Chasing Rainbows

Jack Benny, a violin-playing vaudeville performer, had just finished co-emceeing the "Hollywood Revue of 1929" for MGM. With a five-year studio contract under his belt, his next role for the studio was playing a stage manager, Eddie Rock, for a road show group. The February 1930's "Chasing Rainbows" contained Benny's first cinematic dramatic/comedy role. He looks very comfortable mixing with the film's stars by giving funny quips about their situations back stage.

As a loose sequel to the Academy Awards 1929 Outstanding Picture "Broadway Melody," Carlie Seymour (Bessie Love) and Terry Fay (Charles King) continue their cat-and-mouse relationship, but amped up ten-fold from the original. The roadshow premise gave MGM producers an excuse to expand the cast of characters to broaden its entertainment value. Veteran actress Marie Dressler teamed up with fellow-Mack Sennett alumni Polly Moran, their second of nine movies together, to deliver a sideshow of laughs. The main plot, however, involves Carlie's secret passion for Terry, only to be jilted a number of times by his habit of falling in love with the show's leading ladies.

Set in America in the waning days of World War One, "Chasing Rainbows," similar to the then-trending early film musicals, wrapped its dramatics with several song-and-dance numbers. The most familiar tune for modern viewers is "Happy Days Are Here Again," written in 1929. The song appears for the first time here on film, where it's sung just as the war's Armistice is announced. Presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt played the peppy song during his 1932 Democratic National Convention, and it was his adopted theme song throughout his campaign. A year later, 'Happy Days' was linked with the Repeal of Prohibition in December 1933, sometimes rephrased as "Happy days are beer again." In "Chasing Rainbows," the song was designed to conclude the movie in an elaborate Technicolor ending. However, the final reel has disappeared and only stills serve as a wrap-up to the feature.

The film didn't quite perk up its box office returns. Benny relabeled the movie "Chasing Customers." He appeared in two additional MGM features before the studio decided to buy out his contract. He played one other serious role in 1930's 'The Medicine Man' for Tiffany Pictures, before discovering radio in 1932. His personality was perfect for the broadcast medium when he was hired for NBC's 'The Canadian Dry Program.' Benny remained in radio as a popular comic until the mid-1950s while juggling a number of movie and television appearances throughout his life.

Any film that starts out with a passenger train chugging across the countryside, followed by a full ensemble rendition of Ager-and-Yellen's "Happy Days Are Here Again" can't be all bad. Sadly, this great old song is presented only in fragmentary form at the beginning to set the tone for a story about a traveling theatrical troupe; later, when the time comes for a full- length version, we learn from an insert that the sequence has been lost, a blow which this backstager cannot survive. (Imagine Golddiggers of 1935 without "Lullabye of Broadway.) There is a decent Ager-Yellen ballad ("Lucky Me, Lovable You," crooned impeccably by Charles King) and a couple of comedy numbers put over with gusto by the scenery-chewing Marie Dressler. The plot (girl-loves-boy-who-loves-other-girls) moves too slowly and far too much time is spent on Dressler's vaudevillian comic routines with her frequent screen partner Polly Moran. The two were real crowd pleasers back in the day, which only shows how much tastes have changed. Their shtick is occasionally funny but not funny enough to justify twenty minutes of footage. Jack Benny is very good as the level-headed stage manager who holds the troupe together and Charles King acts almost as well as he sings. The delicate Bessie Love has a strange, extended scene in which she breaks into grimacing, demented laughter which veers into crying and then back into laughter.

What a potentially great film (finally got hold of a copy), a big hit MGM musical that boasted Bessie Love, Charles King, Jack Benny, Marie Dressler, and Polly Moran.

What a shame that all the Technolor is gone from the existing print, and even worse, so are all the big production numbers! Title cards appear to tell us where the numbers USED to be. Even the audio is gone.

Indeed we miss Bessie Love leading a chorus in "Everybody Tap," Charles King singing "Love Ain't Nothing' but the Blues." and Marie Dressler singing "My Dynamic Personality." Also the entire finale of "Happy Days Are Here Again" is also gone. Thanks to Richard Barrios for listing the missing songs in a footnote in A SONG IN THE DARK.

The few numbers that are left aren't too great. King sings "Lucky Me and Lovable You" to Love (who does not sing). But they do a short dance number. Dressler does an early number on the train, and Nina Martan (odd spelling) also sings one song.

In this backstage musical about an acting company traveling across country in a show called "Goodbye Broadway," we get the usual stories about jealousy, love, etc. Love is adorable as Carlie, King is better than he was in THE Broadway MELODY, Benny is funny, and of course Dressler and Moran steal every scene they're in. George K. Arthur has a small role as a (gay?) member of the troupe, and so does Gwen Lee as the member who quits early on, requiring them to hire Martan. Eddie Phillips plays the smarmy lover.

After smash hits with THE Broadway MELODY and Hollywood REVUE OF 1929, MGM launched this musical with its A Cast, but by the time the film hit theaters, the craze for musicals was winding down. Revue films were so unpopular that MGM included "Not a Revue" in its advertising for CHASING RAINBOWS. Bessie Love was MGM's #1 musical star of the time, and Marie Dressler and Polly Moran are just plain hysterically funny together.

Let's hope these Technicolor musical numbers are found some day. What a treat that would be!

"Chasing Rainbows" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1929-30), directed by Charles F. Reisner, was the studio's attempt in duplicating the success of its very first all sound musical titled "The Broadway Melody" (1929), that won the Academy Award as Best Picture. To review "Chasing Rainbows," one cannot help but compare this to "The Broadway Melody," a backstage story revolving around a sister act (Bessie Love and Anita Page) that nearly breaks up on account of their love for the same leading man (Charles King). Aside from the re-teaming of Love and King, this new edition, set in small town theaters during a road show tour instead of the Broadway theater district, substitutes troublesome leading ladies over kid sisters to complicate matters. Love, whose climatic crying scene from "The Broadway Melody" that earned her an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress, attempts doing same thing here with her moment of hysterics, this time with laughter. As much as the situations are basically the same, the results aren't. Although the film's title might indicate an old favorite of "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" as one of its highlight production numbers, it actually began production as "Road Show" a title more appealing to the plot at hand.

Following the opening title credits over the visual of a passing train, and minus any underscoring, the plot gets underway with the closing of the road show performance of "Good-bye Broadway" where the cast gathers together in the big finale. Eddie Brock (Jack Benny), the stage manager, gets the company ready for their next engagement in another town. Terry Fay (Charles King), the leading man, is blind by the true love of Carlie Seymour (Bessie Love), his partner of five years. Upset over Peggy (Gwen Lee) quitting the show and leaving with another man, Terry threatens suicide until Brock acquires Daphne Wayne (Nita Martan) as the show's new leading lady. Terry falls for Daphne, who, in reality, is using him for her own professional gain. After Carlie discovers Daphne carrying on an affair with Don Cordova (Eddie Phillips), her former leading man, she tries to warn Terry, who refuses to listen. Even after he realizes Carlie accusations are correct, Terry, still blinded by Daphne's presence, marries her, complicating matters all around.

For the motion picture soundtrack, songs (*indicating two-strip Technicolor sequences) include: "Happy Days Are Here Again" (sung by chorus); "Pure But Honest" (sung by Marie Dressler); "Lucky Me and Lovable You" (sung by Charles King); "Do I Know What I'm Doing?" (sung by Nita Martan, reprized by Marie Dressler and Polly Moran); *"Everybody Tap" (performed by Bessie Love); *"Love Ain't Nothing But the Blues" (sung by Charles King); "Lucky Me and Lovable You" (reprised by Charles King); *"My Dynamic Personality" (sung by Marie Dressler) and *"Happy Days Are Here Again" (sung by chorus). Considering its bright score, only "Happy Days Are Here Again," twice performed briefly, remains relatively known to this day. "Lucky Me and Lovable You," the film's best song, used for underscoring during the tender moments between King and Love, did not recapture the similar mood and qualities of "You Were Meant For Me" that was introduced in "The Broadway Melody." While "Chasing Rainbows" improves technically over its primitive production style of "The Broadway Melody," which simply lacked the brighter moments supplied by Marie Dressler and Polly Moran in their usual feuding pal roles. Dressler, shortly before achieving super stardom following her Academy Award winning performance in "Min and Bill" (1930), not only gets a chance to sing, but shares a drunken scene with Moran, cast here as the wardrobe woman. Fans of Jack Benny's radio and TV show can get an early glimpse of the popular comedian before reaching 39 playing a straight man providing some funny one-liners here and there.

Of all the musicals produced during the early sound period, "Chasing Rainbows" is truly a forgotten one. Due to the missing two-strip Technicolor musical sequences, shortening its original length from 100 minutes to 86, "Chasing Rainbows" has never been televised, at least until the era of Turner Classic Movies following its 1984 premiere where this musical became part as its very own film preservation series where still photos for the missing sequences were inserted with sub-titles indicating its actions filling in the void. With that said, "Chasing Rainbows," in spite of Charlie King's occasional annoying character portrayal, proves not only one of the more worthier rediscoveries of the early sound era, but a good companion piece to the much better known "Broadway Melody." (** curtain calls)

I won't repeat other reviews; I agree with almost all comments. What I'd like to address is the unprofessional editing. In one scene actors apparently are listening to Jack Benny lecturing but without sound. This is clearly a medium reaction shot, meant to have Jack's voice over. Poly Moran stands in a doorway without moving for about three seconds before action begins. An actor enters a door from the outside - you can't see the door - and then the camera pauses. Then on the inside we see the door continues to open. At the trimmed fade out you see the door start to open again. This is an A picture made by an A studio. Such gaffes are unforgivable.