Flying with Music

Hal Roach's musical streamliners were given plenty of production (FIESTA was even filmed in Technicolor) but were often sorely lacking in the scenario department. There's usually a comedy team of sorts - in this case it's big Ed Gargan and diminutive Jerry Bergen. Marjorie Woodworth is invariably the ingenue in these 5-reelers. I guess Roach must have seen SOMETHING in her. Oh well. The protagonist is George Givot, a longtime vaudevillian who specialized in Greek dialect. Here is plays it straight with the exception of a detour as a blackface mammy with composer Edward Ward matching his dialect on the soundtrack. Little Billy Roy apparently made a hit as a native boy in ALOMA OF THE SOUTH SEAS and he repeats the role singing the Oscar-nominated "Pennies For Peppino". This picture was directed by RKO's early turgedian George Archainbaud and all I can say is, where was Gordon Douglas when we needed him! Very few of the gags work and, in one of the strangest affronts to comedy, hilarious dialectician Benny Rubin - playing a French maitre d - had his voice looped! It's nice to see Norma Varden in an early role and there are plenty of familiar dress extras, including the ubiquitous Ellinor Vanderveer. I'm giving this a rating of 5 because it's only 5 reels. If it had been a longer picture I would have been much more severe in my critique. But it's 47 minutes of amiable entertainment. No harm done.

This Movie, "Flying with Music" was shown on Turner Classics today! It was shown as part of "Movies nominated for Oscars" Month. My Tivo decided it was something I would want to watch...and BOY was my TIVO right! "Flying with Music" is just so bizarrely wonderful. There is something about Roach Studios Movies of the early 40s that captures an essence of the 40s that neither the Large Studios, nor the Poverty Row Studios ever really got. It is hard to put into words, but there is a "reaching" for quality above means, and from the looks of it, "Flying with Music" may have had the largest budget spent on a movie from this Studio.

Everyone sings, everyone dances...there is barely a breath taken between unfamiliar songs with a Latin Beat, or songs simply crooned in the best Bing Crosby manner. There is an endless Lagoon Number number featuring Tribal Beats and scantily clad dancers.

But what you really need to see is sequence with the Oscar nominated song "Pennies for Peppino". It comes out of nowhere, and if you didn't know that THIS is the Oscar nominated song from the movie, you may not give it much thought. A group of children see the cast in the back of a Cart being slowly pulled to town and begin to "beg" for Pennies to be thrown to them ...offering to sing, dance, stand on their heads just for "Pennies for Peppino".

There is just something about knowing that this little song, in this short sequence, in this "little " movie lost the 1942 Best Song Oscar to White Christmas gives it that tiny bit of majesty.

I viewed the film on TCM and wrote the lyrics to "Pennies for Peppino" down. I also figured out the music in 5 minutes (not too difficult). I could not understand the line toward the end that goes with the number 4. They were counting. Is it "A coin for the nice Chiquita"? I collect all Oscar nominated songs and this was the only one I did not have. "Cry Freedom" is also sketchy. I met the composers Chet Forrest and Bob Wright many years ago in Miami and they did not have "Pennies for Peppino" but they did have the certificate from the Academy to prove it was nominated. They also had the Tony Award on the wall for composing "Kismet". I was thrilled to finally hear the song - it was 20 years in the search for it.

When I noticed that EDWARD WARD was responsible for the musical score, I had an additional reason for wanting to view FLYING WITH MUSIC, which I understood was a low-budget musical from the Hal Roach studios--without any well-known stars. Another factor was the Oscar-nominated song: "Pennies for Peppino." (Ward wrote the background scores for films like Universal's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ('43) and THE CLIMAX ('44)).

Well, I was disappointed on both counts. The score is not that impressive and the song was unworthy of an Oscar nomination in a year when "White Christmas" and "Love Is A Song" (from BAMBI) were the front-runners.

Despite obvious drawbacks, FLYING WITH MUSIC is a better than average programmer that is like a time capsule of the '40s-era pop music scene with a Latin beat. The only charmer among the songs is the "Pennies for Peppino" number, nicely rendered by a bunch of native kids.

Other than that, the weak plot is a real hindrance. GEORGE GIVOT is a man on the lam who poses as a tour guide in Florida. He takes a group of young women on an island tour which leaves time for a few nightclub songs and some badly executed comedy routines. MARJORIE WOODWORTH is just passable in the leading femme role but is certainly photogenic.

NORMA VARDEN has a brief role as the chaperone for the girls and there's a very inept performance from handsome WILLIAM MARSHALL which shows why he never made it into star territory.

It's one of those harmless trifles that's entirely forgettable with Ward's music only occasionally making some noteworthy sounds. "Song of the Lagoon" at least gets a production number with a Caribbean touch and a pleasing, languid melody.

But the whole film is strictly small-time stuff and not diverting enough to call for any special attention. GEORGE GIVOT overdoes the mugging routines in the central role and EDWARD GARGAN does his standard schtick as a tax collector.

Summing up: A more ambitious than usual production from a Povery Row studio like Hal Roach.

This is a typically wacky fast-paced Hal Roach comedy padded with some laughably ridiculous musical numbers.

It has everything - coochie dancers, pan-American travelog, Latin crooners, jungle romance, buxom blondes, blackface mammies, mediums, even a midget. The only furnishing it lacks is a suitably funny leading man. George Givot's performance as the obnoxious boob running from alimony payments wont leave you begging for more. Despite the occasional cramp he puts in the fun, the rest of the cast sail through the gags effortlessly.

I hope it shows up as an extra in a DVD package in the future - a true delight.