Love in Bloom

A previous reviewer warned fans of Burns&Allen not to expect too much from them. Though first billed, George and Gracie were definitely supporting players.

The story revolves about the love story of a carnival girl trying to escape her background and an idealistic young songwriter played by Dixie Lee and Joe Morrison respectively. Morrison had a pleasant tenor voice and no personality. But according to IMDb he's still alive at the age of 96.

Dixie Lee, born Wilma Winifred Wyatt, was far better known as the first Mrs. Bing Crosby. His career was rocketing vertically now and her's was coming to an end. She was a blonde and had a manner not unlike Alice Faye. Put over a song like Alice Faye also although no memorable

numbers came from here. In fact the song Love In Bloom which Bing had introduced the year before in She Loves Me Not is not even heard as background music.

Dixie's carny father is played by J.C. Nugent who played it as a kind

of unctuous and corrupt Senator Claghorn. This was a role that was tailor made for W.C. Fields, to bad he didn't do it. In fact

Paramount should have cast Bing Crosby opposite his wife. Morrison's part would have had to be rewritten so he's more in line with Bing's personality, but if it had been done, I suspect we might have had a classic.

Burns and Allen give the picture the merit it has in their moments. George is Dixie's brother and Gracie is his wife, if you can believe an exotic dancer. Watch how Gracie gets out of a speeding ticket, best moment in the film.

Dixie did one more film, cut a record with her husband of two songs from Swing Time, The Way You Look Tonight and A Fine Romance in 1936. She made occasional appearances on Bing's radio show at Christmas time. Mostly she concentrated on being wife and mother to four boys and unfortunately drank a lot.

Like Terry Molloy said, it could have been a contender.

Despite the misleading photo, this film is about the budding romance between two attractive young actors whose faces you probably will never see again. Burns and Allen command about 10 minutes of screen time, but it is a pleasant little picture regardless. It's a nice old film, with a pretty typical old plot line, and worth a look. Just be forewarned that George and Gracie are not the leads here.

This movie was packaged along with two other Burns & Allen films on one disk. However, despite Burns & Allen getting top billing, "Love in Bloom" really did NOT feature the comedy team, nor was it really much of a comedy. Instead, Dixie Lee and Joe Morrison were featured in the leading roles (despite the billing) and it was clearly a romantic musical--sort of like the stuff that Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy did during that same era. There were two major problems with this. First, I don't particularly like this style of film and I was expecting a comedy. Second, the Lee and Morrison were awfully bland--so even if I did like this sort of sappy drivel, I would be frustrated in watching it. As for Burns & Allen, they appeared here and there to do some comedy routines and sing--but the usual banter between George and Gracie was noticeably absent. Sorry, despite the generally good reviews and overall IMDb rating, I cannot recommend you see this one--it's just not good nor is it what you expect. In fact, audiences back in 1935 must have been equally frustrated with it.

I decided to watch this movie on a whim with absolutely no expectations and I was completely charmed by it. Sure, the plot is your usual 30's rom com hogwash where a bad girl meets a good boy, but the script is unusually well-written for a B-picture and provides many laughs and cute romantic moments you'll sigh over. The 2 leads, Dixie Lee and Joe Morrison look unbelievably cute together, though Joe is a bit of a wooden actor. His main purpose in this movie is just to stand around looking cute and sing love songs, which he does remarkably well, so we can forgive him that. Dixie Lee, Bing Crosby's unfortunate first wife, does very well here as she cracks wise and sings. What makes this B movie extra-special are Burns and Allen as supporting characters, and all their gags are not to be missed. Another thing that makes this movie oh so lovable are the marvelous 30's tunes. My favorites were Dixie Lee's solo "You Got Me Doin' Things" and Joe's midnight lullaby to Dixie, "Let Me Sing You to Sleep". Joe also gives a very lovely rendition of the Tchaikovsky's "Nur Wer Die Sehnsucht Kennt".

Unfortunately, the movie suffers when it takes a melodramatic turn in the last 10 minutes but the ending is happy (it's a comedy after all!) and Burns and Allen save the ending somewhat with their antics. Despite all the film's small faults, it's terribly charming, and if you like 30's comedies or musicals I highly recommend it. It'll leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

Fun with George Burns & Gracie Allen! One of the three movies on the "Best Of Burns & Allen" DVD from Universal Studios. Opens with the sheriff trying to shut down the carnival and Gracie singing "Here Comes Cookie" , which is also the title of one of the other films on the DVD.... Co-stars Dixie Lee, who was married to Bing Crosby for 20 years, and singer Joe Morrison, who didn't seem to stay in Hollywood for too long. He stopped appearing in films couple years after making this one, but does a decent job singing "My Heart is an Open Book" during his job interview with Mr. Heinrich (played by Lee Kohlmar, born in 1873!) The plot here kind of goes around the mulberry bush, not sure where it wants to go. Maybe they should have invited WC Fields to be in this one too, since half of Fields' films were about carnivals or vaudeville shows. Another odd connection - Morrison also made "The Old Fashioned Way" with WC Fields; Fields appeared with Burns & Allen in "Six of a Kind" in 1934. George and Gracie come back into "Love in Bloom" now and then to do a few of their jokes... it feels like they found a script, and added themselves into it. It's OK, but it's no Shakespeare. Its a story of falling in love with someone from the other side of the tracks.