All-American Co-Ed

The joke in this film's title was too subtle for me, but a Yank friend explained it: "All-American" formerly designated a group of male collegiate athletes, and a "Co-Ed" was a female college student ... so "All-American Co-Ed" is a sexual oxymoron. Here's a musical comedy about transvestism which (except for some unpleasant racial humour) manages to maintain at least a surface appearance of innocence. But under that surface ... whoops!

The late choreographer LeRoy Prinz was openly gay: Max Wilk's book 'The Wit and Wisdom of Hollywood' contains an hilarious anecdote about Prinz working for "Aunt Sam" during WW2. Prinz usually subordinated his talents to other film-makers' vision. When Prinz decided to make his first movie as a director-producer, 'All-American Co-Ed' was the result. I can't help wondering to what extent this cross-dressed story struck a personal chord with Prinz. I'm aware that homosexuality and transvestism are two different phenomena, but there's inevitably some overlap. Considering that 'All-American Co-Ed' is almost entirely about cross-dressing, there's surprisingly little homosexual content here ... and most of it is sapphic rather than male.

Every culture has its cross-dressed traditions. We Brits have got panto dames and principal boys. For some reason, the Americans have got Hasty Pudding clubs with college males in frocks and wigs. I normally dislike American college movies, since they're always about the Big Game or the Big Dance. (Classes? What classes?) 'All-American Co-Ed' gets a free pass for that crime with its witty disclaimer: 'Any similarity to actual college life depicted in this picture is purely coincidental.' Prinz starts out dangerously during the opening credits by showing a chorus line of shapely gams, inviting us to find them attractive ... then tilting upwards to reveal that these are college boys in drag. Good job for me I'd spotted the male kneecaps.

There are some weird musical decisions here. Johnny Downs, in full drag but male voice (like Danny La Rue) warbles 'I'm a Chap with a Chip on His Shoulder' while tapping his shoulders. Why would a female impersonator deliberately call attention to his shoulders? (Elsewhere, some genuinely female chorines sing about 'The Crack of Dawn' ... is there a pattern here?) The 1940s seem to have been some golden age for drag, since women's fashions in that decade favoured padded shoulders, enabling transvestites to get by with linebacker clavicles. During one scene in this movie, Frances Langford's outfit has wider shoulders than Johnny Downs's! Some of the clothes on the (real) females in this movie are extremely attractive. However, Johnny Downs's stunt double (likewise in female garb), who shoulder-flips Noah Beery Jnr, is even less convincingly feminine than Downs.

Considering that Bob Sheppard (Downs) is trying to pass for female, he makes some weird decisions ... such as choosing the tomboy name 'Bobbie' rather than a genuine female alias. (Femalias?) Even more fatally, he fakes a dainty swoon in the presence of Noah Beery Jnr and Alan Hale Jnr ... but deliberately falls into Beery's arms, letting Beery find out how heavy 'she' is. Oh, and Downs gets to speak that line (mandatory dialogue in every drag comedy) about how it 'sure feels good' to get out of those female clothes ... so we don't get any, erm, ideas.

Johnny Downs was apparently unable to speak in a convincing female register, so 'Bobbie' pretends to have laryngitis. Downs should have used the trick that professional female impersonators use: practise speaking with only the upper half of his vocal cords, so that his voice will be in the female range and timbre with fewer overtones.

There are quite a few double entendres in the dialogue and lyrics. Somebody comments that Johnny Downs (in female disguise) looks like 'orchids covered in dew'. Did anyone connected with this movie check the origin of the word 'orchid'? The women's school is cried Mar Brynn, an obvious parody of Bryn Mawr. I wonder if anyone realised that 'Bryn Mawr' is Welsh for 'big breast'.

Harry Langdon has his best role (and gives his best performance) of his talkies career here, as a glib publicist, while Esther Dale is lumbered with the role of the headmistress who doesn't twig that "Bobbie" (with male jawline and falsetto voice) is a male, even when 'she' goes to bed in full make-up. Memo to all headmistresses: when a female student shows up at your boarding school with only one piece of luggage, she's no female.

Downs (in male garb) and Langford 'meet cute' in a surprisingly erotic scene with a bellrope. (He ain't done right by our knell.) I could have done without dialogue like 'A girl doesn't want to live in a mind; she wants to live with a husband.' Also annoying are Kent Rogers's alleged impersonations of celebrities, including (just before the fade-out, in voice-over) Jerry Colonna. Black performer Dudley Dickerson is stuck in a 'yassuh' role but at least he gets to cut loose with some dance steps. Less pleasant is a scene in which Downs 'haunts' black laundress Lillian Randolph.

Somehow, this impoverished all-female college devoted to 'horticulture' (oh, dear) manages to stage an elaborate musical with plenty of invisible musicians on the soundtrack, some wince-worthy lyrics, plus Downs doing some surprisingly graceful pirouettes. However, the photography and lighting throughout the film are excellent, especially during Langford's big number ... which contains a patriotic reference, possibly leading audiences in 1941 to wonder why all these big strong college boys are in frocks instead of uniforms. 'All-American Co-Ed' gets my rating of 8 out of 10. Now put your trousers on, lads.

Got my Mill Creek Entertainment DVD collection of "20 Movie Pack Musicals" and decided to watch the second shortest picture in there called All-American Co-Ed which clocks in at 49 minutes. This was one of Hal Roach's "streamliners" which were too long for a short but too short to actually be called a feature. It's basically a musical comedy about a man from Quinceton (former silent Our Ganger Johnny Downs) infiltrating a girls college called Mar Brynn in drag. You'll have to watch the movie to see why. Anyway, this was an amusingly silly fluff piece that should provide interest to fans of Harry Langdon, Frances Langford, Noah Beery, Jr., Alan Hale, Jr. (yes, the future Skipper of "Gilligan's Island"), Dudley Dickerson (an occasional Three Stooges supporting actor playing the stereotypical porter role but also getting to do some entertaining singing and dancing), and, since I always like to identify any player from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, Lillian Randolph. The last one has the unfortunate task of playing someone who's scared of ghosts and thinks one has inhabited her laundry room but the segment is so over-the-top that one can't get too offended. Since this movie was made during the Production Code, there are some mild double entendre jokes that I found amusing. There's also some funny slapstick humor that got me in stitches such as what happens to the Beery and Hale characters. There's also another guy, Kent Rogers, who does some good celebrity impersonations like that of Gary Cooper as well as Edger Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Among the entertaining songs is one that got an Oscar nomination called "Out of the Silence" with words and music by Lloyd B. Norlind, sung by Langford with a chorus of women behind her. There's also a couple of enjoyable numbers by a forgotten trio called The Tanner Sisters. Like I said, the whole thing is fluff that doesn't always make sense but if you have an hour to fill, you won't be bored with All-American Co-Ed. P.S. Roach's son, Hal, Jr. made up the story and his daughter Margaret plays one of the co-eds.

About as light-weight as a puff of smoke, the movie still manages to be a rather delightful surprise. The songs are pretty forgettable, though LeRoy Prinz's choreography helps compensate. And catch that opening—I had to look twice to make sure I wasn't imagining. The premise is a loaded one. A boys' fraternity gets revenge on an all-girls' school by dressing one of the brothers as a girl and sending him over to cause trouble. Actor Downs in drag is a hoot and some boy's nightmare blind date. Naturally, he falls for one of the girls, but can't give away his disguise. There're a number of cute set-ups, energetically executed by a lively cast, including yokels Beery Jr. and Hale. Watching Downs negotiate a girdle while lying on a bed is a real hoot. All in all, it's an amusing little farce, rather like Alan Dwan's two farcical set-ups of the same period, Getting Gertie's Garter (1945), and Up in Mabel's Room (1944).

I won't dwell on the content of the film itself (skip to the last paragraph) because there seem to be enough reviews by people more familiar with the movie than I am. But I just had to say that the DVD quality is surprisingly good.

If you're like me and you bought the MillCreek 10000 Family Classics (or whatever outrageous number of old flicks they managed to cram on a few DVDs), you're probably seeing spots from all the less-than-crisp digital transfers of these old movies, most of which are public domain with low quality sources.

Well, good news, somehow the original source of this film remained in surprisingly good condition. It's on par with some of the expensive, digitally remastered stuff out there. That alone makes this a historic document worth having in your collection, especially if you can get it for a dollar at your local grocery store.

Now about the film itself. It's very entertaining, but don't expect an airtight story. At times it requires some supreme leaps of logic and suspension of disbelief. But if you can get past that, it's all in good fun, the music is timeless, and the comedy is cute. Note that this is very much a "dated" film, meaning there are a lot of references to 1940s culture which many of us may not get. There are a few celebrity impersonations that went completely over my head. Similarly, some of the jokes just flew by me, including the humorous title "All-American Co-Ed" which is a gendrical impossibility (at the time, "all-american" meant "male", and "co-ed" meant "female"). And then there are more unfortunate cultural references of 1940s sexism "A woman doesn't want a mind; she wants a husband" and somewhat narrow racial stereotypes showing black people as uneducated simpletons who can never seem to conjugate their verbs properly. But my point is that this film must be viewed through a 1940s lens, and you'll realize it's all intended in good fun.

Quinceton University student Johnny Downs agrees to a practical joke by gaining a scholarship to girl's college Mar Brynn in drag. But the whole thing threatens to go south as Downs fall for Mar Brynn coed Frances Langford. Of course it all ends with a show in the best Mickey and Judy tradition.

I think that Hal Roach probably had a longer and more coherent version of this film, but it was butchered by editors and probably further sliced and diced for television. Still a lot of funny people like former silent screen star Harry Langdon got some bits in.

Also getting bits in were Noah Beery, Jr. and Alan Hale, Jr. At this time in their careers both Dad Rockford and the Skipper were only known as the offspring of some great character actors. Here they play a pair of lunkhead Quinceton jocks.

All American Coed even got some Academy Award nomination recognition for Best Musical Scoring and Best Song. The song is Out Of The Silence and it truly has not stood the test of time. The winner was The Last Time I Saw Paris which truly has.

I doubt we'll see a director's cut of All American Coed.