Fri 21 Jul 2017
Movie Review: THAT’S MY BABY (1944).
Posted by Steve under Comic Books, Cartoons, Comic Strips , Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[6] Comments
THAT’S MY BABY. Republic Pictures, 1944. Richard Arlen, Ellen Drew, Leonid Kinskey, Minor Watson, Richard Bailey. Director: William Berke.
The setting for this definitively minor comedy effort from 1944 is supposed to be that of a comic book publisher’s office, which is why I rescued the DVD it’s available on from the $3 bin at a local record store. In truth, however — and the truth always comes out — Moody Productions looks more like an animated cartoon production facility, a supposition heavily reinforced by, well, the animated cartoon they produce on the quick that ends the movie.
It turns out that the head of the firm (Minor Watson) is suffering from a bad case of the blues, and to cheer him up, his daughter (Ellen Drew) and her beau (Richar Arlen) bring into his home a whole host of vaudeville acts, with no success. Not until they discover what it was in his past that has not allowed him to even smile in some twenty years.
This is a small time capsule of the kinds of acts that made people in small town America laugh. I don’t believe too many of these acts were ever preserved on film in many other ways. Many of these are pure corn, others are mildly amusing, and one, Gene Rodgers, the astoundingly good piano player, makes you wonder why you never heard of him before.
Freddie Fisher and His Schnikelfritz Orchestra
Lita Baron, as Isabelita
The Guadalajara Trio
Gene Rodgers (boogie-woogie piano player)
Peppy and Peanuts
Mitchell & Lytell (office worker comedy routine)
Alphonse Bergé
Doris Duane
Adia Kuznetzoff (Russian singer)
Chuy Reyes and His Orchestra
Al Mardo and His Dog
Dewey ‘Pigmeat’ Markham
Personally, if you were to ask me, it is a wonder that both Richard Arlen and Ellen Drew, both consigned to B-movie stardom at the time, ever had careers after making a movie such at this, with one of the weakest storylines of any comedy musical I’ve ever seen.
July 21st, 2017 at 11:08 pm
Ed Sullivan the Movie.
July 21st, 2017 at 11:27 pm
But without the Beatles.
July 22nd, 2017 at 12:42 am
William Berke is a minor director who is rarely studied.
My records show I (mildly) liked his “The Falcon’s Adventure”, part of the Falcon detective movies. And the “Steel Ribbon” episode of the Gene Autry TV series.
July 22nd, 2017 at 1:01 am
Freddie Fisher’s Schnickelfritz Orchestra was an ancestor band to Spike Jones’s City Slickers.
More than a few of Fisher’s players wound up with Jones, most notably trumpeter George Rock (Is he in this movie? You can spot him in a couple of other Schnickelfritz film appearances – e.g., Gold Diggers In Paris).
You also might remember Adia Kuznetzoff from Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man – he’s the festival singer who sends Lon Chaney off the deep end when he sings about “living eternally!”
You can also wonder how Richard Arlen got his hair gunked up like that – and how he managed to keep it that way well into the 1960s.
(This is what happens when you get older – you lock onto the damnedest things …)
July 22nd, 2017 at 12:38 pm
Pigmeat Markham’s the one I’d fast forward to see!
July 22nd, 2017 at 12:56 pm
Mike and Steve
Almost nobody remembers any of the various acts today, except people who read this blog, but I’m sure all of them had at least some name recogniton at the time.
Thar the Schnickelfritz Orchestra left footprints that Spike Jones followed in is well established today, but that Pigmeat Markham was doing break dancing before there was break dancing, and before he became a comedian, was something I didn’t know until now.
One other act deserves a mention, I think. Doris Duane did was can only be called a reverse strip strip tease dance. She’s the one in the second photo down. The act starts with her in a bathing suit, then her partner (male) comes out with a single swath of fabric and begins to wrap it around her in such a way that when he’s done, Doris has a dress on that’s suitable for going out on the town.