Cocoanut Grove (1938)

Director:

Alfred Santell

Writers:

Sy Bartlett (screenplay)
Sy Bartlett (story)

Release Date:

20 May 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

High Riding Romance ! - At The Rendezvous of the Stars !

Plot:

Band tries to get an audition for a job at a prestigious nightclub. |

Plot Keywords:

Nightclub | Coconut Grove | Big Band | Kansas | Los Angeles California

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Fred MacMurray	...	Johnny Prentice
Harriet Hilliard	...	Linda Rogers
Ben Blue	...	Joe De Lemma
Eve Arden	...	Sophie De Lemma
Rufe Davis	...	Bibb Tucker
Billy Lee	...	Half Pint
George Walcott	...	Tony Wonder
Virginia Vale	...	Hazel De Vore (as Dorothy Howe)
Red Stanley	...	Dixie
Harry Owens	...	Hula Harry - Band Leader
Randy Oness	...	Singer in the band
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians	...	Themselves
The Yacht Club Boys	...	Themselves

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Soundtrack:

Sweet Leilani

A band on the run -- lightweight, but delightful

Sure, it's pretty lightweight, but like any half decent road movie it offers a more than pleasant ride. Johnny Prentice (Macmurray) tries to keep his struggling Chicago-based swing band from breaking up by convincing them they've got a shot at the legendary Cocoanut Grove in LA. The movie is basically the saga of the band getting across the US to make the Grove, in a trailer not unlike Lucy and Desi's (The Long, Long Trailer). Harriet Hilliard (of The Nelsons fame) comes on board as tutor for Johnny's adopted son, Half-pint, and naturally is soon discovered to be a fine singer who could change the fortunes of the band, especially when she unearths the hidden talents of band member Hula Harry (Harry Owens, whose orchestra provided most of the music).

What lifts this from most B-musicals of this period is a great sense of camaraderie among the musicians on the road, some delightfully eccentric characters (Ben Blue and Eve Arden as the Dancing Dilemmas; Rufe Davis, with a dizzying array of animal noises and sound effects; the child Half-pint, a demon at the drum kit) and some highly improbable scenes, verging on the bizarre, that work for comic value. And some of the songs! Thec signature tune, Says My Heart, will stick in the mind for a long time, as will a couple of the numbers done by the Yacht Club Boys (the deliberately clumsy cruise ship opener, and the OTT Four of the Three Musketeers) not to mention the two Rufe Davis songs. In between, the Hawaiian-flavoured tunes of Harry Owens and his orchestra keep the vibe well and truly on the mellow side.

Cocoanut Grove is silly, and for a road movie is somewhat studio bound, but its principals all have charm and there's enough pace to make the 90 minutes fly by. A delight!