Sun 29 Nov 2009
A Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: TOP O’ THE MORNING (1949).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Mystery movies , Reviews[8] Comments
TOP O’ THE MORNING. Paramount Pictures, 1949. Bing Crosby, Ann Blyth, Barry Fitzgerald, Hume Cronyn, John McIntyre. Screenplay: Edmond Beloin & Richard L. Breen; director: David Miller.
Trivia experts likely know that William Levinson and Richard Link created the character of Lt. Columbo for Bing Crosby, but they may not realize Bing had played a detective before, and in fact a private detective in this 1949 musical comedy with a touch of noir.
Music and murder had mixed before — Charlie Chan at the Opera, Murder at the Vanities, The Princess Comes Across, and Lady of Burlesque come to mind, but those were backstage mysteries, and the singing was confined to the stage. This may be the only full blown musical comedy murder mystery ever filmed.
It begins with a murder and a shocking theft — the Blarney Stone — which bequeaths the gift of gab on anyone who kisses it — has been stolen. The stone is part of ancient Irish lore and it’s theft could well visit disaster on the entire nation. Finding the stolen stone and restoring it and the killer is of vital importance.
Enter top American insurance investigator Joe Mulqueen (Bing Crosby), a laid back pipe-smoking crooning detective, sent by Inspector Fallon (John McIntyre) to Ireland find the ancient rock and save the company from having to pay off on the priceless relic.
But that pits Joe against Sergeant Briany MacNaughton of the Irish Garda Civil, and his fiery daughter Conn (Ann Blyth), and further complications ensue because Joe’s arrival seems to fit all too well a prophecy about who the lovely Conn will marry.
Top o’ the Morning is by its nature schizophrenic. When Bing isn’t crooning familiar tunes or those written for the film by Burke and Van Heusen, romancing the lovely Blyth, doing the usual Irish shtick with Fitzgerald and most of the cast, and exploring the legend of the Blarney Stone, he’s playing detective investigating a brutal murder.
Toward the end of the film the mood turns dark and even noirish, and the screenplay acknowledges a nod toward G. K. Chesterton and one of Father Brown’s most famous cases, “The Invisible Man,” as Joe and Sgt. MacNaughton close in on the killer.
Indeed these scenes almost make you wish the film had been played as a straight detective story, and they have a quiet power as well as a dark noirish look, thanks to Miller’s direction.
Top o’ the Morning is more of a curiosity than a success. You can’t fault the cast or even the screenplay; the two forms just don’t really work that well together.
Bing does get to show a little steel beneath the crooning in a few scenes, and he’s always worth watching playing off Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, who played almost as many cops and professional Irishmen, gets to exercise both his specialties here, and Blyth is both lovely and convincing. A special nod to Hume Cronyn as Biddy O’Devlin, who gets to shine briefly in an offbeat film.
Still Top o’ the Morning is well worth catching, and noir fans will recognize some excellent work toward the end of the film. It’s one of those films that you may find you like far more than it really merits.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Thanks for tipping me to a movie I might otherwise have passed. I’ll tape it next time it’s on.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:13 am
I’ve made the same resolution also, but from past experience, whenever I say that to myself, TCM (or whoever) doesn’t show the movie again for months.
Last night I was watching another film that might fall into the same category (musical-noir), THEY MET IN THE DARK, starring James Mason and made in 1943.
It’s based on a novel by Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Beatrice Malleson) entitled THE VANISHING CORPSE. Arthur Crook is the detective in the book, but there’s no such part in the movie, an espionage affair in which Mason tries to clear his name by following a theatrical agency around England.
So there’s lots of singing, dancing and harmonica playing that takes place, along with plenty of dark and sinister atmosphere (nice photography).
There’s also a girl involved, of course, and Mason’s character naturally falls in love with her, albeit knowing and crossing trails with her for all of two days.
Unfortunately not even James Mason can make this believable, but the rest of the movie is pretty good. I haven’t finished watching it yet, but it seems to be heading for a giant finale.
Incidentally, Anthony Gilbert was a cousin, I’ve discovered, of British actor Miles Malleson, who was one of the screenwriters working on THEY MET IN THE DARK.
November 30th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Music and crime is a fairly common mix going back at least to Rio Rita, and certainly several of Bob Hope’s films mix the two to some extent. But most have the music rising from a more or less natural setting such as a night club or backstage.
Top o’ the Morning is unique as far as I know. The only other film that is close is the French film 8 Women in which Catherine Denuve, Isabelle Adjani, Isabelle Huppert, Alida Valli and other major female stars of the French screen are trapped at a home in the country during a snow storm when the only man is killed.
The slickly done mystery, filmed in the technicolor style of Douglas Sirk’s fifties melodramas, includes several clever musical numbers, but even it isn’t a musical comedy in the manner of Top o’ the Morning.
A few have been done on Broadway, but I don’t know that they were filmed. There is probably something obvious that I’m missing, but almost all of the films I can think of that fit the formula are of the backstage variety like Lady of Burlesque or Here Come the Girls. Jack Carson plays a private eye in Doris Day’s debut Romance on the High Seas, but there is no crime involved.
1944’s Murder in the Blue Room with Anne Gwynne and Donald Cook may fit the pattern, but I’ve never seen it and can’t quite tell from the description which calls it an ‘Old Dark House musical.’
November 30th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
You’re quite right, David. THEY MET IN THE DARK is an espionage-noir film with musical scenes (night clubs, audition halls) rather than a murder mystery musical. Call it a Category Two, perhaps, like LADY OF BURLESQUE, not a Category One like TOP O’ THE MORNING, which I’m now itching to see.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
To close my comments on THEY MET IN THE DARK, you remember that giant finale I predicted?
Didn’t happen.
Big fizzle.
James Mason is good, as always, but you can forget the rest of the movie, nonsensical plot and all.
(Nonsensical plots can be forgiven a lot more easily if they come with giant finales.)
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I hate to sound like a broken record, but let’s not forget BLUES IN THE NIGHT (1941):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033409/
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Blues in the Night is a good one, but still falls in what Steve calls category 2, where the musical numbers arise from the show business background. Actually there are quite a few of these, and I suppose without much of a stretch you could include all the versions of Phantom of the Opera and even Phantom of the Paradise.
The backstage drama with a bit of crime and even detection is pretty common in mystery films (Song of the Thin Man), comedy (Here Come the Girls), noir (I Wake Up Screaming), and even melodrama (Blues in the Night).
But I can’t think of any others that fall in category 1 unless you really want to stretch a point and mention the murder in Carousel or Jud’s planned fate for Curly in Oklahoma. And even then they aren’t mysteries and there is no detective figure. We are likely all missing something obvious, but I just can’t figure out what it is.
October 1st, 2012 at 1:40 pm
I saw this movie in 1950 when I was 20. I’m now 82. Thanks for a great upload and for turning the clock back to happier days. I can’t wait to watch it again!!