5/5/2023 0 Comments Serial for rhyme genie![]() ![]() Weill may have just been too sophisticated, but here he gets to write a German bierkeller song for Washington's Hessian opponents, sung by Herman Bing and June Haver, the duo of your drunkest dreams. Bronislau Kaper, another composer who fled the Nazis, said that he was able to succeed in Hollywood because as a German he wasn't ashamed to indulge in the kind of hokey Americana actual American composers of quality were embarrassed by. Berlin rhymes "bewilderin'" with "children." True, the numbers are all too tied in to the Quantum Leap "narrative" to have become standards, but in context they work nicely. Fox didn't really have any light comics, and had to borrow Fred.īut the songs are of definite interest. Ryskind seems to have been imagining he'd get someone like Bob Hope (anchored at Paramount) or Red Skelton (tied to MGM). Here, he's the whole focus of the film unless a musical number is raging around him, and he doesn't quite have the comic personality to hold it. It's also a lesson on the importance of having the right comic: MacMurray could be a great underplayer and his modesty (he regarded himself as just a sax player who got lucky) allowed him to support the era's top female stars to great effect. ![]() Ratoff has an uncredited assist from George Seaton, an equally unstylish fellow, but the film has some sparkle, being written by Morrie Ryskind, a major Marx Bros. ![]() This is Fox workhorse Gregory Ratoff, a well-liked figure who normally took charge of the studio's "sophisticated comedy" output, which is one reason why the studio never really succeeded at screwball. But the film has really amazing people involved in it, everyone but the director. ![]()
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