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Playmates (1941) More at IMDbPro »
10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
In Shockingly Bad Taste But Fascinating, 4 January 2005
Author: David (Handlinghandel) from NY, NY
This appears to have been the last movie of the great John Barrymore. (The filmography listed here must be wrong in following it with a movie in 1966. I've seen that movie and it is an old one.) As such, it has historical importance.
John Barrymore will always be remembered as one of the great men of American theater as well as a fine movie actor. He looks puffy and tired here, but boy! Does he give it his best shot.
The on screen credits have him as a supporting player, with Kay Keyser -- a tiny fleck on the radar screen of movie history -- before the title. However, I'd guess that Barrymore has at least as many lines as Keyser.
As to the quality of the lines: That is another story. In the movie, the always funny Patsy Kelly plays his agent. In real life, it's hard to imagine that any agent would have allowed him to play in such a startlingly vulgar movie. Maybe bills just needed to be paid.
This movie is so vulgar, it is entertaining, though our hearts break for Barrymore being paraded around in such sorry physical shape (and ending the movie in some sort of bizarre drag, hardly flattering to his corpulent figure. It is supposed to be Shakespearean garb but I've never seen a play by the immortal Bard that had its lead got up like that.) (Of course, I have never seen one with a male Portia, either, though Keyser is shown practicing her lines from "The Merchant Of Venice.") Lupe Velez is also served very badly here. She has a small role and is, as she generally was, a caricature. She is overly made up and is made to seem thoroughly unappealing in character as well.
May Robson is always good. I have never seen a bad performance from her. Here she is in the small role of Keyser's mother and does fine with what she has. It is scarcely one of the highlights of her career, though.
Ish Kabibble is a very odd presence. He seems to have the haircut on which the Beatles (whom I love; please understand) based theirs. He is harmless, as is Keyser, as is Ginny Simms. I don't care for that style of music, but obviously many did.
Having John Barrynore laugh at, or even be on the same sound stage with, Ish's corny jokes is really sad, though. The whole thing is sad. But it isn't dull.
If Barrymore were alive today, one has the feeling from his presence here, he might be doing guest bits on reality TV shows -- letting it all hang out but making enough to pay the bills and to keep his name in the public eye.
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Barrymore's final bow, 2 January 2002
Author: Tom Hamilton (hamilton65) from London, England
Painful self humiliation from a fallen star. Barrymore here plays himself as a has been Shakespearean star so desperate for a Radio contract that he agrees to appear opposite Kay Kyser and band in a festival of the bard's plays.
John was on his last legs when he made this, as testified by a bloated and sometimes drunken appearance and he's treated badly by the script and cast (all his tax and drinking problems are trotted out as "humour" and in a dream scene Barrymore is even shown as a bull defeated by toreador Kyser). Yet this film does have a certain weird amusement value if you catch it in the right mood and if you can forget it's his final film..
Barrymore works very hard to make the most of this script, bellowing and posturing his way through the proceedings. It's a million miles from subtle but with his snorts and grunts and bulging eyes he certainly holds the attention and even generates the odd laugh. Occasionally there's a flash of his old talent. At one point he delivers part of Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be soliquey in an attempt to demonstrate how Shakespeare should be performed. The film and the scene to this point lead us to expect that Barrymore will send the speech up.
Instead in the midst of the frantic mugging Barrymore gives a heart felt and totally straight reading of the scene. It lasts a minute and is intensely moving. There's genuine rawness here and John himself seems quite overcome. (It's extraordinary they kept this in) For a few scenes after this we get to hear his voice giving further beautifully modulated readings from Romeo and Juliet before the movie goes back to it's demeaning purpose.
Patsy Kelly is one of the other talents who help save this farrago from complete disaster.
4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Swing and Shakespeare; Kyser and Barrymore don't mix., 30 June 2000
Author: Silents Fan (rmiller21@woh.rr.com) from Troy, Ohio
I would have had a much more positive view of this movie if I didn't know and admire John Barrymore.
On the surface of it, this is as good as any of the rest of Kay Kyser's ouevre. If you like him (he is, admittedly, an acquired taste), you will probably like this movie. Lupe Velez and Patsy Kelly add their talents to the usual mix of corn and Swing supplied by Kay, Harry Babbitt, and Ish Kabibble (the true inventor of the Beatle haircut).
What keeps me from truly enjoying this film is the presence of the great John Barrymore in a role more suited to Edgar Kennedy. In his last screen appearance, Barrymore grimaces and cavorts like a Stooge and is obviously reading his lines from cards because he can't remember them anymore. Whether or not the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks are real as he mumbles through Hamlet's soliloquy one last time, mine were real enough.
If you don't reverence Barrymore, and you are a student of the Kollege of Musical Knowledge, this will be your cup of tea. If either of the above isn't true, give it a miss.
0 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Mr.Barrymore enjoying ham, 5 May 2005
Author: akroyal from Noraville, Australia
Well, I'll stick my neck out & say that I think the great JB enjoyed himself making this movie & was happy to not be the " star ". I'm ignorant of the genre but seems that Mr. Kyser is the big name here based on his musical skills & radio profile. Ish, what can we say about Ish ... " What is the difference between a duck ?" This guy was a long haired pot smoker 25 years before the rest of the world caught up. No folks here we have The Nanny, with minor twists, in 1941. The major characters are there, check it out. Any plot line that could support a TV series with less that great entertainers, in any field, has no problem sustaining 95 minutes with this cast. This movie is a hoot, enjoy it for the farce that Mr. Barrymore played it as.
4 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Many of you just don't get it..., 31 May 2004
Author: yessdanc from NORTHRIDGE, CA.
All you drama queens out there who whine about 'Poor John Barrymore- look what they've reduced him to, and in his last film!'Well, let me tell you something- 'Poor John' read the friggin' script and no one forced him to take the role. Also, HE didn't know it was his last movie! For those obviously uninformed, this movie was a KAY KYSER vehicle, meant for Kay Kyser and Ish Kabibble fans, designed to sell Kay Kyser records and promote the very very popular Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge radio show. The film was aimed at teenagers, to whom the name BARRYMORE meant little by that time. But Kay Kyser was a huge star. It's an entertaining little pop film, and that's all it was meant to be, so dry your widdle tears!
1 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Lupe stole every scene, 26 July 2005
Author: Letty Lynton from United States
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
I know this was a Kay Kyser movie but I have to admit, Lupe Velez was the only reason I watched this movie. She was great as the Spanish bullfighter who gets Kay. My favorite scene is where Lupe kicks john Barrymore straight in the can. Lupe was the star of the movie to me. if Lupe wasn't in this picture, I wouldn't have even watched it. When she appeared on the screen, she instantly was a magnet to the camera. She loved the camera and the camera loved her.Patsy Kelly was also good in this movie. She was very comical and very warm in this movie. Kay Kyser was excellent in this movie. He played all his numbers great like a professional. He WAS a professional. Kay had a series of movies but this is the first one of the series I have saw but I want to see more of his series. not only can he play good numbers, he is a good comedian and actor.
2 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Great Classic Film, 17 December 2004
Author: whpratt1 from United States
This film was produced during WW II, and the audiences of America needed COMEDY to up lift them from the Horrors of WAR! Kay Kyser,"Swinger Fever",'43, who play himself in this film, was very well liked and was also listened to on the RADIO. M.A. Bogue,(Ish Kabibble), as Ish Kabibble, who played trombone in the Kyser Band and also was a comic who wore bangs, was greatly admired. John Barrymore, played himself,"The Invisible Woman",'66, held this picture together and drew people to the movie houses. Barrymore was able to perform any role on the stage and gave a great performance in this film. However, Barrymore was beginning to have great health problems because of his great Chemical dependency. It is very easy to call this film SLAP STICK, but lets remember, it was 1941 and 63 years OLD!
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