We're Not Dressing

For those who've never seen Carole Lombard, but have heard about her genius for screwball comedy, go check out We're Not Dressing. Simple plot, Bing's a sailor on the Lombard yacht and he, Lombard, her uncle Leon Errol, her friend Ethel Merman and two princes/gigolos, Ray Milland and Jay Henry are shipwrecked after a drunken Leon Errol runs the yacht up on a reef. In order that they survive the sailor has to take charge and does. Oh, and also surviving is Lombard's pet bear, a creature named Droopy.

Droopy comes pretty close to stealing the picture, especially after Leon Errol persuades Crosby to put roller-skates on him while they're still on the ship. He also has another trick, he won't hear any other song but Goodnight, Lovely Little Lady one of the songs written for this film by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel.

Gordon and Revel's best known numbers from this are May I and Love Thy Neighbor which sold a few platters for Bing back in 1934. Soon after writing a score for another Crosby picture Two For Tonight, they moved over to 20th Century Fox where they scored some of Alice Faye's films.

Ray Milland in his autobiography Wide-eyed in Babylon recounts a tragic story during the filming of We're Not Dressing. The bear trainer gave specific instructions that any women whose time of the month it was were not to be on the set that day. One of them lied and the trainer was badly injured and later died of those injuries sustained at the paws of a super hormonally charged bear. He also said that Paramount signed him to a long term contract on the strength of that film.

The six castaways were not quite alone on the island. Burns and Allen were there also with their brand of surreal comedy. Hollywood never knew quite what to do with them. God knows they were funny as all get out, but rarely were asked to carry a whole film.

Ethel Merman was another problem. Like her famous Broadway rival Mary Martin, she never quite made it in Hollywood. Her biggest success was always on Broadway. During the 1930s she would support, Crosby, Eddie Cantor, and most memorably Ty Power and Alice Faye and Don Ameche in Alexander's Ragtime Band. Her number It's The Animal In Me was cut from the picture, although it's briefly sung at the end. Paramount saved it and put it intact into their Big Broadcast of 1936 the following year.

At the time We're Not Dressing was shooting, Carole Lombard was romantically involved with Bing Crosby's singing rival crooner Russ Columbo. Columbo visited the set often and he and Crosby were friendly rivals and were known to do some impromptu singing during breaks. If only some sound man had left the microphone on. Columbo later died that year of a gunshot wound from an antique dueling pistol, a case that a lot of people felt was never satisfactorily solved.

So with Crosby, Lombard, Burns and Allen, Ethel Merman, Leon Errol just the sound of that casts spells some wacky wonderful fun.

I hadn't seen this strange hodgepodge of a film for about 40 years and finally caught up with it again on DVD.

All of the ingredients and defects that irritated me the first time around were just as irritating the second - the pet bear (a "joke" that long outstays its welcome) Leon Errol's drunk act and the tedious Burns and Allen shtick that is frequently dropped into the film without any relationship to the story - while the good parts still pleased me, namely Carole Lombard's winsome beauty and charm, and the lovely songs by Gordoon and Revel, which are not always presented to their best advantage but are very catchy nonetheless.

However, one thing I had not noticed 40 years ago on first viewing but which is worthy of mention, is that Mr Crosby sings "live" on set for most of the film and the orchestra is clearly on the soundstage, accompanying him and also most of the action.

This must have been one of the very last musical films to be shot in this way, without playback and lip-synchronisation (only perfected in 1933), which would soon become the industry norm.

So, this is a curio for that reason and also interesting in that we can more accurately assess Crosby's vocal skills and his way of performing and phrasing a song at this stage of his career - rather well, on this evidence.

Poor Ethel Merman is totally wasted but I read elsewhere here that her big number was cut and re-used in the later BIG BROADCAST of 1936. Her best film was yet to come - Alexander's RAGTIME BAND, where she lights up the screen every time she comes on to belt out another Irving Berlin hit.

Back to this film - its one saving virtue is its length - a crisp 74 minutes, which means that no matter how tiresome the comedy becomes (and it does, believe me), it isn't too long to wait before Bing sings yet another lovely song. The DVD print is in pretty good shape too.

I can’t say that I was particularly looking forward to this musical comedy, but it turned out to be a very entertaining 1 hour and 14 minutes. Being a Bing Crosby vehicle (albeit featured on Universal’s Carole Lombard set), there’s a plethora of dated romantic songs – and since a young (not to say slim) Ethel Merman appears in support, she chimes in as well…and so does comic Leon Errol!

Still, as I said, it’s a generally fun seafaring ride (inspired by J.M. Barrie’s “The Admirable Crichton”) – though given a rather silly and entirely meaningless title! Also in the cast are another comic couple – George Burns (who really achieved stardom after an Oscar-winning turn some 40 years later!) and real-life spouse Gracie Allen – and a young (though somewhat stiff) Ray Milland as one of two aristocratic parasites hoping to win Lombard’s hand. However, she’s got her eyes on crooning sailor Crosby – but, of course, their relationship runs far from smoothly!

Starting off on Lombard’s yacht, the group are shipwrecked on a tropical island (thanks to a tipsy Errol sabotaging the boat’s commands) – where explorers Burns and Allen(!) are carrying out some kind of research. Actually, the two parties rarely interact: in fact, very little happens on the island itself – other than that the feckless idle rich are taught a moral lesson by the manly and resourceful Crosby (anticipating Lombard’s own MY MAN GODFREY [1936] in this respect).

It’s refreshing to find Lombard in a non-wacky role, but her performance is just as delightful as ever; equally notable are the amusing contribution of Errol (Lombard’s uncle but who’s sympathetic to commoner Crosby) and the various antics of the harebrained Allen (which includes her devising an unlikely and complicated method to trap wild animals). Even so, an amiable bear named Droopy (Lombard’s pet!) steals everybody’s thunder – especially in the way it cuddles up to Crosby when singing a particular tune, and a hilarious scene in which the animal runs riot on the deck of the yacht after Errol fits it with skating shoes! There’s even a joke at the expense of another Paramount star, Mae West, when a sailor describes the acronym ‘B.C.’ as ‘Before “Come Up And See Me, Sometime”’.

OK, take away Der Bingle's singing, and what have you got? ... OK, take away Burns & Allen's comedy, and what have you got? ... OK, take away the music-comedy of Merman and Errol, and what have you got? ... OK, take away the dancing (and roller skating) bear, and what have you got? There must be a story in there somewhere...and there is, but as one of many versions of James Barrie's "Admirable Crichton," it's hardly unique.

So how do you make a musical comedy out of a social lesson? You subjugate the story and make it incidental. You find an appealing star like Carole Lombard and place her in the role of the hoity-toity socialite. You cast a crooner like Bing Crosby opposite her. You add some well-known actors like George Burns and Gracie Allen, Leon Errol, and a twenty-something Ethel Merman for some comic relief. Finally, you toss in a prince or two in the form of a Ray Milland and, in his sole role, Jay Henry, and...voilá, by George, you've got it!

In short, turn off your mind and enjoy the ride.

WE'RE NOT DRESSING (Paramount, 1934), directed by Norman Taurog, may sound like a pre-code movie set at a nudist colony, but in spite of this offbeat title, it's actually a tuneful, in fact, very tuneful musical-comedy set on a South Pacific island. Heading the cast is Bing Crosby, taking a new direction in his fourth leading role for Paramount in a revamped story to James M. Barrie's novel, "The Admirable Crichton."

The story opens on a yacht christianed "Doris" where Prince Alexander (Jay Henry) and Prince Michael (Ray Milland), a couple of phonies out to nab rich women, accompany the wealthy yacht owner named Doris Worthington (Carole Lombard) on a cruise in the South Pacific. Also on board is her Uncle Hubert (Leon Errol), and his man-chasing fiancée, Edith (Ethel Merman). Doris is loved by Alexander and Michael, but while faced with a dilemma as to which one she should marry, she also has her eye on a deck hand sailor named Steve Jones (Bing Crosby). Aside from taking orders from her, he takes on the responsibility in caring for her pet bear, Droopy. When the drunken Hubert takes over the helm of the yacht, causing it to go out of control, it eventually sinks, causing all passengers to jump overboard in their life preservers. The crew is lost at sea while Steve, accompanied by Droopy and the ever-complaining Doris, comes upon an deserted island. Eventually the island is inhabited by the two princes, Hubert and Edith. On the other side of the island are George and Gracie Martin (George Burns and Gracie Allen), a couple of botanists working on experiments, adding more to the confusion.

Unlike the easy-going character he was to play on film through much of his career, WE'RE NOT DRESSING places Crosby on the tough side, especially on the island where he takes control over the castaways, ready to fight the two princes, and keeping the temperamental Doris under control by dunking her head in the ocean water or giving her a facial slap in return for a kiss.

A fine selection of tunes by Harry Revel and Mack Gordon include: "It's a Lie, It's a Lie!" (sung by sailors); "A Sailor Must Be True to Any One Girl," (sung by Bing Crosby); "It's a Lie, It's a Lie!" "It's a New Spanish Custom" (sung by Ethel Merman); "I Positively Refuse to Sing" (with a brief insert of "Stormy Weather"); "May I?" "She Reminds Me of You," "Goodnight, Lovely Little Lady," "Love Thy Neighbor," "May I?" "Once in a Blue Moon" (all sung by Crosby); "It's the Aninal in Me" (sung briefly by Merman); and "Goodnight, Lovely Little Lady" (sung by Crosby). Of the many songs, "May I?" is no doubt the best in the bunch. The latter part of the story finds Crosby crooning the haunting "Once in a Blue Moon" to Lombard in the foreground of the shining moon. According to Bob Dorian, former host of American Movie Classics, in one of its several broadcasts in 1992, commented on the cut number, "It's the Animal in Me," sung by Ethel Merman, and inserted to another musical, THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 (1935) starring Jack Oakie. In spite of that tune taken out of WE'RE NOT fadeout.

WE'RE NOT DRESSING can be categorized as the most tuneful of the Bing Crosby musicals, consisting as many as six songs heard before reaching the twenty minute mark. More tunes are sung, some reprized, before coming to its 75 minute conclusion. Reminiscent to early sound musicals of the 1929-30 period, the film consists of a leading couple (Crosby and Lombard) supported by a secondary comical couple (Merman and Errol) taking part in songs while going into their comedic dance. As an added attraction, there's the comedy team of the serious-minded Burns and daffy Allen as another secondary couple around to enlighten things with their now familiar comic exchanges having no bearing with the story. In one prime scene, Gracie demonstrates to George how she captures lions and tigers with her numerous "moose traps." This sequence is generally amusing until George's predicament becomes a bit too painful to become humorous as he falls victim to Gracie's contraption, with his feet trapped in shackles and hands tied over his head to be left behind as he faces a loaded rifle pointing directly in his direction. In spite of this minor flaws, any film consisting of a live crooning and roller skating around the deck, is one crazy movie.

Of the Crosby musicals of the early 1930s, WE'RE NOT DRESSING ranks one of the longer survivors on commercial television in the 1970s before shifting over to cable stations as American Movie Classics (1991-92), the Disney Channel (1990s) and Turner Classic Movies where it premiered August 17, 2006 during its all day tribute to Carole Lombard. Distributed to home video in the 1990s, WE'RE NOT DRESSING continues to find a new audience with its current availability on DVD. Good night, lovely little lady. (***)