Swing Your Lady

Sometimes actors are displeased with films for purely personal reasons. Harrison Ford positively hates Blade Runner (1982). Bogart disliked this one for his own reasons. But consider how few comedy films Bogart was cast in. His talent there was ignored in favor of the money-reaping tough guy roles, but his performance here is just cracking. Nat Pendleton (usually cast as the lunkhead tough guy cop) gets a deserved near-star turn as the lovesick wrestler with a childlike innocence. Penny Singleton (sometimes billed as Dorothy McNulty) gets to show a variety of talents that she only got to hint at in After The Thin Man (1936). With comedy, musical numbers, and character roles galore, this film is a great treat.

Ed Hatch (Humphrey Bogart) manages dim-witted wrestler Joe Skopapoulos. He discovers local strong hick Sadie Horn and comes up with an unusual match. Joe falls for her and refuses to fight. Ed uses all his underhanded lies to gin up another fight.

This is not necessarily for Bogie fans unless you're a completist. It's a musical comedy about rural wrestling with a strong woman. I don't find it that funny although I like most of the characters. Bogie is fine but it's not enough. I like the idea of wrestling Sadie but the movie turns away from that. I don't think it's as bad as advertised but that's not high praise.

Like every actor who's had a career spanning several decades, HUMPHREY BOGART had his share of poor films along with the great ones. This feeble attempt at comedy is typical of the Warner Bros. brand of humor in the '30s and '40s, slammed home without any subtlety or grace.

My main interest in this film was due to seeing the bloopers from "Breakdowns of 1938" featured on THE ADV. OF ROBIN HOOD CD. Let's put it this way--the bloopers were funnier than most of the material in this comedy which manages to be mildly amusing.

HUMPHREY BOGART is saddled with the lead, supported by Warner's favorite contract supporting players--NAT PENDLETON as a dumb wrestler, FRANK McHUGH as his manager and ALLEN JENKINS as the standup comic who makes with all the usual dry wisecracks on the sidelines.

PENNY SINGLETON is Bogart's fast talking, dumb girlfriend who sounds a lot like the "Blondie" character she would play shortly thereafter. LOUISE FAZENDA has a comic role as a lady blacksmith with a rural accent. In a rather amusing scene she wrestles Bogey to the ground and tells him to say, "Hootie Owl." It looks as though the Warner backlot was used with leftovers from their westerns to simulate the small town look. The hillbilly musical numbers are nothing to shout about and much the same comment can be made about the film itself.

Louise Fazenda and Penny Singleton (who gets a chance to sing) seem to be enjoying themselves, but the overall results are decidedly mixed.

No wonder Bogey achieved stardom in a different genre. One of his better lines: "Which one of us is daffy?" You have to be daffy yourself to really enjoy this one.

Trivia note: A very young RONALD REAGAN has a bit part and gets no billing at all on the opening credits. Lucky for him.

Wrestling manager Humphrey Bogart is stranded with his wrestler, Nat Pendleton, and the rest of the entourage, Frank McHugh and Allen Jenkins in some Hooterville like town in the Ozarks. The boys are down and out and Bogey wants to scare up a match for some traveling money.

He meets up with Amazonian blacksmith Louise Fazenda and arranges a match, but Pendleton and Fazenda fall in love and that plan goes awry. Not to worry because Fazenda has some gargantuan guy who's been a-courtin' her and he's out of joint. So the match is Pendleton and Daniel Boone Savage.

Bogart said it to all who'd listen that he thought this was his worst feature film. I can certainly see why he thought so. He really looks so uncomfortable even in a set supposed to resemble hillbilly heaven.

My guess is that the Warner Brothers were trying to get to a different audience. They were known as the urban studio in the Thirties and concentrated on a product geared to that audience. Other than Dick Foran B westerns a whole market was being untapped.

I'm sure this must have been offered to Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney before Bogey. He wasn't a big star then so this kind of material could be fluffed off on him.

So we've got Sam Spade in Hooterville along with a lot of hillbilly music and even a brief role by the 40th President of the United States as a reporter.

For die hard Bogey fans only.

The main reason for my enjoying this flick is the ending. I was feeling a bit emotional today and was happy with the outcome of the film. I actually sat through all those songs that were performed throughout the film (and I detest most musical stuff). I think the best facet of this film was Louise Fazenda. She just tickled me with the way she presented herself and she was big in Mack Sennet films of yore. She just did everything asked of her without any problems. Bogie seemed totally our of school here, being pushed around physically and really over acting some of his situations. One the whole, for 1938, it could see why some people would see this to escape their every day drudge. I just finished reading a bio of Bogart and felt that he was just thrown in because Warner Bros. could do so. He showed up, did his shtick and went home.