Swing Your Lady

Like every actor who's had a career spanning several decades, HUMPHREY BOGART had his share of poor films along with the great ones. This feeble attempt at comedy is typical of the Warner Bros. brand of humor in the '30s and '40s, slammed home without any subtlety or grace.

My main interest in this film was due to seeing the bloopers from "Breakdowns of 1938" featured on THE ADV. OF ROBIN HOOD CD. Let's put it this way--the bloopers were funnier than most of the material in this comedy which manages to be mildly amusing.

HUMPHREY BOGART is saddled with the lead, supported by Warner's favorite contract supporting players--NAT PENDLETON as a dumb wrestler, FRANK McHUGH as his manager and ALLEN JENKINS as the standup comic who makes with all the usual dry wisecracks on the sidelines.

PENNY SINGLETON is Bogart's fast talking, dumb girlfriend who sounds a lot like the "Blondie" character she would play shortly thereafter. LOUISE FAZENDA has a comic role as a lady blacksmith with a rural accent. In a rather amusing scene she wrestles Bogey to the ground and tells him to say, "Hootie Owl." It looks as though the Warner backlot was used with leftovers from their westerns to simulate the small town look. The hillbilly musical numbers are nothing to shout about and much the same comment can be made about the film itself.

Louise Fazenda and Penny Singleton (who gets a chance to sing) seem to be enjoying themselves, but the overall results are decidedly mixed.

No wonder Bogey achieved stardom in a different genre. One of his better lines: "Which one of us is daffy?" You have to be daffy yourself to really enjoy this one.

Trivia note: A very young RONALD REAGAN has a bit part and gets no billing at all on the opening credits. Lucky for him.

Six stars. And that's rounded up. Why? Because Bogart could play anything and make it work (as long as a New York accent is okay). Even a crappy part like Ed Hatch in a crappy movie like this. And because, for all the absurdity of her character, Louise Fazenda also turned in a good performance. Everything else was strictly B-movie stuff. Including a 77 minute run-time that devoted at least 15 of those minutes to four over the top musical production numbers that were designed to make fun of the country hicks. In fact another real problem is that the tone of the film wobbles drunkenly between sneering at the yokels and code-approved "love conquers all" stuff. I won't go into the plot. Suffice to say it is a rural screw-ball comedy that is as ridiculous as the production can make it. But one final word of praise: When Penny Singleton showed up, I HATED her part. She comes in as another witless, annoying harridan. But then she got to do her song-and-dance stuff. And, as absurdly over-the-top as the material was, she was absolutely the real deal as a song-and-dance girl.

Bogart is my favorite actor. That's why I dug this one up. And it was probably a relief for him to get to play something other than a gangster in 1937. He also got to be the nominal star of the film. Pretty rare, at that point in his career. By my count, this was his 24th film. I've seen 18 of those, and Bogie was in the star in four of them. So I'm guessing he jumped at the chance for a starring role, even in a crappy B-movie comedy. If you're a HUGE Bogart fan, you should watch this. Otherwise, take a pass. 31 July 2024.

Yes, of COURSE this is a hokey movie, but that's what makes it so funny. Louise Fazenda steals the show. Bogey is uncomfortable in his role, to be sure, but who cares? It's entertaining and wasn't meant to be anything other than that. In my opinion, it is NOT a Bogey movie - it's Louise Fazenda all the way! The music is entertaining as well and, as usual, Frank McHugh and Allen Jenkins do their part well. My favorite scene?.....Bogey asking Fazenda if she wants to "wrassle" (not meaning to wrestle him). She throws him to the ground in one fell swoop and says, "Now, say 'Hootie Owl'." I think it loses in translation...but I laughed out loud.

The main reason for my enjoying this flick is the ending. I was feeling a bit emotional today and was happy with the outcome of the film. I actually sat through all those songs that were performed throughout the film (and I detest most musical stuff). I think the best facet of this film was Louise Fazenda. She just tickled me with the way she presented herself and she was big in Mack Sennet films of yore. She just did everything asked of her without any problems. Bogie seemed totally our of school here, being pushed around physically and really over acting some of his situations. One the whole, for 1938, it could see why some people would see this to escape their every day drudge. I just finished reading a bio of Bogart and felt that he was just thrown in because Warner Bros. could do so. He showed up, did his shtick and went home.

Wrestling manager Humphrey Bogart is stranded with his wrestler, Nat Pendleton, and the rest of the entourage, Frank McHugh and Allen Jenkins in some Hooterville like town in the Ozarks. The boys are down and out and Bogey wants to scare up a match for some traveling money.

He meets up with Amazonian blacksmith Louise Fazenda and arranges a match, but Pendleton and Fazenda fall in love and that plan goes awry. Not to worry because Fazenda has some gargantuan guy who's been a-courtin' her and he's out of joint. So the match is Pendleton and Daniel Boone Savage.

Bogart said it to all who'd listen that he thought this was his worst feature film. I can certainly see why he thought so. He really looks so uncomfortable even in a set supposed to resemble hillbilly heaven.

My guess is that the Warner Brothers were trying to get to a different audience. They were known as the urban studio in the Thirties and concentrated on a product geared to that audience. Other than Dick Foran B westerns a whole market was being untapped.

I'm sure this must have been offered to Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney before Bogey. He wasn't a big star then so this kind of material could be fluffed off on him.

So we've got Sam Spade in Hooterville along with a lot of hillbilly music and even a brief role by the 40th President of the United States as a reporter.

For die hard Bogey fans only.