The Big Broadcast of 1938

The "plot" of this slapdash musical concerns a transatlantic ship race between two new "super-ships", the Gigantic and the Colossal. On board the former, S.B. Bellows (W.C. Fields), the brother of shipping line boss T. Frothingill Bellows (also Fields), tries to ensure that his ship wins, although he spends most of his times in drunken calamities. Also on board is entertainment host Buzz Fielding (Bob Hope), who takes time in between introducing musical acts to rekindle romance with one of his ex-wives (Shirley Ross), while his current girlfriend (Dorothy Lamour) falls for handsome ship radioman Bob (Leif Erickson). Things get even more chaotic when Bellows' daughter Martha (Martha Raye) comes aboard. Also featuring Ben Blue, Grace Bradley, Lynne Overman, Patricia Wilder, Rufe Davis, Lionel Pape, Virginia Hale, James Craig, Richard Denning, Monte Blue, Mae Busch, Leonid Kinskey, Bernard Punsly, and Russell Hicks.

Seemingly assembled from bits of different movies awkwardly stitched together, there's some funny stuff here, but no kind of pacing or interesting narrative. Fields, who was making his final Paramount film here, is funny, and his golf game and billiards game scenes are top notch. Bob Hope, making his feature debut, sings his signature song. I was pleasantly surprised to see future Road co-star Lamour already working with him. Martha Raye gets a rather impressive song and dance number that gets acrobatic and she obviously didn't use a double. The music numbers are an odd lot, too, with a couple of songs by Mexican star Tito Guizar, a performance from Norwegian opera diva Kirsten Flagstad (doing Wagner's "Brunnhilde's Battle Cry"), and Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra doing "This Little Ripple Had Rhythm" which combines live action with animation to show the "origin" of the "rippling rhythm", which apparently was an ambulatory blob of swamp water that separates from a bog and walks to Fields' band and teaches them. It makes as much sense as it sounds. The movie won the Oscar for Best Song ("Thanks for the Memory").

There are momentary gems in this movie, and I recently bought the DVD because I fondly remembered it from its television broadcasts during my childhood. Hope and Ross's "Thanks for the Memory" (that's the actual spelling; it isn't plural) is so well portrayed that it seems they are recalling actual moments from their lives. This is almost the only moment of sincerity in this otherwise farcical fluff-piece. Martha Raye's "Oh, Mama!" is eye-popping primarily because I believe she did her own stunts in it, and she is bandied about like an unlucky mouse caught by a gruesomely playful puss. WC Fields sparks frequent smirks with his ostentatious manner combined with total buffoonery. Dorothy Lamour is only pleasant; I don't believe she had yet found her spark for comedy that was later displayed in the Hope & Crosby Road Movies. Her song (she only gets one but sings it ad infinitum to Leif Erickson), along with the remainder of the musical score, is surprisingly engaging. All in all an enjoyable musical comedy review, designed so audiences could finally see the faces of the performers they invited into their living rooms through the radio.

Lots of mainly young and beautiful stars of the thirties appear in this movie. Dorothy Lamour and Shirley Ross are knockouts with the zany Martha Raye as a comic foil. This is a great movie for black and white buffs.

Some classic scenes in this movie:

W. C. Fields in his best golf playing scenes ever.

Martha Raye hugging and puffing with her big mouth against a sail to keep a life raft sailing toward a big ocean liner.

Kirsten Flagstad from the Metropolitan opera delivering a Wagner aria.

But the piece de resistance is Shirley and Bob singing what would later become Bob Hope's Theme song, "Thanks for the Memory."

Although not listed in the cast, I saw Lucille Ball, probably with the most lines of any of her thirties' movies.

This was my third time in watching this movie when I popped the DVD in just now. It's notable as W.C. Fields' last for Paramount, and Bob Hope's first feature after years of doing shorts. It also marked the first time Hope performed what became his theme song-"Thanks for the Memory"-which, as performed here, was originally a bittersweet ditty of a love that had its ups and downs with Shirley Ross providing a nice share of wit in duetting with Hope in singing it. Fields is funny whether playing golf, pool, or trying to run the ship though I admit I rewinded some of his scenes to try to understand what he's saying! Two future Hope co-stars, Dorothy Lamour and Martha Raye, provide some charms along the way with Ms. Lamour singing a nice romantic ballad and Ms. Raye doing some great comic banter and slapstick. There's also some amusements from Ben Blue and a forgotten lady named Patricia Wilder as a Southern belle doing deadpan shtick. Oh, and an animated sequence produced by Leon Schlesinger though since he was just a money man, it could possibly have been helmed by whoever was the "supervisor" under him at the time like Fred "Tex" Avery, Robert Clampett, or Frank Tashlin. No great shakes but The Big Broadcast of 1938 is worth a look for historical reasons and if you find the people I mentioned entertaining.

I really don't understand what some people expect when they watch an old movie like this. This one in my estimation, is light hearted and entertaining. It is a showcase for some of our greatest stars as they were just starting out. Is it their best effort? Probably not. But it is fun to watch if you don't take it too seriously. I'm awfully glad we have it around to watch. Being a fan of almost every star in it, I consider it a treasure chest of many favorites talent. W.C. Fields is wonderful through out the film. Some of his skits are hilarious! Bob Hope is so good in his role that you have to really feel sorry for his character. Of course the song "Thanks For The Memories" is forever linked to him with this film. Martha Ray is hilarious in another one of her zany roles. All in all, a very good and entertaining film to be watched over and over. A real, or reel part of history.