Playmates

John Barrymore's career came to an ingloroious end when he was top billed by Kay Kyser and was acting basically as a stooge for Kyser and the rest of the cast of Playmates. Most especially Patsy Kelly who plays agent to an actor named John Barrymore.

Peter Lind Hayes is Kyser's agent and the two of them cook up a plot to help the both of them. For his radio show with studio audience Kyser is to be taught Shakespeare by one of the Bard's most noted exponents.

Kay Kyser was a very big name on radio and in record sales for the whole decade of the Forties. Occasionally he did a film like Playmates and he never played anything more than Kay Kyser which is what the movie-going public wanted from him.

The music is fine, it's always nice to hear Harry Babbitt and Ginny Simms sing. Poor Barrymore though. This was what he was reduced to at the end. At the same time he was doing this in his final career engagement he was also being a stooge for Rudy Vallee on his radio show The Fleischman hour.

There's another Hollywood tragedy here as well. Lupe Velez plays a female bullfighter not too much different from her Mexican Spitfire character. In two years she would be dead by suicide. Lupe was a major star at the beginning of sound, but she liked to party hearty and she ended in B films.

Playmates is good for fans of Kay Kyser, but poignantly sad for those who like John Barrymore and Lupe Velez.

I read the reviews on IMDb before watching this movie, as I often do. I may be in the minority here, but it seemed to me like John Barrymore was having a ball in this movie, hamming it up outrageously and poking fun at his public image. I can understand how some think it is sad or demeaning, but it doesn't seem that way to me. Lupe Velez was typecast, as she often was, but still very funny. Patsy Kelly seemed to play the same character in every movie, better in some than others, probably mostly due to the writing. I thought she was good in this and quite funny. Overall, this movie has lots of silliness, some good laughs, and enjoyable music. To those who need more than that, you probably shouldn't be spend your time watching Kay Kyser movies.

Painful self humiliation from a fallen star. Barrymore here plays himself as a has been Shakespearean star so desperate for a Radio contract that he agrees to appear opposite Kay Kyser and band in a festival of the bard's plays.

John was on his last legs when he made this, as testified by a bloated and sometimes drunken appearance and he's treated badly by the script and cast (all his tax and drinking problems are trotted out as "humour" and in a dream scene Barrymore is even shown as a bull defeated by toreador Kyser). Yet this film does have a certain weird amusement value if you catch it in the right mood and if you can forget it's his final film..

Barrymore works very hard to make the most of this script, bellowing and posturing his way through the proceedings. It's a million miles from subtle but with his snorts and grunts and bulging eyes he certainly holds the attention and even generates the odd laugh. Occasionally there's a flash of his old talent. At one point he delivers part of Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be soliquey in an attempt to demonstrate how Shakespeare should be performed. The film and the scene to this point lead us to expect that Barrymore will send the speech up.

Instead in the midst of the frantic mugging Barrymore gives a heart felt and totally straight reading of the scene. It lasts a minute and is intensely moving. There's genuine rawness here and John himself seems quite overcome. (It's extraordinary they kept this in) For a few scenes after this we get to hear his voice giving further beautifully modulated readings from Romeo and Juliet before the movie goes back to it's demeaning purpose.

Patsy Kelly is one of the other talents who help save this farrago from complete disaster.

Count me in with the group who enjoyed this film thoroughly. As a Kay Kyser vehicle it wasn't meant to be high art, it was a lowbrow comedy and in that it succeeds wonderfully. I laughed continually throughout the picture.

And NO, John Barrymore was not "sad", he was *hilarious* in his portrayal of a self-absorbed ham who would rather be boiled in oil than appear onstage with a bandleader. Unfortunately a rather large and unexpected bill from the IRS leaves him little choice, and a much-needed radio endorsement deal is contingent upon his appearing with Kyser in a Shakespearean production...much to his chagrin. Barrymore's over-the-top, pompous delivery was pure gold, and he played it to the hilt with gusto. He rolled every "R" three times as long, and his use of "me" rather than "my" in all his musings was quite humorous..."I have played 'Hamlet' before Kings and Queens! Had them groveling at me feet in abject worship! And you sacrilegiously affiliate me magic name with a barefoot bumpkin, a bifocal billy goat, from the hills of North Carolina! Where to this day, civilization has not yet penetrated!" Wonderfully delivered...anyone who finds this "sad" obviously doesn't get it.

This film is in the exact same vein as the Eddie Cantor vehicle "Thank Your Lucky Stars", which ragged Cantor mercilessly from start to finish as a celebrity with an ego the size of a bus. Barrymore - like Cantor - shows he was a good sport overall for being the recipient of an endless string of insults that were obviously delivered in good fun. The fact that several reviewers here find it pathetic...well, I couldn't disagree more. From what I saw Barrymore had a lot of fun himself making light of his well known reputation.

Throw in a little spice with Lupe Velez, and the formula is complete.

The music is great, and Ginny Simms is absolutely gorgeous. Ish Kabibble is 100% corn as always, those who are familiar with his routine expect nothing less. And no matter what anyone says about Kay Kyser's "acting" (which was also cut to shreds without mercy in this picture)...when he's in front of an audience doing his thing with the band, his stage presence cannot be touched. His style was completely unique and was extremely popular, with good reason. Kay Kyser was the MAN.

I would have had a much more positive view of this movie if I didn't know and admire John Barrymore.

On the surface of it, this is as good as any of the rest of Kay Kyser's ouevre. If you like him (he is, admittedly, an acquired taste), you will probably like this movie. Lupe Velez and Patsy Kelly add their talents to the usual mix of corn and Swing supplied by Kay, Harry Babbitt, and Ish Kabibble (the true inventor of the Beatle haircut).

What keeps me from truly enjoying this film is the presence of the great John Barrymore in a role more suited to Edgar Kennedy. In his last screen appearance, Barrymore grimaces and cavorts like a Stooge and is obviously reading his lines from cards because he can't remember them anymore. Whether or not the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks are real as he mumbles through Hamlet's soliloquy one last time, mine were real enough.

If you don't reverence Barrymore, and you are a student of the Kollege of Musical Knowledge, this will be your cup of tea. If either of the above isn't true, give it a miss.