Swing High, Swing Low

Cruising through the Panama Canal, pretty Carole Lombard (as Maggie King) resists the advances of date-hungry Fred MacMurray (as Skid Johnson), who is celebrating his last day in the US Army. When Ms. Lombard jumps ship, Mr. MacMurray manages to put himself in her driver's seat. The couple fight and bicker while dating, which you can safely bet means love and marriage are on deck. Credit the film will putting a little delay in that department, however. Lombard gets interested when MacMurray pulls out his trumpet. He turns out to be a professional musician. Eventually MacMurray's boozing "Skid" hits the skids...

The stars are an attractive couple with natural chemistry, but there is too little spark in this middling story. Moreover, MacMurray plays a character written with little appeal. Lombard's character seems not too bright. You can tell "Skid" has a problem. It's too bad, because MacMurray's performance is fine. Watch for a young and handsome Anthony Quinn to try to pick up Lombard, and brawl with MacMurray. Also, lovely young Dorothy Lamour (as Anita Alvarez) plays the exotic other woman. Charles Butterworth (as Harry) is MacMurray's loyal male pal, and Franklin Pangborn appears too briefly. It's cast high, but swings low.

****** Swing High, Swing Low (3/12/37) Mitchell Leisen ~ Fred MacMurray, Carole Lombard, Dorothy Lamour, Charles Butterworth

Ist half is kinda fun, with a nice, relaxed tale of three Americans down on their luck in Panama. Director Mitchell Leisen, who cut his teeth as an art director, puts it to good use, along with cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff, in managing to make the viewer (well this viewer, at least) feel they were in Panama City and not the Paramount backlot. And Lombard and MacMurray have good chem. Unfortunately, the second half, set largely in NYC and featuring that hoariest of story/chestnuts...the guy who goes all to pot when his true love leaves him...is a bit of a comedown. Give it a C plus. PS...How long a career did Tony Quinn have, for cryin out loud? This film was made in 1937 and he looks at least as old as MacMurray, if not older.

Sentimental film goers will find a gem in Swing High, Swing Low, a romantic 1930s drama starring Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard. She's a singer, and he's a trumpet player, and together they make beautiful music. I'm just kidding; it's not that corny. But you're going to have to be in the mood for something like this, like right after you watch Sentimental Journey or Random Harvest.

I like Carole infinitely better in dramas than screwball comedies, so if you prefer her quick banter, you might not like this one. I happen to really like Fred MacMurray, and paired with Carole, they make a pretty cute couple. Fred has to contend with his inner demons, as well as a couple of unwanted suitors for Carole, but even with all those problems, he's easily endears the audience.

Be on the lookout for a very young Anthony Quinn. He's only twenty-two years old, on the screen for about three minutes, and doesn't speak a word of English! All in all, while I might not buy a copy of this movie, I am glad I rented it since it's always fun to see a sweet, black-and-white romance.

I am quite the Mitchell Leisen fan so it was a great anticipation that I rented this movie but the print I got was extremely bad, so worn down from use and scorched seemingly beyond repair, the movie was so dark. So dark that in certain scenes that are cinematographed in the dark, you can't see a single thing. That said, I believe I share the same opinion as the first review of this movie. It starts out unusually and does not tote the lines and rhythms of your typical Hollywood 30's movie. Heck, not even your typical Hollywod movie of any era. It seems the director has been influenced by the Europeans because there is a certain caustic realism to the proceedings from the opening shot which is so crafted in camera movement and placement as Maggie (Carole Lombard) and Skid (Fred Macmurray) meet. You half expect them to start singing "Make believe" from Show boat.It starts with a few laughs and poor Anthony in a one scene role where he speaks not a word of English gets slapped around by Freddie. Skids is a bum who doesn't care that he's a bum. That's why he signs up in the army where he can hide from the world. He's just been released though and in a set of screenplay shenanigans, she misses her boat for New York. This is when the movie kicks into high gear and we begin to get those French movie of the sixties vibes to the whole proceedings. The scenes are so well acted by Lombard and Cecil Cunningham, the movie gains a pulse. MacMurray is good too as he and Lombard fall for each other as she nurtures his talent for the trumpet. Then the temptress arrives in the form of Dorothy Lamour. Enough with plot. The movie has fantastic montage sequences that dazzled me. They are very good. And Lombard scores a home run in this movie but in the second half, a bit more is called of Freddie and he fails to deliver the goods. With a heavily melodramatic ending and an actor you don't believe, the movie falls short but since it is not your typical movie in structure, set design, and direction. It is worth a look. For what is what it was one of the 37 hits of the 1936-37 season. I don't know its exact rank though.

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW (Paramount, 1937) directed by Mitchell Leisen, is not necessarily a Tarzan flick, but a reworking of an old Broadway stage play, "Burlesque" (1927) that brought forth to the screen THE DANCE OF LIFE (1929) with Hal Skelly and Nancy Carroll, and a second remake, WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME (20th Century-Fox, 1948) starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. While these films were simply backstage stories, this second version takes a different turn set in night clubs, featuring non singers/ dancers Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray as a couple whose musical act consists of he trumpet playing and she talk-singing some "hot" songs.

The story opens on a ship passing through the Panama Canal Zone where Marguerite "Maggie" King (Carole Lombard), a singer, earning passage money as a manicurist, traveling with her companion, Ella (Jean Dixon), to California with Maggie planning to surprise Harvey Dexter (Harvey Stephens), a wealthy rancher and fiancé of three years. During a rest stop, the girls spend the day in Panama where they encounter "Skid" Johnson (Fred MacMurray), an ex-Army man posing as a tour guide wanting to get better acquainted with Maggie. They soon land themselves in jail after Skid's fight with a Spanish speaking Don (Anthony Quinn), for trying to pick up Maggie, leaving the nightclub in shambles, thus, causing Maggie to miss her boat leaving port. After Skid's bungalow roommate, Harry Rankin (Charles Butterworth), the "hottest piano player in Panama," pays their bail, Maggie, stranded and broke, becomes their new star boarder, shortly followed by another, a chicken named Butch. Posing as husband and wife, Maggie and Skid obtain jobs at Murphy's (Cecil Cunningham) café and bar, he trumpet playing and she as dancer and hostess. In spite of warnings regarding Skid's bad reputation, Maggie not only forms a successful act between them, but marries him in the process. Things go well until Anita Alvarez (Dorothy Lamour), one of Skid's ex-girlfriends and singer at Murphy's, interferes. She soon leaves for a better jib offer at the El Greco in New York, much to Maggie's delight. However, when Georgie (Charles Arnt), a talent scout, offers Skid an big opportunity trumpet playing in New York, Maggie encourages him to take the offer against his wishes. At the advice of Georgie, Maggie agrees to remain in Panama until Skip makes a hit for himself and sends for her, a decision she would live to regret when Skid becomes a sensation at the El Greco with Anita as his new partner.

Songs include: "Swing High, Swing Low" (sung by chorus during opening title credits) by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed; "Lonely Little Senorita" (instrumental/trumpet play by Fred MacMurray); "Panamania" (sung by Dorothy Lamour) by Al Siegel and Sam Coslow; "I Hear a Call to Arms," "I Hear a Call to Arms," "I Hear a Call to Arms"; "Then It Isn't Love," "Then It Isn't Love" (all sung by Lombard) by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin; "Swing High, Swing Low" (instrumental/trumpet) and "I Hear a Call to Arms" (finale/Lombard).

For their third time on screen together, Lombard and MacMurray, best known for comedic roles, demonstrate themselves as fine dramatic actors, particularly during the second half of the story. While the movie is a fine blend of comedy and drama, the musical portion comes as a letdown. With the exception of the title tune, the songs are uninspired. There are no production numbers to back them up and frequent high notes on the trumpet gets to become headache inducing after a while. Dorothy Lamour's "Panamania" is lively enough but her vocalizing is interrupted with cutaways of spoken dialog, and never heard through once. Lombard, a fine comedienne in her own right, doesn't cut it as a singer. She made this clear earlier in the story in responding about her singing, "Not very good." Her vocalizing comes off as sultry in the Marlene Dietrich manner, but with MacMurray's trumpet playing, it drowns her out. MacMurray's performance comes off best as the egotistic trumpet player who rises to fame only to lose everything except his trumpet, and roaming the streets a broken down unshaven derelict. Although MacMurray's performance wasn't recognized to be nominated by the Academy as Best Actor, Dan Dailey's interpretation of Skid Johnson in the 1948 remake was.

For years, WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME was the better known of the three adaptations due to frequent television revivals.Just as it slowly faded away by the 1970s, the nearly forgotten SWING HIGH, SWING LOW got into the swing of things when it sufficed in the 1980s, notably on a weekly public television series called "Sprockets." A victim of public domain, SWING HIGH, SWING LOW suffers from poor quality prints, ranging from too dark to fuzzy, and available at different running times. (Goodtimes Home Video from the 1980s was the most accurate with its 95 minute run time). Having been shown on several cable networks throughout the years, including the Nostalgia Channel in the 1990s, Turner Classic Movies premiered SWING HIGH, SWING LOW August 17, 2006, an all day tribute to Carole Lombard as part of its annual "Summer Under the Stars." Expecting to finally see this restored to clear picture and sound quality, it's surprising to find the TCM print to not only be of poor quality, but 15 minutes worth of missing material. At present, DVD copies circulating are this shortened 81 minute cut.

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW may occasionally hit some high notes, but is of sole interest today mainly for its leading players than anything else. (***)