Spring Is Here

"Spring is Here" is a very early musical. While musicals were quite popular in the early days of talking pictures, most of them were like "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" and "The Broadway Melody"--stage productions where groups of chorus girls danced about for audiences. The musical style where folks were NOT on stage and just broke into song was a bit later invention. But, "Spring is Here" is a fluke--one of those 1930s films where music was woven into the story---much like the later Jeanette MacDonald films of the mid to late 1930s. However, since it is such an early version of this style musical, it came out before the genre was fully developed. In other words, it's a bit rough and doesn't translate as well to audiences today. The singing is DEFINITELY not the sort that will have you humming along with the singers. Instead, it's very operatic and the voices see odd in a movie--not at all natural and a bit tough on the ear. I am not saying it's bad singing--just odd given the plot. Also odd is that the singers stand so still and they are usually filmed in closeups--most likely because the sound equipment was very primitive and wouldn't allow for more naturalistic shots (much like in early talkies where folks stand in one spot so the microphones will pick up the sound properly).

Despite the primitive nature of the film, however, I found "Spring Is Here" to be very watchable--mostly because I liked the parents, Louise Fazenda and Ford Sterling. Both were veterans of Mack Sennett silent comedies and both made nice transitions to sound in this film. In particular, Sterling was a very funny character playing the father of the leading lady. As for the leading lady (Bernice Claire), she is being wooed by two guys--her ex-boyfriend and a handsome new guy. With a little help from her sister and mother, the old boyfriend manages to once again catch her eye. Who will she end up with and how? See this cute little musical comedy.

By the way, this being a Pre-Code film, you might be surprised by a few of the more suggestive but funny lyrics and situations in the film. And, get a load of the kiss in the garden--one that long and passionate never would have been allowed in the post 1934 era.

Not bad early musical based on a flop Broadway show by Rodgers and Hart.

Willful Betty (Bernice Claire) thinks she loves flashy Steve (Lawrence Gray) because Terry (Alexander Gray) is boring and because her father wants her to marry him. But with a little coaching from her dizzy mom (Louise Fazenda), Terry turns into a lover and wins the day.

Set among the "Long Island set," this breezy little film is full of smart retorts and good songs. It also features a funny performance by Ford Sterling as the frantic father and good work by Inez Courtney (from the Broadway show) and Frank Albertson as the younger set.

Claire has a pleasing soprano and the Grays (not related) also sing well. Best known song here is "With a Song in My Heart." The Brox Sisters show up at the party and sing the hit "Cryin' for the Carolines." Also noted in the cast are Natalie Moorhead as the vamp, Bess Flowers as a guest, Gretchen Thomas as Maude, and Wilbur Mack as the vicar.

While Lawrence Gray gets top billing here, it's Bernice Claire and Alexander Gray who are really the stars. They starred together in 3 films in 1930.

SPRING IS HERE (First National Pictures, 1930), produced and directed by John Francis Dillon, is a surprisingly entertaining early sound musical comedy taken from the story by Owen Davis Jr., and stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, who also composed the songs. Though headed by two Gray actors, Lawrence and Alexander (no relation), the plot very well belongs to the third billed Bernice Claire, a talented young singer in her day with few film credits to her name. Most noted for her screen pairing with Alexander Gray, a baritone singer, in both feature-length (1929-30) and later 20-minute musical short subjects (1934), SPRING IS HERE, their second collaboration, is believed to be their only surviving musical feature film.

Opening title: "The Peter Bealey Home on Long Island's fashionable North Shore - a morning in June." The domestic comedy set to song interludes revolves around Betty Bealey (Bernice Claire), a free-spirited young lady whose father, Peter (Ford Sterling), disapproves of her being out all night and sleeping in all day. After returning home at 5 a.m., Peter draws the line of his daughter's carefree activities. Aside from coping with his younger daughter, Mary Jane (Inez Courtney), and her courtship with Stacey Hayden (Frank Albertson), along with his ditsy but squeaky speaking wife, Emily (Louise Fazenda), Peter disapproves of Betty's latest beau, Steve Alden (Lawrence Gray), whom she's only known a short time. Hoping she'd settle down and get married, Peter tries his best to encourage Betty into marrying Terry Clayton (Alexander Gray), a clumsy but shy young man with some sense, unaware that Steve who comes from a wealthy family.

Through its brief 68 minutes, SPRING IS HERE contains enough songs for a 90 minute feature, including that of: "Spring is Here" (sung by Frank Albertson and Inez Courtney); "Yours Sincerely" (sung by Alexander Gray and Bernice Claire); "Bad Baby" (sung by Inez Courtney); "Crying for the Carolines" (sung by The Brox Sisters during party sequence); "With a Song in My Heart" (sung by Lawrence Gray and Bernice Claire); "Having a Little Faith in Me" (sung by Alexander Gray); "How Shall I Tell?" (sung by Bernice Claire/ written by Sam Lewis, Joe Young and Harry Warren); "What's the Big Idea?" (sung by Inez Courtney and Frank Albertson); and "With a Song in My Heart" (sung by Gray and Claire). Of the selection of songs, many which are quite good if not everlasting to memory. Only "With a Song in My Heart" is the most familiar, considering how it's been immortalized in the musical biography, WITH A SONG IN MY HEART (20th Century-Fox, 1952) starring Susan Hayward as famed singer, Jane Froman.

While the other Gray-Claire screen collaborations of NO, NO NANETTE (1929) and SONG OF THE FLAME (1930) have been lost to revivals, SPRING IS HERE, survived intact, giving film buffs some basic idea of their work and on-screen chemistry. Other than noting how Claire wears two different hairstyles at once (hair covering the left side of her face and hair combed back on her right side, exposing both face and ear), it's also easy for anyone who missed seeing Claire's name in the opening credits, to somehow mistake her for a youthful, dark-haired Penny Singleton (then performing under her real name of Dorothy McNulty), the same Singleton years before her acclaim in the long-running "Blondie" movie series (1938-1950) for Columbia. Claire also quotes one interesting line worth noting, "A woman is as strong as her weakest moment." As for Alexander Gray, it's worth mentioning how his talking manner and singing differ, from mildly speaking to rich baritone voice. It's a wonder how much further the careers of Gray and Claire might have gone had musicals not fallen out of favor for public acceptance by the end of 1930.

Aside from some surprisingly risqué dialog and funny nifty comebacks during moments of comedy, there's also some very amusing scenes provided by the frustrated Ford Sterling and scatterbrained Louise Fazenda, former comics of silent comedy shorts whose characters here seem to precede that of Archie and Edith Bunker from the classic "All in the Family" TV series of the seventies. There's also Inez Courtney giving a sassy performance for comedy relief so reminiscent to the then notable Warner Brothers comedienne of Winnie Lightner. Other members of the cast include Natalie Moorehead as Rita Conway, and Gretchen Thomas as Maude, among others.

SPRING IS HERE, while no masterpiece, gets by on both comedy and sometimes corny musical interludes. Let's not overlook the legendary "With a Song in My Heart" (which is scored during the opening credits) which highlights the film. Regardless of its age, this musical antique is a worthy rediscovery and something to consider whenever it turns up on the Turner Classic Movies cable channel. Spring is here. (**1/2)

This is seems to me to be a very true adaptation of a Broadway musical of the late 20s, filmed in quite a static way with the characters lined across the screen playing it exactly as if they were also across the stage bellowing lines into each other's faces so the back row could hear it. Given this performance is for a film it seems nobody thought to re direct it for a cinema audience who could hear every word courtesy of fantastic chunky Vitaphone gramophone sound. There is no doubt the dippy parents and flapper daughters play it well to the audience who even might have been expecting a play on film. SPRING IS HERE is quite funny, very stage bound and completely what we expect 80 years later: stodgy comedy, vaudeville mugging wonderful Rogers and Hart music all flattened into the technical aspects of the time. This film is a curiosity piece really, and would irritate your friends who do not understand that it is the restrictions of the medium of the time that makes a film like this attractive to those who love 1920s sound films. Beautiful clothes and sets add to the fun; but do not inflict this film on anyone not familiar with the time tone and tinniness. Maybe play the scenes of just the songs, as they are terrific. No wonder the talkies took off, but you can also see why depression audiences soon tired of songs being yelled at them.

Early musical about fickle Betty of the Long Island "fashionable set", the kind who seem to mostly go around with tennis rackets and ukuleles gripped in their hands. She stays out 'til five in the morning "riding" with a new fellow (leaving her regular beau high and dry at the dance) - so her grump of a dad decides he needs to put a stop to that kind of stuff and "get her a good husband". Well, when the regular fellow, Terry, shows up next morning, dad practically proposes himself - but Betty won't marry Terry. Terry IS in love, so - given the push by Betty's little 16-year-old sister (who looked to me about 35), he decides to spark Betty's jealousy by flirting with other women. And boy does he - including giving a passionate kiss to Betty's mom!

This film is pretty silly, though has moments - such as the dad spouts a number of pretty good one-liners and there is a little bit of pre-code naughtiness too. The whole film comes across as a little stiff and stage play like - it includes characters bursting into song here and there, most of which are fairly mediocre, though I thought a few of the numbers were kind of catchy. The lead actors in this are not very memorable (though, at least, they sing well) - the most interesting characters are actually the girl's parents, quite amusingly portrayed by Ford Sterling and Louise Fazenda - the mom is depicted as very dizzy (reminded me of Gracie Allen). Betty turns into a "yes dear" baby talker kind of gal in the end, oh well. Fun, light entertainment.