Kentucky Moonshine

Normally I go for the Sophia Loren type. But in this case Marjorie Weaver with her wholesome, "girl next door" looks was appealing to me.

This is a mindless comedy with some good entertainment from the Ritz brothers. We have Kentucky hillbillies interacting with sophisticated New Yorkers of the late 1930s. The movie was silly, but fun.

Darry Zannuck signed the Ritz Brothers when he saw them in a night club.One can only assume that he wanted them as a sort of challenge to the Marx Brothers.The trouble is that on their own the Ritz Brothers were simply not that funny.Individually and together the Marx Brothers were funny.The worst of their films is better than the best ritz brothers films.In this film i get the feeling that at times it becomes a bit like a 3 Stooges film but without the laughs.Having said that i do rather like the Ritz Brothers,and their imitations,dance and musical numbers at the end of the film at least end the film on a high.The rest of the film is rather dull and regardless of Tony Martin or Marjorie Weaver it is the Ritz brothers name above the title so they must take the blame if the film is not up to scratch.

The Ritz Brothers are certainly a comedy team that never made it as big as some others. After seeing a few of their films, I can certainly understand why they never were as big as Laurel & Hardy, the Three Stooges or Martin & Lewis. Heck, by comparison, Wheeler & Woolsey were practically thespians! So why did I watch "Kentucky Moonshine" since it's obvious I am not a fan? Well, partly because I am a glutton for punishment and partly because I've only seen a few of their movies and wanted to see if I'd misjudged them unfairly. After seeing "Kentucky Moonshine" I feel as if I pretty much DO hate them and their antics...mostly because I find them unfunny.

The film finds Jerry Wade (Tony Martin) deciding to travel to the Kentucky hills to look for musical talent. When the boys and their friend, Caroline (Marjorie Weaver), hear of this...they head to Kentucky ahead of Wade and pretend to be hillbillies with talent. Soon, Wade is infatuated with Caroline and wants her and the Ritz Brothers for his radio broadcast.

I liked Tony Martin and Marjorie Weaver and would have preferred seeing more of them. The Ritz Brothers weren't that bad when they were singing but their humor consistently missed the mark. It also was very weird seeing them doing a musical tribute to Snow White on the radio...as they dressed up as the characters. But who would see this since it's supposed to be a radio show!?

Overall, not a terrible film but one that certainly did not impress me about the Ritz Brothers and their talents...such as they are.

As is often the case with comedies of the 30s and 40s, the filmmakers don't trust the comedians to carry the picture, so they add a romantic subplot and boring song or two to "help things out". It doesn't help here, as Tony Martin is not much of a leading man and has some boring songs to sing, however the madcap magic of the Ritz boys does win out in the end.

This movie starts with an interminably long Martin song, then you finally meet the Ritz Brothers, three guys trying to make it in showbusiness just when the hillbilly music craze is breaking. They catch wind of a talent search down south and decide to go down and pose as bumpkins to jumpstart their careers. This kind of thing probably happened in real life during the folk music boom of the 60s!

Great Harry Ritz line: (acting dumb as someone tries to explain the concept of a broadcast to him) "You mean they can take our voices on that there raddy-o and fling 'em all over tarnation?"

So, as usual, not ENOUGH Ritz Brothers in this, but they do get some good moments, the best (perhaps one of their finest sequences captured on film), is their routine at the end. Worth the wait. Phenomenal dancing. Just hilarious and entirely Ritz-ian.

A corny plot, a vapid romantic subplot, and the dullness of stars Tony Martin and Marjorie Weaver make the best parts of this film the Ritz Brothers specialty numbers, including a parody of Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty." Never have hillbillies been so roundly ridiculed as in this tale of sneaky New Yorkers trying to bamboozle their way onto a radio show.