It's a Great Life

Rosetta Duncan has to be one of the most annoying actresses I have ever seen. Jed Prouty deserves an academy award for pretending to be in love with this *blank* .... must have been the most difficult acting job in his career. At one point, during the first Technicolor sequence, Lawrence Gray almost kicks Rosetta Duncan....and you can't help wishing he had and right off the stage at that. Rosetta Duncan is about as funny as a room full of cockroaches. The film would have been improved greatly if she had been entirely removed from the cast.

Lawrence Gray has a pleasing voice and it is a shame he doesn't get to sing more.. and he is really the only reason I don't give this picture a 1. His rendition of "Following You" and "I'm Sailing on a Sunbeam" (the second in Technicolor) are the highlights of the picture. Vivian Duncan has a pleasant voice, but she is unfortunately drown out by her annoying sister's croaks. Benny Rubin is pretty much wasted in his tiny part.

What a treat! Early talkie musical starring Broadway and Vaudeville stars, the Duncan Sisters. They sang, danced, and did comedy. This film is sort of a knock-off of THE Broadway MELODY. The Duncan Sisters were wanted for that film but were on the road, so the producers copied them in hiring Bessie Love and Anita Page. Later that year MGM snagged the Duncan Sisters for this film.

They play sisters who work in a department store along with handsome Jimmy (Lawrence Gray). When smart-alec Casey (Rosetta Duncan) gets fired, they all quit and launch a career in "the show business." Jimmy is sweet on Babe (Vivian Duncan) which infuriates Casey.

Anyway, they form an act built around Jimmy's songs. He plays piano while the girls sing and dance. They are a hit, but there is constant friction between Casey and Jimmy. The couple gets married and Casey goes berserk, breaking up the act. Casey goes solo, while the couple tries to make it alone. They all flop. Some time after, Babe gets really sick and Jimmy is forced to track down Casey and bring her back home.

While the plot is creaky and the acting is not always very good, the musical numbers are vintage gold. "I'm Following You," which was a big hit, is sung several times. There is also a great comic version of "Tell Me Pretty Maiden," which was the theme song of FLORODORA GIRL, the terrific Marion Davies film which also starred Lawrence Gray. "The Hoosier Hop" is also solid and done in 2-strip Technicolor. Another color sequence is a fashion parade that goes comically wrong.

Gray is charming and handsome and it's hard to figure why he wasn't a bigger success in talkies. He also has a great singing voice. Benny Rubin and Jed Prouty co-star.

Of the sisters: Rosetta is the shorter one and the broad comic. She kept reminding me of Patsy Kelly and Beryl Mercer. Vivian was "the pretty one" and has an OK soprano voice. They duet on several songs and are quite effective. They both are passable dancers and comics. They were big stage stars but didn't do all that well in films. Their only other feature together was TOPSY AND EVA, based on their smash hit stage musical. They also did a few shorts.

I liked them and thought they were both talented and personable. Maybe they could have found a niche in films. Rosetta was on the verge of a comeback on TV (WILD BILL HICKCOK) when she was killed in a car accident. Vivian apparently retired and lived to be 90.

IT'S A GREAT LIFE is creaky and stagy but what a treat to see these big stars on film.

A sister act finds IT'S A GREAT LIFE in show business as long as they can stick together.

MGM crafted this confection as a showcase for the talents of the Duncan Sisters, of Vaudeville & Broadway fame, and as such it's an interesting relic of its era. The sound quality is remarkably good, considering its age, one of the songs is quite good, and the antique color, which highlights a couple of stage sequences, is very pleasing to the eye. As a vehicle for screen stardom, however, the film proved a disappointment. The Sisters' movie career was over almost before if could get started.

Rosetta (1900-1959) and Vivian (1902-1986) do quite well as siblings who rise from performing in retail follies to the Vaudeville stage. Vivian, the pretty one, gets most of the film's few romantic moments, but Rosetta, who was an true clown able to do hilarious things with her face & body, steals the picture. When allowed to be silly she is enormous fun to watch. The script, unfortunately, keeps her character in a bad temper for much of the time, eventually wearying the viewer with her interminable fuming. She's so much more enjoyable when in a jolly mood, especially when teamed with sister Vivian. Their lovely duet, "I'm Following You," is a genuine heartwarmer.

Lawrence Gray, who had made a name for himself in comic Silent film roles, makes the most of his somewhat thankless part as the piano player who captures Vivian's heart. Jed Prouty, as the department store manager who quietly loves Rosetta, and Benny Rubin, playing a Vaudeville booking agent, both do well with their small roles.

The opening scene, with the Sisters madly dashing down the street to work, hotly pursued by a cop and a mob of excited New Yorkers, is one of the movie's best and gets the proceedings off to a frenzied start.

Rosetta and Vivian Duncan have always done things together. When Rosetta gets fired for being a little free in her vocabulary, Vivian quits. Fortunately, agent Benny Rubin has seen their act at the company show. Along with Lawrence Grey at the piano, they are a hit in vaudeville. But Rosetta thinks it's all them, so Grey gets downgraded... until Vivian marries him. That breaks up the act, and neither is particularly good without the other.

The Duncan Sisters had commitments that made them unavailable for THE BROADWAY MELODY, so MGM made this diagetic musical for them You can see what made them a starring pair in live performances in their performance of "I'm Following You". There are also a couple of two-strip Technicolor sequences for the big production numbers. They definitely were crowd pleasers, but given the advances made in movie musicals over the years, they haven't aged particularly. Even so, it's a decent if unremarkable movie, and excellent for 1929. With Jed Prouty, Oscar Apfel and, I am told, Ann Dvorak in the chorus.

I love old movies and have a very high tolerance for old fashioned style films, but "It's a Great Life" was very, very hard for me to watch. When seen today, you wonder how the Duncan Sisters could have been such a successful stage act, as they are, at times, godawful and hard to take.

When the story begins, Casey and Babe (Rosetta and Vivian Duncan) are working at a department store and hate the job. Once thing they like, however, is the upcoming store talent show. Unfortunately, the acts bomb one after another and it culminates with Babe performing a terrible song. To try to save it, Casey goes on stage and tries to inject some laughs into the act...and it is a hit. Soon the sisters plan on doing a vaudeville version of this act but this plan is scuttled when Babe gets married...and Casey absolutely hates her new husband, Jimmy. So Babe and Jimmy try their hand at performing...and fall flat on their faces. Casey does better but longs to get back with her sister....but her hatred of Jimmy stops any chance of reunification. What's to come of this?

The main problem with this film is that the singing is just horrid...so bad that it's painful to watch. Some of the acting isn't especially good either (the end with Casey and Babe is just horrible) but frankly these non-singing portions are the highlights! Overall, a curio...just not a very good one. And, frankly, I cannot understand the reviews giving it scores of 8-10. This is NOT another "Broadway Melody" and is best seen for it's historical importance and NOT its entertainment value...which is nil.

Incidentally, if you subject yourself to this one (DON'T!), you'll get to see a couple two-color Technicolor sequences.