Happy Days

Fanatics will have to see this. People who just like early show business more or less will find much to enjoy with their finger hovering over the fast forward button.

The black face minstrelsy is probably 100% authentic given how many people involved with it in the 19th century were probably associated with this production. The ad-libbing by the Broadway crowd when the plot is being laid out is kind of dull, but may be an authentic replica of how those guys talked. George Jessel is making it up as he goes along and is not at his wittiest. But you get to see how the guys who seemed to be having all the fun dressed, walked, spoke, emoted, and loved each other.

The familiar now obsolete acts are here: burlesque of "high-class" dancers, heavy-accented "Yiddish" monologist, meek man with much taller over bearing wife, and so on. Come to think of it, this stuff never goes away entirely.

Correction to an earlier reviewer: the sets do make sense because if you listen to the set-up the show is in a theater, not on the show boat (remember, Jessel asks the theater owner if his theater is "dark", meaning is it unoccupied so this fund raiser can be presented in it).

It thankfully ends with the entire company taking a bow, and you silently applaud them up in Show Business Heaven.

When the showboat she performs on is threatened with repossession, Marjorie heads to New York where she persuades all the stars there -- which seems to be the list of Fox contract players -- to perform in a minstrel show to lift the mortgage.

Yes, much of it is in blackface. Performers in solo and specialty numbers have the make-up removed, and the last twenty minutes or so is performed without the hated shoe polish. This is a good one, not for the number in which Edmund Lowe and Victor Mclaglen sing about how they really like each other, or for Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor singing the forgettable "We'll Build A World Of Our Own." But Broadway star Charles MacFarlane has a fine singing voice; Tom Patricola does a dynamite eccentric dance; and to watch Ann Pennington and Sharon Lynne dance "Snake Hips" in very revealing costumes is a treat.

This was the second movie shot in Fox's Grandeur Process, an early 70mm format. Unhappily, the copies at are available are in standard format and rather blurry. But there are some surprising techniques, like a Busby Berkeley shot and extended sequence of single dancers in full body length, well before these techniques became standard.

It's one of those movies that the major studios made in this brief period, showing off their stars in song and dance, whether they could sing, dance or not. Given the inherently mixed bag nature of the genre, this is a pretty good example of the revue format.

Fox's all-star musical revue is short on star power, but there are a few terrific numbers here.

The plot revolves around a bunch of Broadway stars who get coerced into trying to save a show boat by doing a benefit show. Of course the sets make little sense as they could hardly fit on a show boat stage, but the minstrel theme (similar to the opening of MGM's all-star revue, THE Hollywood REVUE OF 1929) is used to introduce the various acts.

Among the better known stars here are Fox's #1 romantic team of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, who sing "We'll Build a Little World of Our Own." Gaynor would remain a big star throughout the 30s, but Farrell struggled with his voice and had only a so-so career in talkies.

Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe sing a novelty song called "Vic and Eddie." Ann Pennington does a terrific dance to "Snake Hips," which is sung by Sharon Lynn. The dynamic Marjorie White and Richard Keene sing "I'm on a Diet of Love." Frank Richardson sings "Mona." Whispering Jack Smith sings the title song of "Happy Days." Other stars who appear include George Jessel (but he doesn't sing), Walter Catlett, William Collier, El Brendel, Frank Albertson, Stu Erwin, Tom Patricola, Nick Stuart, Rex Bell, Warner Baxter, Will Rogers, Dixie Lee, and boxer Jim Corbett.

Lots of energy here and Marjorie White (in her film debut) probably comes off best. She died in a car wreck in 1935. At only 4' 10" White was a dynamo of musical and comedy talent and had good supporting roles on Fox's JUST IMAGINE and SUNNYSIDE UP.

Of all the studio all-star revues, which often introduced many silent stars to talkies, HAPPY DAYS holds its own with THE Hollywood REVUE OF 1929 (MGM) and PARAMOUNT ON PARADE (Paramount) despite the lack of musical star power.

Lavish story-revue from 1929, originally filmed in a widescreen process called Grandeur, puts most of Fox's roster in a minstrel show format; there's a plot surrounding it, but it's forgotten after the first half hour or so. You have to endure some badly dated acts, including the insufferable El Brendel and the sappy Janet Gaynor (she doesn't sing, she coos) and Charles Farrell (body of Adonis, voice of a fifth grader), but along the way you do get some good stuff, and an entertaining look at what was considered top-notch diversion around the time the stock market was crashing. Marjorie White does some hot scat singing and steps lightly; Ann Pennington and Dixie Lee dance up a storm; Victor McGlaglen and Edmund Lowe do a buddy number (McLaglen can actually sing, Lowe can't); the boxing champ James J. Corbett is a personable interlocutor; Will Rogers, Warner Baxter, and George Jessel do cameos; and poor old Charles Evans' show boat gets saved. The chorus girls are beefy and klutzy (Betty Grable's in there somewhere), the production design's clever, and there's an odd lighting effect that turns actors from blackface to white with the flick of a light switch. Heaven knows you couldn't get away with this stuff today, but the songs are catchy, there's some fine dancing, and among the large roster of early talkie musicals, this one's fairly diverting.

Seems like every third sound film of 1929-1930 either was a musical or had a lot of musical numbers in it. Last night I finally decided to watch a musical I've had sitting around for over a year. I was very pleasantly surprised by the film! "Happy Days" (1929) advertises itself as a film with over 100 great entertainers. It certainly isn't bad for a Fox produced film. This one has as its main star Marjorie White, but it features Charles E. Evans and Richard Keene, but it also has in it: Will Rogers, George Jessel, Warner Baxter, Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, El Brendel, Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Stuart Erwin, James J. Corbett (yes, the boxer!), William Collier, Sr., Rex Bell, Walter Catlett, and I'm not finished. If you look in the chorus line, there's Betty Grable. Oh, did I mention Dixie Lee (at this time helping promote the career of her husband, Bing Crosby), Nick Stuart, Frank Albertson, 'Whispering' Jack Smith, Ann Pennington, J. Farrell MacDonald, Lew Brice, Sharon Lynn, Tom Patricola, Tom Kennedy, Lucien Littlefield, and I'm tired of writing these names...

Show actually is not just a revue, but revolves around a story. White's father, Charles E. Evans is captain of a Show Boat. It's going broke and he can't pay the piper. She decides she's going to New York to the night clubs and round up all the performers who had their beginnings with her pop on the boat and bring them back to the boat for a show to save the boat and her pop. Of course she only needs to go to one night club - at least it looks that way in the movie - and everybody wants to do his or her bit. It evidently works, because when the film ends, it's after the last number, with no thank yous, good byes, or "It's a success!". It just ends.

Best number by far is the Ann Pennington dance "Snake Hips", also with Sharon Lynn, followed by the Dixie Lee rendition of "Crazy Feet". Farrell and Gaynor sing a song that probably should have remained unsung. McLaglen and Lowe do a routine that jokes about their Quirt and Flagg routines in their soldier movies, though it never mentions Quirt and Flagg, only McLaglen and Lowe. Lots of other numbers and routines. Only one that was just plain stupid, and that was El Brendel. I know, some just love the guy. Oh, well, to each his/her own.

Highly recommended for those interested in the early sound musicals. This is basically Fox's answer to all the revues done in those first couple of years by the different studios. It's quite good. 80 minutes or just a few more. It won't grate if you know what you're getting into. For those only looking for "Singin' in the Rain" or "Cabaret", stay away or sit back and learn. If you look at the viewer ratings on the IMDb, they range from 1 star to 9. Most are 7 or 8, so most have enjoyed it; but there are certainly exceptions. For the record, the sound and the photography are spot on, not so much the creaky early stuff. Some of the songs aren't perfect in any sense by modern standards sound-wise, but for the day are quite decent. Much of the revue style music is straight on camera shots, but there are a few that seem precursors to Busby Berkeley. This is also the second film released in 70mm wide screen. It's the debut films of both Marjorie White and Betty Grable.