Sweetie

Helen Kane steals the whole show at Pelham College. She does the "Prep-Step" with Jack Oakie and watches the boys from a tree . .. until she gets caught.

Lots of good songs. Nancy Caroll sings "My Sweeter Than Sweet" and Helen sings "He's So Unusual" later made famous again by Cyndi Lauper.

They used to show TV prints of this one but now . . .who knows where it is. Paramount films are disintegrating fast.

Nancy Carroll quits her show to marry Stanley Smith, only to find out that he will not be quitting school to marry her because the football team is depending on him. When she dejectedly returns to work (after being dumped back into the chorus!), she learns she owns the school, even if not the ladies' seminary next to it. She and Jack Oakie head out to take over.

It's one of the approximately 48% of 1920s musicals concerning college and football. There is are a large number of mediocre songs. The one good number is "You Romeo, Me Juliet," sung by Helen Kane. However, her three musical numbers show up one upon the next, and by the time she was in the second chorus of this one, I was tired of her helium voice, even if she boop-a-doops a few times in it.

Eventually, you realize early on, there will come the show--ending football game against the school's rival. I began to wonder "What if they lose? Won't life go on? Won't this journey also end in lovers' meetings?" I doubt it would surprise you if they win in the end.

In the end, this is a college musical exactly like every other college musical. If you like college musicals, you'll like this. If you're as tired of them as I am, you won't.

Cute early musical starring Nancy Carroll as a chorus girl who inherits a men's college where her ex-boyfriend (Stanley Smith) is a star football player. She tries to sabotage his career until she gets school spirit. An original musical for the screen, SWEETIE boasts a good cast and some solid tunes.

Helen Kane co-stars as the troublemaking Helen who boop-a-doops through "He's So Unusual" and does a mean "Pep Step" with Jack Oakie, a brash hoofer who follows Carroll to college and enrolls. William Austin is the silly college dean, and Stu Erwin is a dumb-blond football player who is usually the target of Kane's pop gun.

Carroll and Smith sing a few songs, but it's Oakie's "Alma Mammy" that flows through the film as a theme song after Oakie is told that alma mater is Latin for dear mother, which he converts into a Jolson-like MAMMY song.

Nancy Carroll was Paramount's top musical star in early talkies, and she's stunning, but this film belongs to Helen Kane and Jack Oakie.

Stanley Smith is an obscure actor today, but in 1933 he was to take Dick Powell's role in Footlight Parade when Dick got sick with pneumonia. When Dick got well, Stan was out, and he never amounted to much. Judging by his performance in this film, I can see why. He reminds me of Lawrence Gray, who was adequate but lacked that something special that made audiences want to see him again.

The film also stars Nancy Carroll who was quite beautiful, Helen Kane who won me over with her cute voice and silly antics (she is introduced sitting in a tree shooting the man she loves), and Jack Oakie who is quite attractive here in this early part, and brimming over with the personality that made him famous. The scenes are incredibly beautiful, mostly set on a college campus, and the music is fun but none of it is very memorable, except for "Alma Mammy" which turns the alma mater into a jazzy Jolson-style number.

This college romp was screened at Cinevent in 2012.

Had this film debuted into the 1930s, I would have given it a lower score. However, films from 1928-29 were a rather crude lot because the sound systems they were using were so antiquated and they weren't yet able to film well outdoors or in more natural environments because of this bulky sound equipment. So, comparing them to later films doesn't seem fair and I cut these early sound flicks some slack.

"Sweetie" is a college musical comedy. And, like nearly all college films of the day, the students never seem to go to classes. Instead, they go to parties and football games...and that's really about it!

The star of the school's football team has a secret--he's planning on eloping with his girlfriend Barbara. But the coach appeals to the young man's school spirit and he reluctantly agrees to stay. Barbara is not happy about it but soon after she ends up inheriting this college (huh??). Soon she's running the place and with this comes lots of inexplicable singing and dancing. And, now things are very tense between the two...and she takes it out on the football team. In the end, it all boils down to the cliched 'big game'.

In addition to Nancy Carroll and Stanley Smith in the leads, Helen Kane, Stu Erwin and Jack Oakie are on to provide comic relief. As for Kane, depending on who you read, was the inspiration for Betty Boop and her main talents in this film consist of her singing and sexually harassing Stu Erwin...and sounding much like Betty Boop in the process.

So is this college romp any good? Yes and no. The film has a lot of energy and a few cute moments but it also could use some closed captioning because the sound is only fair. But Helen Kane's routine does wear a bit thin and the songs are an indifferent lot.

By the way, during the game you might notice a play where a player is tackled and he hits the ground but gets up and keeps running. Back in the day, you could legally keep running until you were taken down and held there.