightened up the movie as a dizzy dame who is keen to share her swivel hips dance (which worked so well for her in "Half Shot at Sunrise" (1930)) with anyone standing still and is the only enjoyable spot in the deadly "Daniel Boone" finale.
See it for Lillian - both of them!!
Her singing style was often compared to Ethel Merman's and it was Merman's Broadway role she was given in the film version of "Take a Chance" (the only 1933 musical to look to Broadway for it's source) and her "Eadie Was a Lady" was the big highlight (for me) (Vivian Vance was seen on the stairs and given the final chorus and Marguerita Padula (the old gypsy woman in "The Cuckoos"(1930) sang a verse). When Roth wasn't in the picture the movie was pretty lack lustre, having to get by on the forced comedy of James Dunn and "Ukelele Ike" Edwards. Edwards had been brightening up musicals for years with his cheery tunes and risqué patter and he was given a chance to shine here with two songs - the cheeky fantasy sequence "I Did It With My Little Ukelele" in which he sails away from a South Sea Island peopled with miniature "Ukelele Ikes" and also a nice rendition of "Night Owl".
Dunn and Edwards play Duke and Louie, a carnival duo who come to the Great White Way with star struck Toni (June Knight) hoping to follow in Wanda's (Roth) footsteps. She has run out on the carnival, sick of the boy's shyster ways. She puts Toni onto producer Kenneth Raleigh (Chas. "Buddy" Rogers, oddly, billed last in the opening credits but placed closer up at the end!!) and Kenneth likes what he sees. Hard to believe that Toni could be given the lead in a Broadway show on the strength of a pretty ordinary performance where she tries to imitate Lupe Velez and Greta Garbo. June Knight had been the star of the original Broadway show and was brought to the Astoria studios for the movie but she didn't stand out - only when she sang a chorus of "Night Owl".
The movie starts out promising enough with Roth sizzling as Wanda doing an almost striptease to "Come Up and See Me Sometime" and given all the witty lines such as "All the time you're out of jail, you're away from home"!! Another Lillian - Bond was her name was just gorgeous (I wanted to see more of her) as the sulky star who is eventually replaced by lack lustre Knight.
A real low light of the movie was the staging of "Paper Moon" - it was so odd!! A very peppy tune of the early 1930s, recorded by all the top dance bands and already a big hit, it's staging was completely botched by choreographer Bobby Connelly who staged it as a Romeo and Juliet swashbuckling operetta (I am not joking) where Rogers jumped around like Errol Flynn. Fortunately Dorothy Lee brightened up the movie as a dizzy dame who is keen to share her swivel hips dance (which worked so well for her in "Half Shot at Sunrise" (1930)) with anyone standing still and is the only enjoyable spot in the deadly "Daniel Boone" finale.
See it for Lillian - both of them!!