Joe Miller (Ray Walker) fancies himself a comedian and dreams of a life on the air in radio as a famous broadcaster, but he's actually just a railroad employee in the small town of Burlap, Pa. One night when he tries out his act on the president of the railroad who has stopped by for a surprise inspection Joe is fired and decides to try his luck in New York City. He finds a short-cut to success via his ingenuity and gets to headline a radio program for a pancake flour company. He also finds a girl he fell in love with at first sight back in Burlap when she was asleep on a train that was passing through. He pursues the girl but she turns out to be a hard nut to crack. Joe always had a swelled head, but now he's also turning to drink and partying. Will success abandon Joe Miller? Watch and find out.
I watched this because it was on a list of "Great B Movies" on a website that caters to old movie fans. Ironically, the creator of that list actually said - "Really good B comedies are fairly scarce because the most talented writers and directors of such fare were big-name, A-picture regulars. Ditto for musicals: the top songwriters and musical performers primarily worked in major-studio As." And yet this musical comedy was on his list! My assessment is that author should have followed his own advice and not put this on his list.
The jokes aren't funny and if there wasn't a radio audience there to laugh and cue the film audience, I'd have no idea what was and wasn't supposed to be a joke. Ray Walker, the leading man, rather reminded me of Jack Oakie, just better looking with a blander presentation style. Apparently, his heyday was over by the mid 1930s. The leading lady is Julie Bishop, who had a longer career and actually played opposite some pretty big stars at Warner Brothers for awhile, but she was not a singer. Thus it is pretty jarring when her voice is dubbed with an operatic singing voice that does not match her speaking voice at all as she breaks out in song.
Still, it's not boring and it is interesting if you want a look at what old time radio looked like. That's the only reason it cracks a 5/10 in my estimation.
I watched this because it was on a list of "Great B Movies" on a website that caters to old movie fans. Ironically, the creator of that list actually said - "Really good B comedies are fairly scarce because the most talented writers and directors of such fare were big-name, A-picture regulars. Ditto for musicals: the top songwriters and musical performers primarily worked in major-studio As." And yet this musical comedy was on his list! My assessment is that author should have followed his own advice and not put this on his list.
The jokes aren't funny and if there wasn't a radio audience there to laugh and cue the film audience, I'd have no idea what was and wasn't supposed to be a joke. Ray Walker, the leading man, rather reminded me of Jack Oakie, just better looking with a blander presentation style. Apparently, his heyday was over by the mid 1930s. The leading lady is Julie Bishop, who had a longer career and actually played opposite some pretty big stars at Warner Brothers for awhile, but she was not a singer. Thus it is pretty jarring when her voice is dubbed with an operatic singing voice that does not match her speaking voice at all as she breaks out in song.
Still, it's not boring and it is interesting if you want a look at what old time radio looked like. That's the only reason it cracks a 5/10 in my estimation.
