Kid Nightingale

A programmer from that golden year of 1939 may not be a classic but does spotlight two plucky kids who went on to become big stars, one much more acclaimed than the other.

Made at a time when contract players, sometimes even the big stars, averaged at least four pictures a year this was one of those four for Jane although for John there would only be three this year he made up for it in '40 with six. Obviously not all could be winners but this one is a chipper little piece of hokum almost totally reliant on the charms of its two leads with Walter Catlett full of bluster as the shady promoter who discovers Kid Nightingale.

Jane's in the dizzy blonde period the studio could never make work since her native intelligence always shone through. She's flip and charming. Payne handsome and fit had a big advantage over many of the other young actors, Wayne Morris, Jeffrey Lynn, Dick Foran etc., he was competing against he sang very well and the studio was wise to find ways, sometime ridiculous, to utilize that gift.

This is one of those time crafting perhaps the only singing boxer movie in existence for him. Isn't one enough though?

A pleasant and speedy diversion, just under an hour, that's as good an example as any of the B pictures the studio churned out to support their big ticket films.

Boxing trainer Skip Davis (Walter Catlett) is crowing about his new fighter who ends up falling flat. He's at a restaurant listening to singing waiter Steve Nelson (John Payne) who gets interrupted by two drunken customers. Steve knocks them out and Skip convinces him to be a boxer for his singing career. He falls for Judy Craig (Jane Wyman). Skip needs to sell the kid using every dirty trick in the book.

This is a little funny, but I don't get the premise. I don't get why Steve would actually fight. The fighting and singing connection is beyond me. I would just drop the singing part. I don't see it making sense. It confuses and complicates the story.

This little film is classic 30's Hollywood comedy. I admit it's too short (it's one reel shy of being fully realized) and would have benefited from some fleshing out (more story/plot than character) but Walter Catlett's performance alone makes this film highly watchable and quite enjoyable. He reminds me so much of Phil Silvers. John Payne is terrific and Jane Wyman a doll but what truly makes this film fun to watch are all the great character actors in it. At 57 minutes, if Kid Nightingale was strictly made as a short than we sure get a lot of bang for our buck. But I think a better choice would have been to expand on it, especially the fight scenes and the ending, which are rushed, and go the distance, which would have made this film a real contender.

Don't be mislead by all those promising George Hurrell promotional photos released for this film showing beefy John Payne in very noir boxing ring poses. This boxer is a bird-brain singing waiter who gets discovered by a promoter when he loses his job for brawling in frustration. There are lots of annoying developments involving a hyperactive romance with a blond, brassy Jane Wyman while on his way to becoming "Kid Nightingale" ,the boxer who gets on a winning streak by singing when he's hit. Altogether a silly exercise but Payne, always watchable, is entertaining both as a singer and as a boxer. The film is almost a criminal waste of John Payne. Boxing sequences should have been extended; they are way too brief and would have added much more interest.

With material like this it's no wonder John Payne got out of his Warner Brothers contract and went on to 20th Century Fox where he finally got to do some major musicals. This is probably something that Dick Powell rejected as he was leaving Warner Brothers as well.

Still Kid Nightingale does have a certain amount of goofy charm to it. Payne is a singing waiter who gets fired for getting into a brawl, but he comes to the attention of fight manager Walter Catlett who's a quick buck artist. Payne is no boxer, but he sings beautifully. Charles D. Brown goes into partnership with Catlett and they bill Payne as Kid Nightingale and set him up with a bunch of tank artists. They even send an orchestra around to accompany him as he gives the fight audience which no consists of a lot of women, a song after each knockout.

Of course Payne is such a knucklehead he hasn't a clue. He even accepts an Italian wrestler as an opera coach when he insists on singing lessons.

Only levelheaded Jane Wyman suspects something's not quite kosher in this setup. She's the means to an inevitable happy ending.

Which I won't give away, but that other Warner Brothers boxing film, The James Cagney classic, The Irish In Us provides a clue, if you've seen it.

Kid Nightingale is so silly it has a certain amount of dopey charm to it and I actually enjoyed it. But no wonder Dick Powell and John Payne whose careers took similar paths left Warner Brothers and didn't look back.