Wonder Bar is a Busby Berkeley musical that borderlines on the insane.
It stars Al Jolson, Dick Powell, Ricardo Cortez, Delores del Rio, Kay Francis, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda, and Fifi D'Orsay.
Jolson plays the owner of a Paris nightclub, the Wonder Bar, and he's also their top entertainer. Also on the bill are two dancers, played by Ricardo Cortez and Delores del Rio, and a singing bandleader, played by Dick Powell.
Cortez is Harry, a gigolo who gives "dancing lessons" to bored housewife Francis, and in payment, she's given him her diamond bracelet. Del Rio is in love with Cortez, but she knows she's losing him. They have an act where he cracks a whip at her - very S&M.
There are two big Busby Berkeley numbers in this. One is a doozy - "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule," with a blackface Jolson going to heaven with Pork Chop Orchards and Possum Pie Groves, afried chicken, dancing watermelons, and a streetcar going from the "Milky Way to Lenox Ave."
Here's the deal - I don't judge films by today's pc standards but this was beyond the pale. Someone makes the point, correctly, that it's a film that should be seen so that people realize just how offensive this type of thing was, adding that it's our history, and we shouldn't run from it. I agree.
There's something for everyone - a man cutting in on a male and female dancing and dancing off with the male, with Jolson saying, boys will be boys.
Two older couples at the club are looking to dump their spouses - the guys have spotted a couple of girls at the bar they're interested in, and the women are picking up gigilos at the next table. Meanwhile, a suicidal man is saying goodbye to everyone, and this works into Jolson's plans to get rid of a dead body far away from the club and have it attributed to an accident.
The number "Don't Say Goodnight" is a huge Berkeley extravaganza and seems to take up the whole club. There is a pleasant score by Warren and Dubin.
This is a sort of nightclub Grand Hotel but a lot trashier.
It stars Al Jolson, Dick Powell, Ricardo Cortez, Delores del Rio, Kay Francis, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda, and Fifi D'Orsay.
Jolson plays the owner of a Paris nightclub, the Wonder Bar, and he's also their top entertainer. Also on the bill are two dancers, played by Ricardo Cortez and Delores del Rio, and a singing bandleader, played by Dick Powell.
Cortez is Harry, a gigolo who gives "dancing lessons" to bored housewife Francis, and in payment, she's given him her diamond bracelet. Del Rio is in love with Cortez, but she knows she's losing him. They have an act where he cracks a whip at her - very S&M.
There are two big Busby Berkeley numbers in this. One is a doozy - "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule," with a blackface Jolson going to heaven with Pork Chop Orchards and Possum Pie Groves, afried chicken, dancing watermelons, and a streetcar going from the "Milky Way to Lenox Ave."
Here's the deal - I don't judge films by today's pc standards but this was beyond the pale. Someone makes the point, correctly, that it's a film that should be seen so that people realize just how offensive this type of thing was, adding that it's our history, and we shouldn't run from it. I agree.
There's something for everyone - a man cutting in on a male and female dancing and dancing off with the male, with Jolson saying, boys will be boys.
Two older couples at the club are looking to dump their spouses - the guys have spotted a couple of girls at the bar they're interested in, and the women are picking up gigilos at the next table. Meanwhile, a suicidal man is saying goodbye to everyone, and this works into Jolson's plans to get rid of a dead body far away from the club and have it attributed to an accident.
The number "Don't Say Goodnight" is a huge Berkeley extravaganza and seems to take up the whole club. There is a pleasant score by Warren and Dubin.
This is a sort of nightclub Grand Hotel but a lot trashier.