Everybody Sing

Allan Jones and Judy Garland star in one of those wacky backstage musicals that Warner Brothers was better known for in Everybody Sing. With a very talented cast doing the shtick they do best, Everybody Sings comes out as great entertainment.

The only weakness in this film and it's a big one is the lack of any memorable songs. The best known one in the film is Cosi Cosa which Allan Jones had originally introduced in A Night At the Opera and he sings a couple of lines of, here. The stuff written for the film directly just doesn't measure up.

If Judy doesn't put on a show as she usually does with Mickey Rooney, she does agree to star in a show to help her family who is going bankrupt. Her father is playwright Reginald Owen and her mother is actress Billie Burke who next year Garland would work with in The Wizard of Oz. Burke is one extravagant ham of an actress who is constantly reciting old play dialog in every given situation and she's very funny. Her extravagance is also driving Owen to the poor house.

Employed at this house are cook Allan Jones who also sings at a nightclub during the evening and Fanny Brice. I can't quite decide who's funnier in this film, Burke or Brice. It's a good thing that Jones and Garland were the singers that they are because as straight players they could never have held a scene from either of these women.

Everybody Sing is a great opportunity to see the great Fanny Brice perform. The image we have of her is from Funny Girl and Funny Lady and it's nice to see the real deal. Also Reginald Gardiner is quite good as a ham actor who's courting Lynne Carver, Garland's older sister who Jones is sweet on.

I only wish some memorable songs came from this film it would have achieved greatness if some had.