Andando no Ar

"Walking on Air" is a reasonably enjoyable piece of fluff punctuated with some awful music. Without the music, it would be an agreeable time-passer.

Kit Bennett (Ann Sothern) is a rich girl with lousy taste in men. Not surprisingly, they aren't particularly impressed by her new boyfriend. So, to get their approval of the guy, she pretends to be in love with an absolutely awful person--so the boyfriend would look great compared to this new guy. So she hires Pete (Gene Raymond) to play an annoying French member of the nobility. However, the family soon realizes Pete's a phony and they pretend to like him just to irritate Kit and upset her plans. In the process, it's not surprising that she falls for Pete.

Overall, this is a very slight but reasonably enjoyable film which is seriously marred by some of the blandest and dullest music you could imagine. And, because there's a lot of music, the film is pretty tough going at times.

I think Walking on Air is a very refreshing movie with a humorous story-line and great singing! I thought Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Henry Stephenson and Jesse Ralph were superb in their performances.

I especially wanted to comment on the great singing of Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond in Let's Make a Wish. Also, there was a wonderful singing group that accompanied them in harmony at the nightclub.

The story concerns a rich girl who wants to marry a divorced man. When her father opposes the match, she hires a poor man (aspiring to be a radio singer) to impersonate a count with poor manners, to show her father than titles are not everything.

A merry mix-up ensues, and Ann finds herself falling for her count, played by Gene Raymond.

It's spring… and kindly but stern old gentleman Henry Stephenson has his daughter upstairs locked in her room. He sends up the butler with a tray of food; she throws it out the window.

Ann Sothern is the spirited young woman engaged to a cad her father refuses to accept. Her backup plan involves a help wanted ad: She hires a young man to pose as her replacement fiancé and assigns him to behave so rudely toward her father that he will change his mind about the original cad. Gene Raymond has some uproarious moments as the fake suitor—a French count complete with phony mustache—who digs right in to the job of insulting the girl's father and aunt.

It's a very lightweight comedy of impostors, wrong impressions and late revelations. A pretty typical plot—but lots of fun nevertheless.

Of course, Raymond and Sothern are meant to get together eventually, but only if they can get past the usual set of misunderstandings. Both stars are energetic and appealing. Raymond—whose character is also an aspiring crooner—gets to sing a couple of fine songs, as well.

Jessie Ralph is excellent as always as the witty aunt who offers advice, support and wisecracks. Ralph and Stephenson make a good pair as the older generation who may be misled by the youngsters' schemes but soon catch on.

Sothern and Raymond make a neat match and look like they are having a good time. The story moves along briskly and while the picture doesn't leave a deep impression, it's sure easy to watch!

Great moment: "You're losing your mustache!"

In Beverly Hills, California, wealthy Henry Stephenson (as Horace Bennett) is unhappy with the man daughter Ann Sothern (as Kit) plans to marry. Locked in her room, Ms. Sothern has food delivered on silver platters, which she immediately throws out the window. Meanwhile, aspiring singer Gene Raymond (as Peter "Pete" Quinlan) is preparing to audition for a job at radio station KARB. His roommate Gordon Jones (as Joe) places ads for himself and Mr. Raymond in the "wanted" section of the local newspaper...

Father Stephenson hires Mr. Jones to watch over Sothern while Raymond is hired by Sothern to pose as an obnoxious French Count. She hopes her father and perceptive aunt Jessie Ralph (as Evelyn Bennett) will find Raymond distasteful and comparatively approve of fiancé Alan Curtis (as Fred Randolph). There is very little original creative energy in "Walking on Air" - but Raymond's tenor is pleasant, his French is funny, Sothern is a fine leading lady and they get two of the best supporting characters in town.

***** Walking on Air (9/11/36) Joseph Santley ~ Gene Raymond, Ann Sothern, Jessie Ralph, Henry Stephenson

This entertaining springtime Musical reunites one of Hollywood's reportedly most reluctant screen-teams for the second of their five pairings at RKO Radio Pictures. Yet Ann Sothern and Gene Raymond accept the challenge to deliver fine performances in Song and Comedy, and willingly to tackle new skills for their roles: for Gene, he continually practices the art of monocle-wearing, and for Ann, she learns automobile driving maneuvers, such as to brake before colliding with her co-star. Yet their collective singing talents remain perfectly harmonious.

Well, at the Bennett estate, in Beverly Hills, Mr. Horace Bennett (Henry Stephenson) locks his determined daughter, Kit Bennett (Ann Sothern), into her second-story room for threatening to elope with that ne'er-do-well gold-digger Fred Randolph (Alan Curtis), whose ex-wife, the Ex-Mrs. Fred Randolph (Anita Colby) doesn't care as long as Fred meets her outrageous demands for back alimony or else.

Evelyn Bennett (Jessie Ralph) serves as a voice of reason, of sorts, as the sister who stands up to Horace and as spinster aunt of Kit, who genuinely cares for Kit's well-being, while efficiently lacing with clever wisecracks many resulting confrontations with everyone else.

Now, unbeknown to each other, Kit and Horace each places a newspaper want ad to search for assistance regarding that there Fred Randolph: Horace intends to hire a burly guard to ward off Fred in the event that he sets foot upon the Bennett estate to attempt to elope with Kit, while Kit intends to hire a decoy to impersonate an insulting French nobleman to ire her father into yielding to her plans with Fred.

Joe (Gordon Jones), an unemployed job seeker, spots the items in the want ads and convinces his roommate to apply for the one, and Joe for the other. Roommate, Pete Quinlan (Gene Raymond), who anticipates success with his forthcoming audition to sing upon a Radio Station KARB program, initially disregards Joe's suggestion, at least until he realizes that they're down to their bottom dollar, while staying at the apartment of Pete's vacationing brother and sister-in-law, Tom Quinlan (George Meeker) and Flo Quinlan (Maxine Jennings), after Joe convinces them that a change of scenery might be nice.

Well, Horace takes to hiring Joe, as Kit pays a visit to Pete, to make him over into the fashionably insulting Count Pierre Louis de Marsac, a plot device reportedly borrowed from the career of comedian Vincent Barnett, who was often invited to Hollywood dinner parties, to portray an insulting waiter.

But Horace takes to the notion of Kit's hosting Count Pierre Louis de Marsac, greatly preferring him to Fred, and hoping that Kit does, as well, even though that's hardly her intention, while Aunt Evelyn attempts to understand Kit and Horace's mindsets once events begin to go awry before her very eyes.

In addition to his household staff, including Bennett's Maid (Fern Emmett) and Vincent, Bennett's Butler (Charles Coleman), Horace hires Albert, the French Valet (George Beranger) to serve Count Pierre Louis de Marsac with provincial hospitality. But once Albert discovers certain newspaper clippings inserted into the pockets of Kit and Pete's clothing, Horace decides to warn Kit that the Count may not be French at all, or maybe that this French pancake may not be a Count, while Evelyn begins to see the overall picture.

So, at the Beach Club restaurant one evening, the tide begins to turn for one and all, as Kit ponders Horace's unanticpated reactions to Pete, and Pete decides to try to turn the tables on Fred, before the schemes begin to spiral out of control. Patricia Wilder has a role as the wisecracking KARB Receptionist, advancing yet another plot twist.

This includes three songs performed at least twice each, consisting of "Cabin On The Hilltop," "My Heart Wants To Dance," and the show-stopping "Let's Make a Wish," as the lovely soprano Ann Sothern harmonizes with the smooth tenor Gene Raymond, accompanied by that docile but very capable group around the beach campfire in the Beach Club backdrop.