L'alfabeto dell'amore

Going Places was one of those films that made Dick Powell more determined than ever to get better parts or leave Warner Brothers. After one more film there, he did just that.

Powell plays a sporting goods salesman in a department store and gets persuaded to impersonate a noted horseman and polo player who happens to be in Australia at the moment. Department store executive Walter Catlett is looking to market his wares among Maryland's horsey set and gets the bizarre notion to have Powell masquerade there. Catch is that just like in Cowboy from Brooklyn, Powell is deathly afraid of horses.

I think you can see where the rest of this is going. It's in the tradition of race track comedies like A Day At the Races or It Ain't Hay. Of course those films were in the hands of comedians like the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello. Now Powell does look uncomfortable throughout and maybe his desperate wish not to be doing these kind of films translates into awkwardness.

Powell was one of the most realistic at self assessment of his talents. He said himself he was not a national icon like Bing Crosby or creative like Fred Astaire. His days in musical films were numbered any way it was sliced. He had to break out or see his career go up the spout.

But here in Going Places he wasn't even given anything good to sing. A few songs in the comic vein. The big hit number is Jeepers Creepers which sure was a big hit in 1938 and sung by the inimitable Louis Armstrong. Satchmo plays the groom of a horse named Jeepers Creepers who's one wild nag. Satch soothes the savage beast with his rendition of the song.

Of course he endures some of the racial stereotyping of the day as well in the role. That could never have been to his liking, even to get a big song hit.

Such Warner Brother veterans as Anita Louise, Allen Jenkins, Harold Huber and Ronald Reagan fill out the cast. Of his fellow contractees at Warner Brothers, Reagan for the rest of his life always singled out Pat O'Brien and Dick Powell as the most encouraging to a young player looking to rise.

Only fans of the players named above should bother with this one.

All the pieces are there - great cast, good story. Dick Powell, Allen Jenkins, Ron Reagan, and the amazing Louis Armstrong. Too many musical numbers, maybe ? and that bit where they prance Alan Jenkins around the apartment while they sing "Oh what a horse was Charlie" .... that must have been someone's favorite bit. They should have given more screen time to Cora and Colonel Withering. They don't show this one very often on Turner Classics... either it's not up to snuff, or maybe it's a rights issue. Very similar plot to the Marx Brothers' "Day at the Races", which came out the year before. Dick Powell pretends to be famed sportsman Peter Randall, which backfires later in the film. The horse at the center of all the excitement will only go when he hears L. Armstrong belt out the "Jeepers Creepers", which incidentally was the song from Warren & Mercer nominated for an Oscar, the film's only nomination. Directed by Ray Enright, who had started with Mack Sennett, served in WW I, then returned to the industry to work at Warner Brothers.

Sporting goods salesman Peter Mason (Dick Powell) is tired of getting customers that don't buy anything. He hatches an idea to advertise, and his co-worker thinks it'd be a bright idea for him to pose as Peter Randall, a famous jockey. He does so, but finds himself wrapped up in a scheme to win big by riding Jeepers Creepers, a strong but unruly horse. Anita Louise appears as the love interest, Ronald Reagan as the horse's owner, and Louis Armstrong as a stable hand who tames the horse with song. Nothing in this movie is really important; it is just something fun to watch to pass the time.

The music is fun, especially the big dance number close to the end of the film. It seemingly has no place in the film, but it showcases Armstrong well. Powell carries the film along, but do not expect anything unusual in his performance. This is yet another musical that he was at this time tired of making.

This pre-war comedy of impersonation and manners at a race course is amusing. Watching Louis Armstrong and hearing him sing the old standard, "Jeepers Creepers," makes the movie. Hollywood's casual acceptance of racial bias and denigration of blacks is cooly reflected by two race track gamblers addressing Armstrong as "Uncle Tom" when they meet him.

Well, since it's Black History Month and I usually review films in chronological order concerning African-Americans in them during this time, this movie was next on my list. First, Louis Armstrong plays a horse trainer who's in charge of a horse named Jeepers Creepers and the only way he can tame that horse is by playing the song of that name on his trumpet. And he not only sings that song but another one called "Mutiny in the Nursery" along with Maxine Sullivan, the Dandridge Sisters consisting of Dorothy, Vivian, and Etta Jones, as well as white leads Dick Powell and Anita Louise. Eddie Anderson appears as a trainer of another horse named Lady Ellen. And someone named George Reed appears as a butler named Sam. Other fine supporting turns came from Walter Catlett and Thurston Hall. And since I always like to cite when players from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-appear in something else, here Ward Bond plays a cop who confronts Allen Jenkins when he has a horse walking with him at night on the road. Oh, and this was one of future president Ronald Reagan's early film appearances introing himself with an announcer-like speech not unlike when he was on radio previously. In summary, Going Places was a very funny movie with many entertaining musical numbers.