Fri 12 Dec 2008
Movie Review – THE MIGHTY BARNUM (1934).
Posted by Steve under Films: Comedy/Musicals , Reviews[4] Comments
THE MIGHTY BARNUM. 20th Century, 1934. Wallace Beery, Adolphe Menjou, Virginia Bruce, Rochelle Hudson, Janet Beecher, George Brasno, Olive Brasno. Screenwriter, based on his play: Gene Fowler; director: Walter Lang.
I ordered some Edgar Wallace movies on DVD from an online dealer, and he sent me a packet of Wallace Beery instead. Not good, as I have never been a Wallace Beery fan, but the dealer said to keep them and said he’d send me the Wallace movies anyway.
To make a long story short, I never did get the Edgar Wallace movies. He sent another set of DVDs entirely, but these were ones I didn’t have and didn’t mind having, so I let things be. I won’t order from this fellow again, though.
I’ve looked up Wallace Beery on the Internet to learn, as I knew in general but not in specific, that he was a very bankable star in the silent film era — and into the 1930s as well, having only a small difficulty in the transition. He spoke in a slow, drawling voice and had a mild propensity for mugging while on camera. (Keep in mind I’m using only The Mighty Barnum to gauge from, but many of the sources I found online say much the same thing.)
In any case, he’s likeable enough, and unless you require accuracy in your biographical movie watching, The Mighty Barnum is entirely acceptable as light entertainment. If there ever was a man whose life could be played for laughs, without being a comedian himself, it would have been P. T. Barnum.
Mentioned (and seen) in the film, among others, are Madame Zorro, the Bearded Lady; Jumbo the Elephant; Col. Tom Thumb and his wife Livinia (played by George Brasno, a midget himself, and his sister Olive); and Jenny Lind (the lovely Virginia Bruce), the source of Barnum’s greatest triumph, and (according to the movie, at least) his greatest disaster. (I wonder if Virginia Bruce did her own singing. I’ve yet to find a source that says whether or not, definitively.)
Everything is all scrambled around chronologically, from all accounts, and not even the name of Barnum’s partner in the Barnum & Bailey Circus, which came along later than the events in the movie, is given correctly.
June 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
A good movie.Would be very interesting to see what they would do with it.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Today, you mean?
In terms of historical accuracy, not much better, I don’t imagine.
Hollywood never let the facts get in the way of a good story, then or now.
— Steve
December 12th, 2013 at 9:38 pm
If you want reality,look out the window, not at a movie or TV screen. THE MIGHTY BARNUM is the life story of the man who said “Americans love to be humbugged”, and who the hell in the audience will care what happened when, and what didn’t? Like all movies, it should just be enjoyed as entertainment, and not a life lesson. This is a fun movie about a man who had fun every day, up or down, rich or broke, he never wanted to do anything else but give the “suckers” what they wanted to see, when they wanted to see it. If this is wrong, I don’t to see what your mind sees as “right”‘,or “acceptable”.
December 13th, 2013 at 12:09 am
Well, me, for one, to answer your question, but obviously not everyone cares all that much. In terms of the rest of your comment, I’m OK with everything but your last sentence. No matter how many times I’ve tried to read and understand it, I’ve failed. It is beyond my grasp.