Artistas em Folia

I can enjoy a truly brainless musical if it has some snappy songs and an interesting cast. "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" is a brainless movie with a few dull songs, and guest appearances by celebrities who (mostly) don't show up long enough to do anything interesting. Some great character actors are in this film (James Gleason, Luis Alberni, Moroni Olsen): they've given wonderful performances in other movies, but in "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" they merely go through the motions.

Here's the plot: some deeze-dem-doze gangsters take over a record company (WHY?), and they strong-arm several celebrities into making recordings. The head gangster is played by Leo Carrillo, who usually played funny crooks. In this movie, he isn't funny. The gangsters manage to round up some interesting "guest stars" to perform for their record company, including Cab Calloway, Louis Prima, Gene Autry and cowboy comedian Max Terhune. All these lads are solid show-biz professionals, but in "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" none of them do anything interesting. Cab Calloway was usually a dynamic performer, but in this movie he's almost comatose.

The one and only interesting scene in this movie occurs when the gangsters kidnap Joe DiMaggio, of all people. They prop him in front of a microphone, and force him at gunpoint to sing "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" (An interesting choice of song for the future husband of Marilyn Monroe.) DiMaggio wasn't much of an actor, and this movie proves he's no singer. Joltin' Joe croaks his way slowly and painfully through his big number. It's fascinating to watch and listen to Joe DiMaggio's performance ... but fascinating only in the way that a train wreck is fascinating.

Some musicals are so inept, they become enjoyable on an "Ed Wood" so-bad-it's-good level. "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" is just awful. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Nowhere near this film, I hope. I'm rating this movie one point out of 10 ... it would be batting .000 without DiMaggio's weird performance.

An ambitious musical from poverty row studio Republic in which gangster Leo Carrillo takes over a recording company. It's pleasant enough until the plot becomes pre-occupied with Tamara Geva's temperamental opera singer, at which point the whole thing becomes interminable. Highlight of the movie is Carrillo's mangling of the English language.

I just saw Manhattan Merry Go Round and thought it was a pretty good film. I am writing this because I did not like some of a previous viewer's extremely negative comments. It may not have been the best musical, but some of the songs were nice and the storyline interesting. I thought Leo Carrillo was humorous as the head gangster, who was "a man of few words". Phil Regan and Kay Thompson were good and so were the rest. I was even surprised to see Joe Di Maggio in his role. Ann Dvorak did very well as "Jerry's love interest" and I thought Tamara Geva was good as Madame Charlie. I had not seen her before, and thought she was similar to Tallulah Bankhead with some of her gestures. James Gleason and Moroni Olsen were good, too. In short, there are many WORSE films out there today, which is why I usually watch older ones, not of my time.

I decided to see "Manhattan Merry-Go-Round" simply because of the celebrity cameos...Gene Autry, Joe DiMaggio, Cab Calloway, Louis Prima, Smiley Burnette as well as Tex Terhune. This is an odd group of celebrities, that's for sure.

When the story begins, the mobster Tony Gordoni (Leo Carrillo) takes over a local radio station. And now that he's in charge, he wants to make huge changes...bringing in all sorts of talent. One is an up and coming singer, Jerry (Phil Regan) and he just happens to be in love with Gordoni's secretary, Ann (Ann Dvorak). But soon Gordoni insists that they sign a world famous opera singer...and Jerry MUST woo her in order to get her to cooperate. Ann is naturally upset...as he is her boyfriend and they were supposed to get married the night Jerry went to see this opera singer. But Jerry had no choice....as his boss and his 'friends' threatened to kill him or Ann if he didn't get that lady to make a record for them. Unfortunately, soon this singer has fallen for Jerry...and Ann hates him.

Overall, this is pretty typical of quite a few radio review shows of the era...with a mobster angle! It's entertaining, though as years pass and less and less folks remember these singing stars, how much they'll enjoy this is bound to be impacted. Worth seeing but relatively mindless entertainment.

By the way, it is interesting to see in a brief scene that Gordoni has a new television. Yes, they were available in very small numbers in the late 1930s, though very little programming was available until after WWII. Until about 1947, television was a novelty...but just a novelty.