That's My Baby!

"That's My Baby!" is a B-movie starring an actor who specialized in Bs at the time, Richard Arlen. Sadly, however, it's not among his better efforts...mostly because the film is often plotless and instead looks like a variety or Vaudeville show....and many of the acts stink. Why they chose to do this, I have no idea...perhaps they didn't trust the actors to be able to carry the film otherwise....perhaps the filmmakers knew a lot of second-rate show people and just wanted to put their friends in the film. All I know is that I can see why they let this movie slip into the public domain!!

The plot, such as it is, involves Tim Jones (Arlen) and Betty Moody (Ellen Drew) trying to make the dour R. P. Moody (Minor Watson) smile....something he hasn't done in years. To find out what did make him smile, they located Betty's long-lost mother (R. P.'s ex-wife) and come up with the idea of creating a cartoon involving a cute baby.

Nothing about this movie would compell you to care about the story....and it was watchable...just barely. Not much more worth saying about this one.

Father runs a big corporation but is suffering from a severe case of melancholia. Daughter and persona non grata boyfriend cook up a plan to have every ex-vaudevillian and dancer on the club circuit that they can find attempt to make him smile. Groan. Scatterbrained ex-wife finally saves the day by remembering that father once had ambitions to be a newspaper comic illustrator (!) Nevermind, it doesn't make that much sense.

Not the most enjoyable movie ever made, but an amazing time capsule of vaudeville acts: Gene Rodgers, the stupendous boogie-woogie piano player; Mitchell & Lytell, Abbot and Costello wannabees; Alphonse Bergé & Doris Duane, a must-be-seen inverse striptease act; Al Mardo and his priceless bulldog; and most of all Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham, who steals the show with his break dancing.

The DVD I watched is from an American rights company called Alpha DVD. Increasingly their output is delight and dismay because so many of the attractive films in their catalog seem to be created from DVD copying a TV print videotape directly off a computer monitor or television screen. THAT'S MY BABY looks like this as it has some weird patterned sheen over the whole image... like bathroom glass. This imperfection in the presentation detracts from what is a major musical find for anyone interested in Republic films of th 40s... and for you out there who love vaudeville zaniness will rush to find a copy. This would have been an A grade film from Republic with excellent art direction set design and a beautiful music score. Then there is the hilarious and energetic roster of auditioning stars and their orchestras... with added throw in and away guest appearances by everyone else possible. There is even break dancing from tap maestro 'Pigmeat" Markham. Some terrible TV edits rob us of some wild, barely seen adagio gymnastics, but one dance duo who I can't identify are jawdropping to briefly see: he is a massive lug in a cartoon dinner-suit, like a football forward in a tux and she is absolutely tiny in an even tinier miniskirt; they proceed to slide-jive and hop about like the Big Bad Wolf and Lambchop! The number is brief and made even shorter by cutaways for dialog... maybe it was risqué.. but what we so briefly see is live cartoon craziness perfected. Later in this very concise 68 minute musical is a wondrous sequence by Dave Fleischer creating a cartoon, mostly in a fascinating montage that delivers the hilarity needed for the fade-out. A great DVD print release of this thoroughly enjoyable mini musical is much deserved. It is alternately silly and spectacular... and the musical numbers, each and every one worth the cost of the DVD alone. The boogie woogie scene in the restaurant needs to be repeated 200 times just so you believe you actually saw it. It is a movie about a cartoon; and so is a musical with cartoon sensibilities... if that is possible.... well it is and it is called THAT'S MY BABY, Republic Pictures 1944. Whata hoot this would have been to see with a huge crowd. The Hilarious and droll Al Mardo and his (useless) dog were a staple of 50s television; Lead acress Ellen Drew is breathtaking, she is very much like Hedy Lamarr; her measured dialogue delivery is particularly appealing. Yep, all this in 68 minutes.

This whole thing was a poor excuse to drag out a slew of old vaudevillians and try to make them relevant and entertaining for audiences that had moved on from stage revues, silent movies and talkies to television. It offers plenty of evidence for why such acts went the way of the dodo bird.

One can only cringe for the actors engaged to try to sell this weak story. Not even Leonid Kinsky or Richard Arlen can save this dreck and one has to wonder if they really needed the money or the screen time this desperately. You can feel the pain in their attempts to pretend to be entertained and amused by the goings-on. Ellen Drew smiles too much and much too forced. Richard Arlen does his best with the embarrassingly cheesy dialogue and fake romance and one can only feel sorry for him slogging his way through this.

There's nobody named "Peggy" in the cast, that's "Peppy" the tall jitterbug clown-dancer.

Plus, "Peanuts" is not playing "himself" but "herself," she's the tiny jitterbug dancer.

The team were called "Peppy and Peanuts" and they appear in a couple of soundies and two films, very obscure, but were once popular on the burlesque circuit as burlesque included comedy dance teams pretty regularly.

They had a really a charming act, and it's great to see part of it preserved in this little film. How sad they're so forgotten, and even miscredited.

The film also provides a chance to see part of the act of Mike Riley and His Musical Maniacs. The "Crying" routine was one of his best known. It's awful, but it reportedly made audiences hysterical in the burlesque houses.

Riley owned The Madhouse in Hollywood, a tavern never forgotten by anyone who ever saw the inside, designed to be packed with sight gags.

-paghat the ratgirl from the weird wild realm