Mes sept petits chenapans

'I love him when he's angry...and he's angry all the time'--Mrs. Foy in "The Seven Little Foys" I had a hard time with this movie. And, as I read through the reviews, I was actually rather surprised that more reviewers weren't appalled by the leading character. Kentrasmussen noticed this but most of the rest of the reviews never really get to the problem I had with the film--that the main character seemed about as unlikable as possible. It's a shame, as there are things to like about the film--but without a lead who is likable, there really isn't much reason to see this one.

The film purports to being the story of Eddie Foy and his children--who, collectively, were known as 'Eddie Foy and His Seven Little Foys' on stage. How close Bob Hope's portrayal of Foy's personality is the real Foy, I have no idea. But, as I said above, if this is the real Foy, he wasn't a particularly nice or likable guy. No,...he's a jerk.

When the film begins, Foy's been on the vaudeville circuit for some time. What the film never mentions is that he had already been married and this wife died. And, for a decade, he apparently had a common law relationship with another woman who also died. The film instead picks up much later--just before his second marriage. At this time, Foy is a self-absorbed guy who met his future wife but has zero interest in marrying her. He only does so later in order to get to go to Broadway--a very strange reason to marry someone. Over the course of the next 20-odd years (it seemed like far less in the movie), Foy leaves his ever-pregnant wife at home while he travels the country performing on stage and becoming famous. According to the movie, he is almost never home and is, at best, a very distant father. Despite saying several times in the film that he doesn't like or want kids, the couple has seven kids. However, the wife dies and Foy decides to incorporate the kids into his act--otherwise he's either stuck at home with them (God forbid) or will be forced to give them to someone else. During this time on the road with his kids, he continues to be rather distant from his kids. Eventually there is a schmaltzy ending which seems to come out of no where--as he had been thoroughly horrible as a father.

The plot sucked. I'll be honest. However, Bob Hope surprised me in this one. While I didn't care for his comedy (Foy was a dancer/comedian), I was impressed by his dancing. While not exactly Fred Astaire, it was quite good. And, the production values in the film were quite nice. I am just surprised that they either did just make Foy nice (as Hollywood OFTEN made creeps seem nice in the old days) or make an entirely fictional story with a nicer and more sympathetic leading character. Flawed but mildly interesting.

Interesting that the generally considered high point of Bob Hope's career has him essaying roles of famous celebrities of the past. Hope played Jimmy Walker, the mayor of New York during prohibition and the famous vaudevillian Eddie Foy who as we learned in Yankee Doodle Dandy gave his country seven children. Hope acquits himself well and you almost, but not quite forget that you are watching Bob Hope.

Eddie Foy (1855-1928) was one of the most celebrated acts of vaudeville in the golden age of vaudeville in the 19th century. Completely eliminated from the story are his first two wives, both of whom died and a fourth wife whom he married after the action of this story is over. Milly Vitale and her sister Angela Clarke however were quite real.

Eddie Foy, Jr. partially made a career of playing his celebrated father in many films, on stage, and in television. He did such a good job of bringing him to life, that whoever played Foy if his name wasn't Foy was going to be hypercritically judged. It's a great credit to Bob Hope that the public accepted him in the part with no reservations.

The story is familiar enough material, widower raising a large brood of children with the usual problems without mother in the picture. It just so happens that this family was in show business, a lot like the Cohan family so shown in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Eddie Foy, Jr. played his dad in Yankee Doodle Dandy in that one celebrated exchange of one liners with James Cagney right before the You're A Grand Old Flag number. The highlight of this film is Cagney reprising his role as Cohan and doing a soft shoe routine at a Friar's Club dinner with Hope. Both Cagney and Hope did their turns in vaudeville before they were names and there was no need of any character preparation for their parts. The dance routine yes, but the acting no.

The Seven Little Foys is a heartwarming family film, a bit more serious than the usual Bob Hope fare, but still charming and entertaining.

***1/2 for this Bob Hope vehicle made in 1955.

The biography details the life of song and dance man Eddie Foy. Hope has the usual right wit and sarcastic blend to produce a wonderful performance. His dancing is exactly the right step as well.

He meets and marries a ballerina played by Millie Vitale. The children start coming real fast. Each time, Vitale's sister, a tough-looking strong woman named Clara, announces: "We're pregnant!"

7 little Foys enter the world. Eddie is too busy in his show business career and is rarely home. Go know that Vitale's cough is more serious than a cold. One night he arrives home to the news that his beloved wife had died during the day. Stricken with disbelief and sadness, Eddie vows to keep the family together and engages the children to appear in his act.

Meanwhile, Aunt Clara schemes to have Eddie declared unsuitable so that she can gain control of the children.

A fine musical and dance sequence with James Cagney reprising his role of George M. Cowan is shown in this delightful film.

This film precedes BEAU JAMES by two years, and can be seen as a kind of warm-up for that Hope biography. As I mentioned in my comment there, Hope was hoping to find a film property that he could demonstrate his dramatic abilities in, so that he could possibly get a nod for an Oscar nomination. So the two biographies and the serious toned THAT CERTAIN FEELING have a certain individuality among Hope's comedies and films missing in the others.

Eddie Foy Sr. was one of the great comics of his era. His career was actually older than that of his friend and rival George M. Cohan, for Cohan was born in 1872 and Foy was already a travelling vaudevillian at that time. In fact he would be involved in a famous western event in 1881. Playing shows in Tombstone, in the Arizona territory, Foy came afoul of Ike Clanton and his gang, and was almost killed by them while on stage. The incident is suggested in John Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE when Alan Mowbray (as a windy Victorian actor) is threatened by the Clantons. In the film GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRALL, the local Tombstone theatre has posters up for Foy's performance. However the director of that Paramount film did not think of having Hope perform a cameo in the Lancaster-Douglas film as Foy.

THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS follows Foys personal life, and how he allows his professional interests (tours, bookings) to keep him from the woman he loved and married - and whom he loses when she prematurely dies while he is on tour. His sister-in-law (the wife and her sister are Italians) has never liked Foy. The death of the wife leaves Foy with his seven kids, but his sister-in-law wants him to give up his career, and watch the kids grow up. He doesn't want to do so, so he decides to put the kids into his act. The problem: the kids can't act, sing, or dance like their old man can. Still he perserveres, and the act becomes a success because of it's very awfulness (it's so comically bad, it's good). But the sister-in-law tries to take the kids away from Foy by legal means, leading to a court scene.

Cagney appears as Cohan at a Friar's Club roast for Foy (their entertainer of the year). The four minute scene includes a graceful soft shoe involving the two troupers Cagney and Hope. It is a wonderful moment in the film. And the film, as a dramatic comedy, does hold up well. Given time, perhaps Hope could have found a suitable film for an Oscar nomination, but he was a busy man, and he did not have the time.

One final point. This month was the centennial for the burning of the steamboat GENERAL SLOCUM, the worst disaster in the history of New York City before September 11, 2001. The SLOCUM killed 1031 people by burning or drowning. It got into movie history at the start of the film MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (best recalled for the first pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy, and for the fact that John Dillinger was shot down by FBI men after leaving his secret location to see Myrna Loy's performance). The SLOCUM sequence is grisly well done in that 1934 film. But seven months before the SLOCUM Disaster, the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago killed six hundred people. It was the worst theatre fire in American history. Eddie Foy Sr. was playing in MR. BLUEBEARD in the theatre that day, and helped rescue many or the audience by calming them down. Although not much of the disaster is shown, it does appear (the only time I am aware of that it appears at all) in this film, THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS.

This is underrated as both a Bob Hope vehicle and a musical biopic: even if it follows the basic path of all such films (the struggle to achieve success followed by the pitfalls of celebrity, not forgetting the obligatory romance and the equally inevitable tragedy), it's very capably mounted – with the script even garnering an Oscar nomination. The star is in very fine form here, balancing characterization with his traditional banter; Milly Vitale is radiant as his wife who bears him seven children and then dies. Since Foy's only ever known showbiz, he opts to drag them all into his act! Incidentally, one of the kids (Bryan) grew up to be a film-maker himself but was mainly noted as a producer with a penchant for the noir genre!

Even so, THE SEVEN LITTLE FOYS is perhaps best-known for a guest appearance by James Cagney, reprising his Oscar-winning role of George M. Cohan from YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942) – where, incidentally, Foy was portrayed by his real life son, Eddie Jr; interestingly, George Tobias played Cohan's manager in that earlier film and Foy's here! Anyway, Hope and Cagney's one scene together – which culminates in a dancing duel/duet – is not merely the picture's undeniable highlight but pure cinema magic in and of itself where two top movie stars incarnate a couple of great vaudevillians strutting their stuff. As with a handful of other Hope titles I own, the film has unaccountably fallen into the Public Domain despite being a major studio production, but the copy I acquired thankfully maintains remarkably vibrant colors throughout.