Moonlight and Pretzels

After watching "Moonlight and Pretzels" you'll probably understand why Universal was known for its horror films and not its musicals in the 1930's.

This has to be one of the most unusual musicals ever made, mainly due to several bizarre songs that have to be heard to be believed! There's an entire production number about getting up and going to work. Or how about the 1929 stock market crash set to music? And let's not forget the title tune "Moonlight and Pretzels" complete with flowing beer and wiener dogs.

The plot line is simple: songwriter hits it big on Broadway, decides to turn producer, then fights the money men to keep control of his show. Add a little love story and the plot is complete. If you've seen Warner's "42nd Street" you've seen it already.

The film was actually shot at New York's Astoria Studios by Universal cameraman Karl Freund, better remembered for "The Mummy" and "Mad Love." Leo Carillo gets top billing, but he doesn't even show up until the movie is half over. The only recognizable face to today's viewers would be William Frawley (Fred Mertz on "I Love Lucy") and he appears in a supporting role. Mary Brian and Roger Pryor star in the leading roles, but both have been nearly forgotten.

This one is difficult to see, not having been shown on television since the late 1950's. But if you ever run across a screening of "Moonlight and Pretzels" enjoy it for what it is: a strange musical morsel from Universal's early years.

On the surface, this is a Laemmle era Universal attempt to capture the magic of the Busby Berkeley musicals over at Warner Brothers made the same year. But look deeper, and it is actually much more done with much less.

In a small town, songwriter George Dwight (Roger Pryor) meets and teams up with music store owner Sally Upton (Mary Brian) with George composing and performing his songs in her store, upping foot traffic, boosting sales, and ultimately saving the business. Then George gets a letter from a music publishing business in New York, and off he goes, pledging to write. But he never does.

It's not that George gets a big head, he's just busy and he is a success, eventually leading to him putting on his own Broadway show, "Moonlight and Pretzels". Sally decides to come to New York and find George herself, but he initially doesn't even remember her, even when she shows up as a chorine in one of his numbers. Complications ensue.

This thing is an original. You can't say that Pryor and Brian are just standing in for Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler over at Warner Brothers, because the situation is much more complex than just a couple of kids in a show falling in love. And the story throws every Depression era backstager plot device in the book into the script, and yet it all works - crooked businessmen out to cheat George, the big time gambler where easy comes and easy goes, the girl from the sticks who gets a big head, the fast talking wise cracking stagehands, and Bobby Watson as the rather effete dance director.

The numbers are originals and the music memorable. Bobby Connolly is obviously copying Berkeley's style, and the musical finale is much like the Forgotten Man number in 42nd street, but then Berkeley's numbers could be described as numbers shot at angles in such a way that could never be done on a stage. This finale actually has newsreel footage in it! Well I guess that is no crazier than Winnie Shaw's face being transformed into the island of Manhattan in Golddiggers of 1935.

I'd recommend it.. It is certainly one of a kind among the second wave of early sound musicals.

This is a cheap, shabby rip-off of 'Gold diggers of 1933' which lacks the fun, the charm and the smiles of the original. It's very disappointing.

The predictable and lugubrious story limps along without any surprises or excitement, occasionally punctuated only by some terribly amateurish song and dance numbers. Those real Busby Berkeley numbers in the WB movies or even in the earlier Eddie Cantor films don't look that difficult to copy but this shows that they clearly were. Berkley would probably be considered a voyeur these days but like great artists throughout history, his spectacles were primarily his way of celebrating the sexiness of beautiful young women. The routines in this film completely lack any of that innocent eroticism, we just get cardboard cut-out showgirls doing their steps.

Besides the tiresome story, the lacklustre musical numbers, the instantly forgettable (dull) songs, the obviously small budget and the z-list actors (although Lillian Miles is actually pretty good) the main problem is the direction. Karl Freund did a fantastic job on The Mummy the year before but his slow, moody style just doesn't work at all with this. It's a very long 85 minutes.

This is an enjoyable,unpretentious Pre-Code Musical,made on a limited budget,yet as fun and entertaining as some of the Warner Bros. movies it sought to imitate! Filmed in less than 3 weeks at the Astoria studios and Casino theatre,New York,it nevertheless had an earnest,determined Cast and Crew of some talent;plus good songs and dancing sequences. The latter,staged and choreographed by Bobby Connolly,were not over-choreographed,like those at Warner,and this comparative simplicity actually makes the routines much more endearing and believable! Real Showgirls performing like Real Stage Showgirls!! Roger Pryor,as the pressurized Songwriter turned Theatrical Producer,proves to be a versatile lead,with a pleasant singing voice too. He is little known now,but appeared in quite a number of 30's/40's films. His co-star and romantic interest here is Mary Brian,former Silent movie leading lady:She is okay in her "Ruby Keeler" type role. Lillian Miles,though,is the standout Female performer,with her peppy,energetic,no-nonsense approach as sexy Elsie Warren,proposed star of Roger Pryor's debut production.She really puts over her songs well,including "Ah,But is it Love?" and "Are You Making any Money?,both of which became popular successes. Leo Carrillo is fun in his pivotal role as Nick Pappacropolis,the Greek Gambler and new Citizen of the United States( United Steps in his amusing vocabulary!),who comes to the rescue of the new show,enamoured as he is with Elsie! Even Herbert Rawlinson,as the shady big-time gambler Sport Powell,acquainted with Nick,and interested in the show because he is keen on Mary Brian and wants to try and "further" her career: proves that he isn't quite such a bad egg after all. It all comes down to the flip of a coin! Others in the cast include Bobby Watson,as the harassed dance director,and William Frawley,who contribute ,in their different ways,to the general ambience of the movie. Several Radio and Stage performers of the time also feature,some more fleetingly than others.These include Alexander Gray(Good rendition of the optimistic "Dusty Shoes" number),Bernice Claire,John Hundley and Jack Denny and Orchestra,among others. The New York Chorus Girls perform well,especially in the catchy "I've Gotta Get Up and go to Work"number,including a saucy,pre-code Silhoutte sequence as they disrobe and change into their daywear! Although the Musical Film Author Richard Barrios wrote that "Moonlight and Pretzels" was 'Terribly Wonderful',I would describe it as 'Audaciously Wonderful". I have watched it many times,and can fully understand why it was such a popular movie on it's release.

Shot in just eighteen days at the old Astoria studio in New York, the title remains familiar today from Karl Freund's brief run of 30's directorial credits bookended by 'The Mummy' in 1932 and 'Mad Love' in 1935, and from Roger Pryor's entry in Halliwell and Katz. But the film itself remains absent from Maltin.

Fresh from Broadway, the perpetually smiling Pryor resembles a young, fresh-faced Milton Berle and slinky-eyed blonde Lillian Miles (who to perform "Are You Makin' Any Money?" wears one of those incredible early 30's spray-on wet-look black dresses they now seem incapable of authentically recreating even in films set during that era) resembles the worldlier Alice Faye in her early peroxide persona. (In smaller roles William Frawley looks not a day younger than when he and Freund were reunited twenty years later on the set of 'I Love Lucy'; while Bobby Watson is more recognisable here as the bespectacled diction coach in the "Moses Supposes" number in 'Singin' in the Rain' than from his intervening years spent playing Hitler.)

Dance director Bobby Connolly does wonders on an obviously tiny sound stage, while Freund still manages a few visual flourishes on his tight schedule and shoestring budget. The musical finale "Dusty Shoes" is a straight rip-off of "My Forgotten Man", but embellished with interesting (and no doubt cheap) actuality footage before arriving at a far more upbeat conclusion than its acclaimed predecessor.

The film did good business.