It's in the Stars

It's in the Stars (1938)

** (out of 4)

MGM fluff about a boys fraternity and a girls fraternity that agree to stop seeing each other after they determine that college should be about work and their future and not just fun. A professor hears about this plan and thinks it's a horrid idea so he takes one member from each group, who just happen to be in love, and plans a dance to get both sides back together. If you're looking for anything other than cuteness then it's best to look elsewhere as the story itself is rather silly but there's no denying that the cute aspect works well. Johnny Downs and Eleanor Lynn play the lovers caught up with their "friends" trying to keep them and everyone else apart. We get one good musical number with the two standing under the stars and Downs singing a rather catchy tune. This all leads up to the ending where the two sides are forced together for a school dance. I wasn't impressed with this musical number but there were a few good spots. Overall this here certainly isn't anything people should search out but if you're a fan of the genre and must see everything the studio offered up then you can check this out as it appears on TCM quite often.

An MGM Short Subject.

A kindly old Astronomy Professor helps the students at Stanwood College break their own ban against dating.

IT'S IN THE STARS is a good example of the innocent fluff often used to fill out the movie program. This lighthearted, innocuous little film features Johnny Downs in good singing voice, with an assist from Eleanor Lynn as his sweetheart. Gentle Brandon Tynan plays the sympathetic Professor.

Hygiene Alert: Notice the hair brushes & combs chained to the Men's Room wall before the dance.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject were completely different from that of a feature length film, something like writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

I saw this in between showings of William Powell movies on TCM on 3/21/06. I really enjoyed seeing it both as a timepiece and as an example of a good short story. It had no extraneous material and set a sprightly pace and kept to it. I especially enjoyed the dance scenes and the ending, which, of course, was in direct keeping with the title.

One thing which I would have appreciated is to have been shown the credits--I am not sure whether these were omitted by TCM or were not with the original film itself. I find that seeing these names either at the beginning or the end (preferably the beginning) sets the pace and sets up an anticipation for me as a knowledgeable viewer.

I recommend this to any old film buff!

When the fraternity decides students should buckle down and actually learn something, twenty-five-year-old college student Johnny Downs meets with twenty-two-year-old co-ed Eleanor Lynn at the observatory to find out her sorority has decided the same thing and they sing a song about their love.

Downs spent a lot of years in the shorts departments, first as a child actor in westerns, then a juvenile. His career tailed off in the 1940s, and he moved to become a host on a local children's television show. He died in 1994 at age 80.