Worries? Full of them!
I'm not sure if I reviewed this one or not, but regretfully it annoys me a bit, and I can't help it, so I have a hard time remembering if I have reviewed it or not. I swear that I wish it hadn't gotten under my skin the way it does. The jokes seem to fall flat, and try as they might, they seem to miss the mark, most of them. Pity. They're all such a gung-ho bunch of veterans. Lahr and Ebsen are fantastic as a songwriting team on the skids. Cornbread's favorite beefcake Kelly plays Lahr's saucy dame, and she's a corker as the hat-check girl. She gives the picture a sprinkle of Irish magic dust and lends it an irresistible elfin-like quality that is rarely equaled.
The female roles in this film are portrayed by such lovely, well-figured, bright, and charming young ladies, that I think everything else about it pales in comparison for me, and I find them so utterly fetching that I feel I believe this is the aspect of this film I enjoy the most and why I feel it should deserve any mention at all. The girls in this film are all angels, almost every one of them... even Margaret Dumont shows up for a quick cameo, probably one of the quickest that I've ever seen.
Despite the few shortcomings this film does have (and it does have its number) Alvino Rey and His Band are an added joy, and the sounds of his magic zither (with the four different playing card suits on its fretboard) waft and wave their way through the atmosphere and the "Hold That Tiger" number IS indeed a WOW, as is the bluesy "Cindy Lou McWilliams," a snappy 12-bar blues I find to be a nifty highlight. Don Barclay plays Luke Brown, and I do think this is a curious choice to play this character; a blast from the past that has returned years later to give us a couple of flat yuks. The music swings in this little weirdo. The comedy doesn't always work, though. The gangster character with the knives rubs me the wrong way, for instance. Some jokes are funny, like one involving an ice crushing machine, and Lahr singing a song about a girl named "Sally." So, what if it ain't exactly Fred and Ginger? I'm not entirely against the picture, but I could've found it to be a tad better than it was. I do admit it can be a little confusing, too, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it all out.
The female roles in this film are portrayed by such lovely, well-figured, bright, and charming young ladies, that I think everything else about it pales in comparison for me, and I find them so utterly fetching that I feel I believe this is the aspect of this film I enjoy the most and why I feel it should deserve any mention at all. The girls in this film are all angels, almost every one of them... even Margaret Dumont shows up for a quick cameo, probably one of the quickest that I've ever seen.
Despite the few shortcomings this film does have (and it does have its number) Alvino Rey and His Band are an added joy, and the sounds of his magic zither (with the four different playing card suits on its fretboard) waft and wave their way through the atmosphere and the "Hold That Tiger" number IS indeed a WOW, as is the bluesy "Cindy Lou McWilliams," a snappy 12-bar blues I find to be a nifty highlight. Don Barclay plays Luke Brown, and I do think this is a curious choice to play this character; a blast from the past that has returned years later to give us a couple of flat yuks. The music swings in this little weirdo. The comedy doesn't always work, though. The gangster character with the knives rubs me the wrong way, for instance. Some jokes are funny, like one involving an ice crushing machine, and Lahr singing a song about a girl named "Sally." So, what if it ain't exactly Fred and Ginger? I'm not entirely against the picture, but I could've found it to be a tad better than it was. I do admit it can be a little confusing, too, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it all out.
- cornbread-jones
- Mar 9, 2025