Sing, You Sinners

This movie has three of the most unlikely actors playing brothers--Bing Crosby (Joe), Fred MacMurray (David) and a very young Donald O'Connor (Mike). The three occasionally make money singing together as an odd little trio. Why the studio put MacMurray in the film is odd. He looks nothing like Crosby and his singing is only fair. As for O'Conner he's 20 years younger than the other two...but at least he sings nicely for a kid.

The film is about a family where the oldest brother, Joe, is an irresponsible dreamer. He always has a scheme and does things like drives drunk and makes promises he never can keep. When he announces he's bought a business and he's going to take care of the family, they're all shocked to see that instead he's bought a race horse...and no longer has a dime to his name. So, on occasion, the three brothers need to sing to make ends meet and life if tough for their Ma (Elizabeth Patterson)...as well as David who wants to be able to marry and settle down.

The film is extremely slight--with singing and dancing and a lot of clichés. Also, Crosby plays such an unlikable guy that after a while, I found my attention waning and I was looking forward to it all ending. Not a terrible film but certainly not all that good considering the stars.

This is one of Bing Crosby's best films from the 1930s. It gave him a great opportunity to show off some dramatic ability and a couple of big selling hits one of which served as the title of the current biography by Gary Giddins.

Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray and Donald O'Connor are the three Beebe brothers. And Bing is the source of much concern with mother Elizabeth Patterson. He's a lazy, shiftless, irresponsible and charming man who won't just settle down. The burden of supporting the family is left to brother Fred MacMurray who keeps postponing marriage to his long time sweetheart, Ellen Drew, until the family is all provided for. And finally kid brother Donald O'Connor idolizes Bing and wants to grow up just like him to the despair of Patterson and MacMurray.

Bing up and leaves the family, promising to go to Los Angeles, get into a steady business and settle down. Of course his idea of a steady business is to own a racehorse named Uncle Gus. He sends for Patterson and O'Connor and later MacMurray and Drew come and are all shocked.

The rest of the film is the usual run of movie plots where racehorses are concerned.

The Beebe brothers also have a singing act which MacMurray hates, but which brings in needed cash when the bills start piling up. That's where the musical score written by Jimmy Monaco and Johnny Burke comes in. Done as a trio number in the film, I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams became one of Crosby's biggest hits from the 1930s. Crosby's one solo number is Don't Let That Moon Get Away and in another trio number MacMurray is the lead singer in Laugh and Call It Love. Before he came to Hollywood, Fred MacMurray sang and played saxophone in various bands and also was in the original Broadway cast of Roberta. He had a pleasant, but thin tenor voice, but I don't think he'd have lasted in Hollywood if he had done musicals.

This was Donald O'Connor's first big break and he shows a hint of the dancing talent he had during the Pocketful of Dreams number. He and Crosby later re-united in the second version of Anything Goes in 1956.

One song was added into the score. Composed by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser, Small Fry was done as a novelty number by the trio. However Bing recorded it with his good friend Johnny Mercer and that novelty song also became a monster hit.

Sing You Sinners should be seen back to back with the James Cagney/Pat O'Brien film The Irish in Us as they have very similar plot development and characters.

This was the first of two Crosby films with a racetrack background, the other being Riding High. Curiously enough they had opposite plot conclusions. No spoilers here though, see both films and see what I mean.

SING YOU SINNERS (Paramount, 1938), directed by Wesley Ruggles, is, regardless of its misleading title, is not one about an evangelist and congregation gone astray, but a semo-comedy about an aged mother and her three sons, headed by Bing Crosby taking a new outlook in his career. Up to this point, Crosby was featured in many routinely made musicals, mostly for Paramount. In this case, SING YOU SINNERS, what might have worked a straight dramatic story, is completely different from anything he's done thus far.

Set in a small town, the story starts on a Sunday morning with the Beebe family walking to church as the bells ring in the background. (An original premise introducing its characters using their portrayal names superimposed on screen beneath the actors one at a time). The Beebes consists of Daisy (Elizabeth Patterson), the mother; Joseph (Bing Crosby), age 35, single and unemployed, shiftless, homespun and down-to-earth individual believing the secret of success lies in taking gambles; David (Fred MacMurray), completely opposite, engaged to Martha Randall (Ellen Drew), works long hours as a garage mechanic, saving his hard-earned money to someday have a repair shop of his own; and Mike (Donald O'Connor), the youngest, looks up to Joseph, much to the dismay of their "Maw." The one thing the brothers have in common is their devotion to music, earning extra money singing together in local night spots. Because he feels himself to be a bad influence on the family, Joe strikes out on his own, moving to Los Angeles. After about a month, Mother Beebe receives word that Joe has acquired a successful business in the second-hand trade. Believing he's finally made a success of himself, she sells her home, bringing the family to Los Angeles, only to find Joe had sold his business and traded it in for a race horse called "Uncle Gus." Unable to pay the rent, the Beebe brothers unite by performing as a singing trio in a night club before Joe trains the thoroughbred for an upcoming race, with Mike, acting as jockey. Before Derby day, trouble arises when gambling gangsters step in, forcing Mike to throw the race.

With the music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Monaco, the song interludes include: "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams" (sung by Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray and Donald O'Connor); "Don't Let the Moon Get Away" (sung by Crosby); "Laugh and Call It Love," "Small Fry" (specialty written by Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael); and "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams" (reprise/ all sung by Crosby, MacMurray and O'Connor).

Of the tunes, "Pocketful of Dreams" (that might have served better as the movie title) is one that symbolizes Crosby's on-screen character, with lyrics pertaining to him, "I'm no millionaire, but I have no time to spare," or "Lucky, lucky me, I could live in luxury." The night club act featuring "Small Fry" is a worthy offering, having MacMurray, dressed in women's attire, playing an over-sized "wife," puffing his corncob pipe while sitting on a rocking chair, knitting, repeatedly reciting, "Of yes, Oh Yes, Oh Yes," while Crosby plays a bespectacled father with white beard. O'Connor, acting the title song of the troublesome son in overalls, reciting such lyrics as "You ain't the biggest catfish in the sea." One credited song not used in this production, "Where Is Central Park?" is never used, only instrumentally during its opening credits.

Ellen Drew, formerly Paramount starlet, Terry Ray, since 1936, assumes her first major role here as MacMurray's love interest. MacMurray, the middle, more logical and stronger member of the brothers, who, other than given a rare opportunity singing on screen, shares a climatic scene where he and his weaker brother Joe (Crosby) battle it out fist fighting in the stables with the crooked gamblers. Donald O'Connor, in motion picture debut, performs his task well, ranging from singing to playing jockey while either sitting on a stairway banister or on the racehorse. Surprise casting goes to Elizabeth Patterson in a rare opportunity where she virtually carries the story as the ever loving but patient mother trying to keep her sons together while steering her eldest to the right direction the best way she knows how.

Aside from Crosby's occasional crooning to good but nearly unmemorable songs, he does offer some funny bits in the midway point where, after coming to Los Angeles, starts winning bets on his first day at the race track by merely exchanging tickets with a racing addict (Tom Dugan) using what he calls the "Australian system," which means to bet on a horse with the most i's and a's in his name. Coming across as something from a Bob Hope comedy, Crosby puts it off well.

SING YOU SINNERS, which had frequent television revivals on commercial television back in the 1960s and '70s, was last seen broadcast in the early to mid 1980s on WOR-TV, Channel 9, in New York City as part of its "9-All Night" movie viewing. Unseen in many years, SING YOU SINNERS was finally distributed onto DVD in 2011 and broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: August 3, 2016). In closing, what really makes SING YOU SINNERS stand apart from the Crosby films of the day was his offbeat characterization, one that occasionally has the young O'Connor frequently refrain in despair with these words, "My own brother!" Oh, yes, oh yes, oh, yes. (***1/2)

This film featured Crosby, Fred MacMurray and a 13-year old Donald O'Connor (!) as a trio of brothers who sing, dance and play instruments to bring money into their household. Their mother, played by Elizabeth "Miss Trumbull" Patterson, is widowed and has spent all the money her husband left her on paying for music lessons for her sons. MacMurray also works as a mechanic at a garage, a job he prefers over singing. Crosby plays one of those ne'er-do-well types who is always at the track trying to win money or some other money making scheme in lieu of actually holding down a 9-5 job. Mother Patterson desperately wishes Crosby would follow the lead of the responsible MacMurray. O'Connor plays their kid brother who just wants to be a kid and doesn't want the pressure of having to perform in order to earn money to support the family. All three of the brothers express disdain for having to be singers, stating that "they want to be men", whatever that meant in 1938.

It was crazy seeing Donald O'Connor as a child in this film. He got to do a little bit of hoofing, mostly while holding an accordion. MacMurray "plays" the clarinet (not sure if he was actually playing or not, I know MacMurray played saxophone) and Crosby sings. MacMurray also sang at one point, but his voice was not as good (obviously) as Crosby's.

One thing I think is strange in studio era films is the trend of having the lead actor/actress playing an oldest sibling who is at least 20 years older than all the other siblings. In this film, Crosby's character has to at least be in his 30s and I'm guessing MacMurray's character was probably supposed to be a little bit younger, but probably late 20s - early 30s. Then there's O'Connor who is only 13 and looks it. Why the huge age difference? Patterson looks like she could be the brothers' grandmother! I also thought it was odd that the racetrack would allow a 13-year old to be a jockey.

One of the great early Bing Crosby films, and probably the one that first displayed Bing's real acting ability that would lead to more dramatic roles in the future. But first and foremost it has Bing singing at his best, before Sinatra, before Presley, Bing had already done it all. It also featured a very young Donald O'Connor in a breakthrough role and the always delightful Fred MacMurray, and the 'Pocket Full of Dreams' number they all perform is one of the best musical numbers every put on film in my opinion. There's a lot more to the film as others have mentioned, but do yourself a favour, check it out if you haven't seen it, and see what real Hollywood entertainment was all about!