Are You with It?

I am a huge Donald O'Connor fan, and own about 33 of the 54 films he made. People tend to critize this film, however, in reality, this movie lived up to all it was supposed to be. This is one of the many 1940s B-musicals Donald did in his career, and I think that these films showcase some of Donald's best work. The story isn't much, and there are few song and dance numbers, but Donald O'Connor's talent and charm can make you forget all about that. Even in a character as different as this one is for him, he manages to still shine on screen. My favorite sequence, is the bar scene where Donald explains dancing using mathematics. It shows his incredible versitility as a dancer as he leaps and taps on every object imaginable. It shows the loveable hoofer doing what he did best. If you are looking for a big splashy MGM size musical this is not for you. However, if you love old musicals that are charming and fun, without big extravagent numbers, this is a great movie to see.

In the days when travelling carnivals and circuses were common in America, these shows would often pick up temporary employees along their tour routes. The temporaries might be performers, or might be day labourers (roustabouts), or might be entrepreneurs (not always honest ones) selling candy or cheap toys, or running some sort of game (usually a con, such as three-card monte) and hoping to make some money for their own pitches from the rake-off of customers who came to see the circus or carnival. Because people who travelled with the circus or carnival were constantly encountering new people, and couldn't always be certain if the newcomers were carny folk or 'civilians', they developed the habit of asking 'Are you with it?' ... meaning, 'are you part of this travelling show?'. Veteran circus people and carny folk knew what this question meant, but civilians were more likely to reply: 'Am I with WHAT?'. This is why someone who is knowledgeable or avant-garde is described as being 'with it'.

'Are You with It?' is a pleasant low-budget musical with a carnival background and no impressive songs. Donald O'Connor plays a rather stiff young nerd named Milton who has a high I.Q. and is very good at maths (he uses a slide rule while he talks), but who is out of touch with his emotions. He loses his job and falls in with some troupers from a passing carnival, including flashy Vivian (Olga San Juan, cheap and vulgar) and fast-talking carny pitchman Goldie (Lew Parker, giving a deft performance of such skill that I'm amazed he didn't go on to a greater career as a character comedian).

The script forces O'Connor to play a character that's a very poor choice for the protagonist in a musical comedy. About twenty minutes into the movie, some music starts playing and Milton taps one foot idly. Then he breaks into a spirited tap dance, casually explaining that tap dancing is merely a physical application of elementary scientific principles. I didn't like this, me. Donald O'Connor is a brilliant dancer, one of the best who ever performed in films ... so it's utterly implausible that a wonk like Milton (who shows no interest in having a good time) could attain such a level of dancing skill simply by applying his intellect.

'Are You with It?' is enjoyable but hardly memorable. O'Connor's dancing is excellent (as always), and he's in better singing voice here than he was in several of his other (better) musicals. But the songs which he's singing and dancing aren't especially good. George Balzer, who worked on the script, wrote some of Jack Benny's funniest radio and tv material ... but you'd never know it from what's on offer here. Veteran comedian Walter Catlett has almost nothing to do in this movie, and he's easily upstaged by Lew Parker. I'll rate 'Are You with It?' 3 points out of 10: that's one point for Lew Parker's performance, and one point for each of Donald O'Connor's tap-dancing feet.

At only 93 black and white minutes, ARE YOU WITH IT? (released by Universal International - not famous for its musicals - on 20 March 1948) is undoubtedly a minor effort but, considering its provenance, it's a delightful entry well worth a look on a number of levels.

The property started out on Broadway at the New Century Theatre up on Columbus Circle the season after Sigmund Romberg's UP IN CENTRAL PARK (another Universal International film in 1948 with its choreographer recreating the stage dances on film) appropriately opened there and ARE YOU... was a moderate 264 performance hit, playing out the season (11/10/1945 - 4/27/1946) before moving to the more centrally located Shubert Theatre for the final two spring/summer months (4/30/1946 - 6/29/1946) of its run.

The show, centered on the interaction of an insurance executive with circus performers, very nearly didn't happen at all with memories still fresh of the tragic and nationally publicized July 6, 1944 fire (around 168 of the 6,800 people seated under the paraffin coated - for waterproofing - "big top" died) at a performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the insurance capitol, Hartford, Connecticut, but rewrites to remove ARE YOU WITH IT? from the big top to a smaller "carnival" and the presence of such stars as Joan Roberts, Lew Parker and Dolores Gray overcame the untoward connections and allowed the simple fun if the incongruous associations to shine through.

When Universal-International picked the show up, it did the (then) usual Hollywood hack job of "improving" it by replacing most if not all of the original score with pleasant but unmemorable numbers - mostly for the dancing Donald O'Connor in one of his best but most unheralded performances - but retaining the plot and the lead comedian, Lew Parker (who would go on to a major television career as a "second banana" - probably most famously as "Lou Marie," Ann's father on THAT GIRL), as the fast talking shill who ropes the disgraced insurance numbers man (Donald O'Connor, who had misplaced a decimal point in the latest rate calculations) into carnie work and skills he in turn winds up taking back to his insurance company to everyone's benefit.

While the rest of the Broadway cast didn't transfer, the film boasts two excellent leading ladies in Broadway stalwart (PAINT YOUR WAGON) and wife of Edmund O'Brien, Olga San Juan (she would follow up ARE YOU WITH IT the same year with the second female lead in another Broadway transfer, ONE TOUCH OF VENUS - if she'd been at a better studio, she might have had a major musical film career) and Martha Stewart (no, not *that* Martha Stewart, an earlier one) who also needed a better studio to truly shine.

Even with the ersatz score, the legitimate pleasures of ARE YOU WITH IT? in O'Connor's dancing and the clever plot make it a real shame that the movie hasn't followed Universal-International's UP IN CENTRAL PARK and ONE TOUCH OF VENUS into video release. All three deserve good DVD releases to please a new generation of Broadway and film musical fans.

The dancing is impressive, and it is quite witty and funny. I had never heard of this film, but if you are a fan of Donald O, you will love it!

I wasn't born yet, but in November of 1947, my mother won "Queen for a Day". One of many prizes she won was an all expense paid trip to Hollywood, CA for her and my father. While in California, they got to spend some time on the set where Donald O'Connor was filming "Are You With It". (released in 1948). My father passed away in 1987, I had to fly from Sacramento, CA back to Philadelphia, PA. for the funeral. On the plane, sitting next to his lovely wife was unmistakeably Donald O'Connor! They were in first Class, I wasn't. We exchanged pleasantries for a brief moment, but before I could tell him about my mother, i.e., the "Queen for a Day" thing...the flight attendant jabbed and pushed me into the back of the plane as though I had some kind of communicable disease. Now, I have no doubt that Donald O'Connor had personally met millions of his fans, but even an actor on that level would have to had remembered a visit to his sound stage from the winner of "Queen for a Day". I never did get to see the movie, but one day I will. I rated it a 10 because while watching it, I'll be totally aware that while some of those scenes were being shot, just out of frame was my mother and father, like a couple of wide-eyed kids in their absolute glory, watching all of the magic of Hollywood.