Swing High, Swing Low

Maggie King (Carol Lombard) is working as a hairdresser on a cruise ship crossing the Panama canal. She befriends US Army soldier Skid Johnson (Fred McMurray) in his last days guarding the canal. They get into a bar fight with The Don (Anthony Quinn) and are stuck in court when Maggie's ship leaves. She is stranded forced to live with Skid and his pal Harry. Skid starts playing trumpet and Maggie dancing at a local club.

This is very early Anthony Quinn although not the earliest that I've seen. Lombard and McMurray are good comedic performers and they give it the good old college try. They generate a bit of humor, but it is not a steady stream. Their chemistry comes and goes. The same can be said for the movie.

... so what's in those missing 10 minutes that were so horrible they had to cut them out from the original film? We were three years into the film production code... Barbara Stanwyck had starred in the original play, but here, Carole Lombard plays Maggie King. Co star Fred MacMurray is probably best known for "Double Indemnity", with Stanwyck, as well as his hit TV show "My Three Sons". Keep an eye out for a young Dorothy Lamour (Bob Hope movies) and the too-fabulous Franklin Pangborn, who spiced up just about every film put on tape. Of course, he works in the beauty salon on the ship! Add the sublime Charles Butterworth and Anthony Quinn. Good timing and clever banter at the beginning. Maggie's buddy Ella is played by Jean Dixon, who was the best friend in "Holiday" and "My Man Godfrey". In "Swing High", Maggie the tourist meets a soldier who is leaving the army. Maggie misses her boat when it leaves port and gets tangled up with the soldier. The dashing 20-something Quinn has a small scene at the local bar in Panama where Johnson (MacMurray) has been playing the trumpet. Maggie, Harry (Butterworth), and Skid band together and try to figure out how to get back to the States. Some good singing by Lamour. Good (but brief) acting performance by Cecil Cunningham as "Murph", the wise, helpful owner of the local saloon in Panama. While others have lamented at how bad it is, it wasn't so awful, and is even a little exotic, with the fake Central America locale setting for the first half of the film.

I am quite the Mitchell Leisen fan so it was a great anticipation that I rented this movie but the print I got was extremely bad, so worn down from use and scorched seemingly beyond repair, the movie was so dark. So dark that in certain scenes that are cinematographed in the dark, you can't see a single thing. That said, I believe I share the same opinion as the first review of this movie. It starts out unusually and does not tote the lines and rhythms of your typical Hollywood 30's movie. Heck, not even your typical Hollywod movie of any era. It seems the director has been influenced by the Europeans because there is a certain caustic realism to the proceedings from the opening shot which is so crafted in camera movement and placement as Maggie (Carole Lombard) and Skid (Fred Macmurray) meet. You half expect them to start singing "Make believe" from Show boat.It starts with a few laughs and poor Anthony in a one scene role where he speaks not a word of English gets slapped around by Freddie. Skids is a bum who doesn't care that he's a bum. That's why he signs up in the army where he can hide from the world. He's just been released though and in a set of screenplay shenanigans, she misses her boat for New York. This is when the movie kicks into high gear and we begin to get those French movie of the sixties vibes to the whole proceedings. The scenes are so well acted by Lombard and Cecil Cunningham, the movie gains a pulse. MacMurray is good too as he and Lombard fall for each other as she nurtures his talent for the trumpet. Then the temptress arrives in the form of Dorothy Lamour. Enough with plot. The movie has fantastic montage sequences that dazzled me. They are very good. And Lombard scores a home run in this movie but in the second half, a bit more is called of Freddie and he fails to deliver the goods. With a heavily melodramatic ending and an actor you don't believe, the movie falls short but since it is not your typical movie in structure, set design, and direction. It is worth a look. For what is what it was one of the 37 hits of the 1936-37 season. I don't know its exact rank though.

'Swing High, Swing Low' is a semi-musical, based on a Broadway play (not a musical) called 'Burlesque' which was originally filmed as 'The Dance of Life' when censors wouldn't approve the original title. The play and the original film took place in vaudeville and burlesque: this remake, surprisingly, spends most of its time in Panama City (well away from the Keith-Orpheum circuit). About all that remains of the original is the male anti-hero's name: Skid Johnson. In the original story, the nickname 'Skid' made sense because he was an eccentric dancer. In this remake, Skid Johnson is a jazz trumpeter ... so why is he cried 'Skid'?

Fred MacMurray got typecast as nice guys, but just occasionally he got a chance to show his acting ability in nastier roles. He gives an excellent performance as Skid Johnson: brash, bragging, conceited, yet nagged by self-doubts. But in this version, some of Skid's motivations are highly contrived. When Skid first meets unemployed singer Maggie (Carole Lombard, less impressive), he straight away starts bragging about what a wonderful guy he is. Oddly, he trumpets himself constantly yet he never says a word about his abilities as a trumpeter. There's an extremely contrived scene in a Panama nightclub, when MacMurray casually picks up the trumpeter's horn and blows a few licks. (Yes, professional musicians always leave their instruments lying about so the customers can have a go.) It turns out that Skid Johnson is a brilliant jazz trumpeter. So, why is this braggart so very modest about his one genuine talent?

There's a soap-opera plot line when Skid becomes 'The King of Trumpeters' in Manhattan while Maggie is growing Spanish moss in Panama. One of the cast members of the Broadway drama 'Burlesque' was Oscar Levant, who got to play piano onstage and fire off a few wisecracks. Levant repeated his stage role in the film 'The Dance of Life', but his part was seriously cut. In this remake, Levant's role is expanded again, but regrettably not played by Levant this time. Charles Butterworth plays Skid's pianist buddy Harry. I've never liked Butterworth, whose screen roles usually include some very contrived business to make Butterworth a 'character'. In this movie, he wears winter clothing during a Panama heat wave. Very credible, I don't think.

Maggie is courted by Harvey Dexter, a self-made millionaire who sincerely loves her. But this is one of those annoying movies in which the gal gives up the steady level-headed guy in favour of the unreliable bum who's handsome and charming, and we're supposed to approve her choice. There are bad motivations elsewhere, too. In the first scene, MacMurray is a soldier who talks on sentry duty ... because it's his last day in the army, so they can't fire him. (No, but they can extend his hitch while they give him a nice long sentence in the stockade.)

For all its faults and forgettable songs, 'Swing High' features some extremely impressive montage sequences: the best I've ever seen in a Paramount film. (Though not up to the standard of Warners.) Franklin Pangborn appears very briefly, playing his usual cissy role, but he gives here one of his most energetic performances: he twirls frenetically, he taps his fingertips together impatiently. This is one of Pangborn's very best performances, buried in an obscure film. Dorothy Lamour sings pleasantly here but wears a very harsh makeup. Fred MacMurray gives Anthony Quinn a punch in the nose. Any movie where Anthony Quinn gets punched in the nose is fine with me.

There's a good performance by Jean Dixon as Lombard's 'seen it all, dearie' pal. Dixon wisecracked her way through several major Broadway roles, but never caught on in film. There's also a good performance by an actress with the mannish name Cecil Cunningham, who plays a nightclub landlord known only by the mannish name Murphy. Cunningham was the ex-wife of vaudevillain Jean Havez, who wrote Groucho Marx's song 'Everybody Works But Father'. That song would have livened up this movie. I'll rate 'Swing High, Swing Low' 5 points out of 10.

Ist half is kinda fun, with a nice, relaxed tale of three Americans down on their luck in Panama. Director Mitchell Leisen, who cut his teeth as an art director, puts it to good use, along with cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff, in managing to make the viewer (well this viewer, at least) feel they were in Panama City and not the Paramount backlot. And Lombard and MacMurray have good chem. Unfortunately, the second half, set largely in NYC and featuring that hoariest of story/chestnuts...the guy who goes all to pot when his true love leaves him...is a bit of a comedown. Give it a C plus. PS...How long a career did Tony Quinn have, for cryin out loud? This film was made in 1937 and he looks at least as old as MacMurray, if not older.