The Sunday Round-Up

Sunday Round-Up, The (1936)

*** (out of 4)

Effective and highly entertaining musical short from Warner benefits from the use of Technicolor as well as its nice cast. The film deals with a Pastor (Dick Foran) who can't get people into church because they're at the local bar where they can play cards and see various musical acts. The pastor decides to fight fire with fire by hiring a few music acts for his church. I wasn't sure what to expect with this thing but I've always enjoyed watching Foran and he's in fine form here as the tough as nails pastor with a great voice. Foran is a lot of fun in the film as is a young Jane Wyman and horror fans even get to see a young Glenn Strange who of course is best known for playing Frankenstein's monster in the last three Universal films of their famous series. It's also funny seeing him credited at Glen "Peewee" Strange. The music is very good, the performances fun and the Technicolor adds a lot to the film. This was certainly a nice little gem well worth checking out the next time it's on TCM.

The most interesting thing about this Vitaphone short is its casting Jane Wyman several years before she became a star. Not quite as interesting, but still interesting, is casting Glenn Strange (who later played Frankenstein's monster for several films). It is also unusual because it's in vivid Technicolor...the three-color system which produced realistic though very vivid color. Previous popular systems used a two-color system--which created and orangy-red and greenish- blue tint to everything. Some colors on the older system were more approximated than exact...so the new Technicolor system was a huge improvement and Warner tried it out mostly in Vitaphone shorts before widely using it in full-length pictures.

This story is set in the old west and the town's minister (Dick Foran) isn't pleased with everyone in the bar singing and having a gay old time instead of going to church. He doesn't want the bar closed...just on Sundays for church services. Well, the bar owner isn't about to do this and tosses the minister out on his butt when he confronts them for this. So how can the minister battle such apathy? Well, when he meets some out of work actors, he has the idea of putting on a variety show. Huh? See the film to find out more about this odd plan.

More than other Vitaphone flicks I've seen, this one looks more like a shortened movie than a short--with nicer sets and production values than normal. But, like most Vitaphone shorts, it has it's share of song and dance numbers. But it also has a knife, pickax and ax thrower, some blotto actors who do some AMAZING acrobatics as well as an act starring the minister himself.

The bar is a place where folks have a good time, drinking, singing, and watching entertainers perform. Meanwhile, the church's parson, Dick Foran, has a sparse, elderly turnout on Sunday morning. When two vaudevillians, Fritz and Jean Hubert, brace for for an introduction to the saloon owner for a job, Foran decides to fight fire with fire, and show biz with show biz.

It's all an excuse to put a variety show on the movie screen in glorious Technicolor -- with Technicolor the real selling point for the audiences. There's a knife-throwing act, there's a a pair of rough-and-tumble acrobats, Foran sings a cowboy song and Jane Wyman sings "The Soubrette on the Police Gazette." Some good fun, and the print I saw was sharp and the colors bright.

Standard Technicolor short from Warner Bros. in the '30s using their up-and-coming DICK FORAN and JANE WYMAN to head the cast of a story about a preacher who has to look for patrons in a nearby dance hall where he's met with resistance until they discover he can sing.

JANE WYMAN is a dance hall girl with her six "sextettes" joining her for a song called "The Charming Soubrette on the Police Gazette," a lively dance number with garish costuming. Wyman's number is interrupted by a young pastor who wants to draw attention to the fact that he'd like to close the saloon on Sundays to get people to attend his church service.

All ends well when Foran gets involved in a street fight and proves his mettle with a Sunday punch. He also attracts the attention of the bar owner when he delivers a lusty baritone voice while singing "Beyond the Open Road." We also get a low comedy pratfall routine by a rather unknown vaudeville couple before we get to Foran's song that closes the story.

Entertaining short passes the time pleasantly enough.