Banjo on My Knee (1936)

Director:

John Cromwell

Writers:

Harry Hamilton (novel)
Nunnally Johnson (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 December 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Ernie Holley runs away on his wedding night because he thinks he has killed a wedding guest. His father...

Plot Keywords:

Dishwasher | Cafe | Father Son Relationship | Wedding | Father In Law

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Pearl Elliott Holley
Joel McCrea	...	Ernie Holley
Walter Brennan	...	Newt Holley
Buddy Ebsen	...	Buddy
Helen Westley	...	Grandma
Walter Catlett	...	Warfield Scott
Tony Martin	...	Chick Bean (as Anthony Martin)
Katherine DeMille	...	Leota Long (as Katherine De Mille)
Victor Kilian	...	Mr. Slade
Minna Gombell	...	Ruby
Spencer Charters	...	Judge Tope
Hall Johnson Choir	...	Choir (as The Hall-Johnson Choir)
George Humbert	...	Jules
Hilda Vaughn	...	Gurtha
Cecil Weston	...	Hattie

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This was the first film in which Barbara Stanwyck sung and danced.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991) (TV)

Soundtrack:

There's Something in the Air

Bizarre musical starring Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea

"Banjo on my Knee" is a 1936 film that will keep you guessing as to which direction it's headed nearly every time there's a scene change. McCrea plays a shantytown boy who marries a land girl (Stanwyck). The patriarch of McCrea's family, played by Walter Brennan, is desperate for a grandchild. Unfortunately, Stanwyck and McCrea can't seem to get their marriage consummated. On their wedding night, they think McCrea has murdered someone (he hasn't), so McCrea takes off for six months and sees the world while his wife waits none too patiently. The day he comes home, he talks about moving the family to Aruba and says he'll go down first for a month and then send for her. The couple get into a terrible fight because Stanwyck doesn't want to be left again. The two of them then split up again - that instant. She goes to New Orleans to work for a slimy photographer, but no sooner does she get to his apartment that she bolts and takes a job as a dishwasher in a bar.

Soon, the entire population of Shantytown is in New Orleans looking for her and for McCrea. At the bar, Tony Martin is a saloon singer who falls for Stanwyck, and soon, Buddy Ebsen, another Shantytown resident, and Walter Brennan are big hits performing there, and Stanwyck is doing duets with Martin. It goes on from there.

Some of the music is great, the highlight being "St. Louis Woman" with Brennan and the Hall Johnson Choir. Martin looks and sounds like an angel - his voice is just stunning in "There's Something in the Air" and "Where the Lazy River Goes By." Stanwyck sings just like she talks - her voice is low, pleasant, and natural. The cast is uniformly good, and Katharine DeMille has a showy role as Leota, who's in love with McCrea. McCrea, of course, is tall, handsome, and boyishly gorgeous.

I wasn't expecting a musical, and in the beginning, "Banjo on My Knee" seemed like a drama, so I never was sure what I was watching. Odd though the film may be, it was loads of fun.