Sing and Like It (1934)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

William A. Seiter

Writers:

Aben Kandel (story)
Marion Dix (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 April 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Any girl with good strong adenoids can do the same thing!

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Show Business | Safecracker | Ransom | Radio

Cast

Zasu Pitts	...	Annie Snodgrass
Pert Kelton	...	Ruby
Edward Everett Horton	...	Adam Frink - Producer
Nat Pendleton	...	T. Fenny Sylvester
Ned Sparks	...	Toots McGuire
Richard Carle	...	Mr. Abercrombie Hancock - Critic
John Qualen	...	Oswald (as John M. Qualen)
Matt McHugh	...	Junker - Hood
Stanley Fields	...	Butch - Hood
Joe Sawyer	...	Gunner - Hood (as Joseph Sauers)
Billy Griffith	...	Webster - Frink's Secreatary (as William H. Griffith)
Grace Hayle	...	Miss Fishbeck - Little Theatre Stage Director
Roy D'Arcy	...	Mr. Gregory - Leading Man in Show

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #1514-R, 11 September 1935 for re-release) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

A modern source lists Florence Roberts in the cast, but she was not seen in the movie.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Your Mother

Great Title. Great Cast. Not So Great Movie

This boasts a cast of wonderful character actors: Nat Pendleton, Ned Sparks, Part Kelton, and its nominal star ZaSu Pitts. They are squandered, though Sparks is funny as a cynical Greek chorus.

Nat Pendleton was a very likable actor. A leading man he was not. Pert Kelton could be great, racy fun. She's a little racy here but the character is, like the others in this movie, sketched in broadly.

I have seen ZaSu Pitts in "The Wedding March" and "Greed" and am inclined to agree with Erich von Stroheim's high assessment of her skills as a tragedienne. As a comic she had potential, though she often seemed to get high billing for just a few lines.

Here is simply is not funny. And that song! OK, we understand that Pendleton loves it because it makes him think of his own mother. (And his mother turns out to be in jail. Oh, ha ha ha.) But Pitts's delivery is just bad. It isn't funny. Couldn't she have been given a couple other songs or couldn't Kelton have sung something? Enough of that mother song is way more than enough.

NOTE: The Pendleton/mother angle makes this a comic, (sort of) musical version of a later, justly better known movie: "White Heat."