April Showers

Came across movie by chance on Turner Classics. Joe Tyme takes to drink. Man loses wife, man, etc. etc. etc. Could have been a better story if more focus on Joe Tyme and his inability to cope with his problems. However, entertaining, light musical is really the genre of this picture despite the dark side.

The 1957 film 'The Buster Keaton Story' was ostensibly a biopic of silent-film comedian Keaton, but went far out of its way to tell Keaton's life story inaccurately ... and came up with a fiction that wasn't even very entertaining. A vastly better film, 'The Comic' (1969), depicted the life and career of an allegedly fictional silent-film comedian but actually gave a largely accurate account of Keaton's adult life and career. The 1948 Warner Bros musical 'April Showers', conversely, would seem to have been inspired by Buster Keaton's adolescent years as a star performer in vaudeville. As Keaton's major work in the Hollywood studio system was done for MGM, I'm intrigued that someone at Warner Brothers knew enough about Keaton's early life to create this film ... especially in 1948, when Keaton's career was at a low ebb.

The official stars of this film are Jack Carson (excellent!) and Ann Sothern as married vaudevillains Joe and June Tyme. (Keaton's vaudevillain parents were named Joe and Myra.) The act isn't doing well, and the Tymes can barely afford to pay the tuition for their son Buster who's in military school. Eventually, Buster Tyme is reunited with his parents in a theatrical boarding-house. Young Buster is played by Robert Ellis, a teenaged actor previously unknown to me. What a dynamic talent! (Why didn't this movie make Ellis a star?) In the boarding-house, Buster goes into a rousing rendition of 'Are You from Dixie?'. He sings, he dances, he turns cartwheels. Ellis gives a good acting performance as well; he shows real chemistry in his scenes with Carson, as they affectionately address each other as 'Big Tyme' and 'Small Tyme'.

Naturally, Joe and June put Buster into their small-time vaude act ... and they swiftly become a big-time hit. (In real life, Buster Keaton was part of his parents' stage act almost from birth ... and he quickly became the act's star.) But just when times are changing for the Tymes, along come a bunch of do-gooders who want to keep children off the stage. There's an implausible and unfunny scene here in which Buster tries to defuse the do-gooders by pretending to be a midget, smoking a cigar and talking in a deep voice. It doesn't help that the 'midget' voice is badly post-dubbed, and is clearly supplied by Mel Blanc doing his usual Barney Rubble turn. At the edge of these proceedings, a real midget (actor Billy Curtis) only emphasises the tastelessness of this scene.

With Buster out of the act, Joe and June are back in the small time again. Joe's drinking starts to jeopardise the act and the family (as was the case with Joe Keaton's alcoholism). June Tyme encounters suave stranger Billy Shay (Robert Alda, in an unsympathetic role), who seems to have designs on June. The ending is predictable and unconvincing.

Modern audiences might have trouble believing this film's central plot device: namely, that a talented and eager performer would be kept off the stage merely because he's not an adult. Actually, 'April Showers' gets this right. In America's vaudeville era, there was a powerful organisation called the Gerry Society, dedicated to preventing children from performing before age 16. At one point, Buster Keaton's parents actually considered passing him off as a midget to escape the Gerries' scrutiny. The Gerry Society's power extended beyond vaudeville: in the 1940 Broadway musical 'Panama Hattie', Ethel Merman was supposed to sing and dance a duet with child performer Joan Carroll, but the Gerries prevented Carroll from singing or dancing ... so she had to march in tempo with the music while chanting the lyric.

'April Showers' is weakly directed by James V Kern, a former musical comedian (one of the Yacht Club Boys) who lacks a sure touch. This movie should have been helmed by Warners contract director David Butler, who is woefully underrated. I'll rate 'April Showers' just 5 points out of 10, despite Robert Ellis's dynamic performance.

Jack Carson's performance of an alcoholic vaudevillian who gets a few bad breaks highlights April Showers. Roles like this made Carson's studio Warner Brothers and others start taking him seriously as an actor as opposed to a funny man who specialized in blowhards.

Carson and Ann Sothern are a vaudeville team during the first score of years in the 20th century. They're doing all right, but when they add their kid Robert Ellis to the act they start getting better bookings and even dream of the Palace in New York.

But that dream gets shattered when the blue noses start insisting on child labor laws being enforced. They no longer get the billings and Carson turns to drink. And another performer Robert Alda starts throwing his intentions Ann's way.

Including the title song the score is interpolated from a variety of sources of music from the period. Young Mr. Ellis proves to be quite the terpsichorean, no wonder he made the act for them.

Sothern lends good support and a good singing voice. But April Showers is really Jack Carson's picture.

The 1948 Warner Brothers film April Showers is a satisfying little picture about show biz troupers. Jack Carson and Ann Sothern make the best of their roles however it is Robert Ellis as their son Buster who steals the show. With his "little man" antics and show biz talents he also steals your heart. Ann Sothern is lovely to look at in most of her numbers. With a little melodramatics sprinkled in the film remains wholesome family entertainment. This film is usually shown on Turner Classic Movies.

This is a charming little musical filled with great old songs. However, the great find of this film, and the real reason to watch it, is the young actor Robert Ellis. He plays a 12 year son of the main characters. He dances and entertains and displays a delightful interaction with Jack Carson. His singing is less than ideal but the whole film is a wonderful example of the carefree style of musicals typical of its day. It is unfortunate that Mr. Ellis never lived up to his potential - for whatever reason - and died at such a young age. I intend to watch this film each time that Turner Classic Movies shows the good sense of airing it.