Sitting Pretty

This picture should have had it all...a great cast, a first rate studio, and one hit song. What went wrong? In her autobiography, Ginger Rogers says she was loaned out by RKO while she was making Flying Down to Rio (riding her bicycle between studios). She goes on to say that the songs they gave her were awful and she demanded better. Given her choice of songs (rejects from other pictures) she chose "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking." Wise choice...it became a huge hit and is still heard to this day. "Dream Walking" was the song used in the huge 'flesh & feathers' production number at the end of the movie. Unfortunately, they could/should have dispensed with the rest of the film. Ginger and her equally reliable co-stars, Jack Oakie, Jack Haley and Thelma Todd, tried valiantly to shine, but ultimately were all but entombed in the wooden film. The script lumbered aimlessly along, going nowhere in particular. Even luscious Thelma Todd was saddled with a role so thin it could have been played by any blonde.

Rarely shown, this feature is almost legendary because of its unavailability. I waited for decades to see it and finally found a 16mm print for sale on e-Bay. Sadly, the print quality was abysmal...so bad that at times the players features seemed to be washed off their faces. I reluctantly returned it to the seller. Indeed there may be no decent prints of it in existence. A friend borrowed a 16mm print from Universal Pictures (before the 2008 studio fire consumed their 16mm library) and he said that even their print was substandard. I notice the director, Harry Joe Brown only directed two more pictures after Sitting Pretty. Small wonder. He had been, and continued to be, a successful producer up into the 1960's.

Long a fan of Miss Rogers, as well as rest of the cast, I really expected to love this movie. The final production number, built around the "Dream Walking" song, is truly amazing. It is the closest imitation of Busby Berkeley's work I have seen to date. Ginger is truly jaw dropping in her black sequined dress. It is, however, too little too late to save the picture. Fortunately upon completing Sitting Pretty, Ginger rode her bicycle back to RKO and embarked on one of Hollywood's most legendary careers. She would be sitting pretty for a very long time! Luckily the rest of the cast also emerged unscathed.

Dateline: July 16, 2023

In honor of Ginger Rogers' birthday, let's talk about the movie with her first real glamour shots - 1933's 'Sitting Pretty.'

When many people think of the 1930s they naturally think of Jean Harlow or Carole Lombard. But Ginger was actually more popular than either of them at the box office and in the fan polls and was, even in the beginning, a far greater actress, with apparently limitless talent. The careers of Harlow and Rogers had a lot in common; they both hailed from the Kansas City, Missouri area; they were born just a few months apart in 1911; both showed up in Hollywood about age 19, both had strong mothers (although Harlow's was a true stage mother, while Rogers' mother was simply a powerful woman); both of them wrestled their way through a lot of programmers, and both of them rose to the heights with a great partner - Ginger with the great dancer Fred Astaire, and Jean Harlow with the incomparable Clark Gable. In the early 1930s, Jean struck the country like a bolt of lightning, with her lurid character portrayals and tragic life. Rogers, though, was building the beginning of a body of work that remains unmatched in its range and talent. Arguably the greatest triple threat in history, Ginger stands at or near the peak in multiple fields - dance, drama, romance, musicals, stage, melodrama, and comedy. She's truly an American icon.

Sitting Pretty stars Oakie and Haley, with Rogers billed third, but it's actually Ginger's movie. Everything revolves around Ginger, from the first shot of her when she turns around after that kick in the pants, to the high point of the film, those glorious closeups of her onstage as a superstar. She even closes the movie, with the two erstwhile stars of the show standing around her in attendance. She dominates the film with a screen presence that is impossible to ignore.

Merion C Cooper signed Rogers with the specific idea that she had star quality and talent and he launched RKO's publicity campaign for her. He recognized that her successes in vaudeville and on Broadway were no flukes. She'd already gotten rave reviews in a series of films, too. Rogers had made three movies on her RKO contract before this one, and up next for her was 'Flying Down to Rio' and worldwide fame. But it is when she walks slowly up the stairs and onto the stage in 'Sitting Pretty,' that Ginger Rogers makes her grand entrance as a movie star.

If ever there were a film that should be carefully restored, it is 'Sitting Pretty.'

A strong candidate for restoration, this little musical contains more than a few virtues, something that can't be said about many of the more celebrated efforts of the genre. The songs are pleasant (I Wanna Meander With Miranda), cleverly staged (Good Morning Glory), humbly touching (You're Such A Comfort To Me), and the movie even climaxes with a spectacular production number (Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?) which is the only pseudo-Berkeley number I know that manages to out-Berkeley Berkeley himself. There are nice supporting turns from Thelma Todd, Gregory Ratoff and Lew Cody, a couple of scenes are laughing-out-loud-funny (our ambitious songwriters in the offices of agent Ratoff and producer Cody for two sly instances), what more could you want from a cheap little programmer?

Our stars, Jack Oakie and Jack Haley, play two young songwriters who go to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune, Oakie the aggressive smart aleck while Haley plays the sympathetic sap. The female lead is Ginger Rogers, not a particularly big part (it probably couldn't be as she was simultaneously filming FLYING DOWN TO RIO at the time, traveling back and forth to her respective studios by bicycle) but she does well in it as she did well in pretty much everything during these years. The final 'Dream' production number was the first time that Ginger ever received the full-scale glamor treatment in a film. It balanced her introduction, a decidedly non-glamorous kick in the pants.

SITTING PRETTY is a nice surprise, delivering fine entertainment from a source in which you wouldn't have expected very much.

Were this a cake it would be a hash cake. It's tasty, silly, a little weird and it just makes you smile like an idiot. It's not a great film but it is one of the best early thirties light comedies and is guaranteed to make you feel good.

Producer-Director H J Brown really knew how to create a good mood and he makes a surprisingly enjoyable picture from a pretty clichéd story. One sign of a well made film is when you get annoyed with the characters, you only get angry with them if you believe they're real. The two male leads aren't people you'd particularly want to know. Jack Haley (yes, The Tim Man!) is annoyingly limp, pathetic and lacks any self esteem whatsoever. You feel at times like shouting at him: for goodness sake man, grow a pair! His best mate, played by Jack Oakie is a lazy, selfish slob but you know there's something good inside him somewhere.

Like Jack Haley, Ginger Rogers is a bit of a non-entity as well. There's none of that sassy, brassy go-getting personality she had in a lot of her 30s movies but she has certainly progressed as an actress since her early films such as her bizarre role in YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN with her catchphrase: 'Cigarette me Big Boy.' Here she's just sweet and just about gets by on her cuteness. They're all quite shallow characters but real people are sometimes like this.

Returning to my hash cake analogy, as you watch the last ten minutes you wonder what on earth is going on. Totally bemused, you're not sure if you're still watching the same film. It was as though Mr Zukor wandered onto the set and reminded Mr Brown that this was a pre-code movie and said: 'Let's show some flesh!' Inexplicably but pleasantly surprising, the finale is a sort of Busby Berkeley inspired soft-porn dance routine to the song, 'Did You Ever See A Dream Walking?' To answer that question I'd say, maybe when I was a fourteen year old boy I had dreams like this. Be prepared to take a cold shower after this!

Pete and Chick (Jack Haley and Jack Oakie) are a strange mismatched pair of songwriters. Pete is a nice guy...but Chick isn't. He tends to act like a big guy...but down deep he's a jerk as you see through much of the movie. He lies as often as he breathes and is a tough guy to like...but somehow Pete trusts this guy. Together, they work and scheme their way to Hollywood and once they start to make it big, Chick dumps Pete in order to further his own career.

The formula is that eventually Chick will see the light and reform...leading to a tearful reunification with Pete. But the writer made Chick such an unlikeable jerk that the movie is weakened considerably. Instead of wanting to see them reunited, you just wish a street car would flatten Chick and Pete would then get on with his life!

It's a real shame, as toning down Oakie's character might have allowed the story to shine...especially since Ginger Rogers is also on hand and she is hard to notice due to Chick's bombastic and selfish nature. Also, having Chick be such a jerk, it makes Pete seem like a real weiner for caring about his 'friend'...no, Pete's more a doormat. The only plus is the kid who plays Rogers' little brother...as he thinks the pair stink and seems to be the voice of audience members who disliked this stuff!

Overall, it's a formulaic piece with good actors saddled with a second-rate script...or possibly third-rate.