Sleepytime Gal

The Early Show on NY's Channel 2 used to air this breezy, delightful musical comedy from the woefully underrated Republic Studios during the 1950s when I was a kid. I tuned in every time it was telecast. Judy Canova deserves to be re-discovered and re-appreciated. She was truly a precursor of Lily Tomlin (her "Sleepy Lagoon" with Dennis Day is another tuneful delight). And the vivacious Ruth Terry, in a platinum wig as the gangster's moll, pre-dated Lesley Ann Warren's delectable turn in "Victor/Victoria".

The details of the plot elude me, but I cherish the film. With a wonderful score by the young, then-unknown Jule Styne. Would someone please rescue and revive this delightful gem from obscurity and let the current generation savor its charms?

Music tycoon Thurston Hall sponsors a contest for a girl singer. Tom Brown, the head bell hop at a fancy Miami hotel, thinks he knows how to win it: have cake decorator Judy Canova do the singeing have his girlfriend Mildred Coles provide the pretty face et cetera, and everyone walks away happy. But gangster Harold Huber decides he can have his girlfriend Ruth Terry in place of Miss Coles.

I am not particularly fond of the vehicles for Miss Canova that Republic turned out -- they were meant for rural audiences of eighty years ago. Even so, I recognize that they can be good or bad, so I do a technical checklist. Miss Canova sings only three times, and they're pretty good, if minor songs. More to the point, it has some of my favorite comic supporting actors of the period, including Billy Gilbert, Fritz Feld, and Jay Novello as three chefs at the hotel, as well as then-popular talents like Jerry Lester, and Skinnay Ellis and his band. Unhappily, with this profusion of talent fighting for screen time, there isn't enough to enjoy any of them (except for Gllbert). The result is too chaotic, as the focus shifts from one scheme to the next, or one gag sequence to another, before you can get the hang of what's going on.

But that's me. I can't say with any confidence how the movie's intended audience reacted. Perhaps the absolute chaos of fancy-shmancy tycoons and hotels in upscale Miami and Chicago would have been just the thing to make them laugh, and the incoherence icing on the cake. Republic Pictures must have been getting satisfactory returns form Miss Canova's movies -- they made seven more over the next four years. All I know is that I didn't enjoy it that much.