Student Tour

This film manages a difficult feat--making Charles Butterworth and Jimmy Durante unfunny. Two of the greatest comic supporting actors of the 30s are completely done in by their lines.

And the film casts two singers who can't act as the romantic leads, Maxine Doyle and Phil Regan.

Add to this the spectacle of a "Chinese sage" selling his daughter to an American for $50. 1930s films didn't have to be politically correct, but slavery had been abolished 70 years before. Is it funny when it applies to Orientals?

The film has another chance at humor when it discusses philosophy. When students don't know who Descartes was, the professor decides he'd better check to make sure he has the name right. This is supposed to be funny?

The Freed-Brown songs are nice. But it's off-putting to see Nelson Eddy (whose song goes on too long) with a moustache.

This was one of Charles Butterworth's few leading roles. Though Jimmy Durante was top-billed, I believe, from watching it recently, Butterworth was on screen more in a more pivotal role. He was amusing to watch due to his mild manner and voice, which reminded me of Wilfred Hyde-White. The plot concerns a college rowing team on an ocean voyage. Butterworth is a professor sent to chaperone. Durante is their coach. The film is of interest because Betty Grable has an early appearance. I give it 7 stars in consideration of it's age, compared to, say, a 9-star W.C. Fields comedy or Astaire-Rogers musical. It's rare to find anything with Butterworth nowadays.

A winning college rowing team is set to go on a world tour until philosophy professor Ethelred Lippincott flunks the whole team. The professor's mousy niece Ann Lippincott convinces him to tutor the group while they're on the trip. Hank Merman (Jimmy Durante) is the trainer.

The girls stealing the test bit makes little sense and looks bad anyways. It's unnecessary in an awkward way. The boys would be the automatic suspects. I would rather cut out that part of the plot. If they insist on pursuing the mean girls plot, have the girls bully Ann. The acting is generally poor and broad. Maxine Doyle seems perfectly fine as the mousy Ann. Her glasses is doing half the work. Durante has a secondary role. He tries to inject some comedy but most of it doesn't strike me as funny. He's better when he's singing. There is one consistent bit that has some good comedic effect. Durante and Butterworth are constantly trying to get rid of Sum Toy. There is also some yellow-face work which never ages well. It's a movie of its day and not necessarily a good one at that.

This disappointing MGM musical steals some of its plot from "Good News" and the rest from "Anything Goes". Durante is top billed, but he is only used for comic relief for the sappy romantic plot. And there isn't much in the way of comedy. The musical numbers were written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed and I was looking forward to hearing some buried gems. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Except for Durante's specialty number, which I believe he wrote, the songs are not tuneful or memorable. The performances of these numbers are dreadful. There just isn't much here.

Philosophy Professor Charles Butterworth just can't get into the school spirit. He's gone and flunked the entire rowing team and their world tour is canceled. What to do, but bring Butterworth along on the Student Tour and tutor them and give them makeups before the big match at Oxford. And who do they get to room with Butterworth, none other but rowing trainer Jimmy Durante.

Probably with a better script the team of Butterworth and Durante might have done better, but this was a slapdash affair that MGM put together. The love interest is a Cinderella story involving team captain Phil Regan and Butterworth's daughter Maxine Doyle. What a difference taking off your glasses can make as Clark Kent would be the first to tell.

MGM house songwriters Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed contributed a most unmemorable score. Jimmy Durante wisely had his own, I Say It With Music interpolated for his number. The main song in the film was The Carlo, a big singing and dancing number that Nelson Eddy sang. Eddy was being showcased as a possible new leading man and would be the following year in Naughty Marietta with Jeanette MacDonald.

Student Tour is all right and entertaining, but could have stood a lot of improvement.