The Big Show-Off

Apart from Wally Cox, I have a hard time imagining an actor LESS likely to be able to convincingly play a professional wrestler than Arthur Lake. Lake played Dagwood Bumstead in a long series of Blondie movies in the 1930s-1950s.....and Dagwood was a decidedly non-macho guy...but here he is in a film where he's pretending to be a wrestling he-man!!

Sandy (Lake) is a mild-mannered pianist who is occasionally picked on by the emcee of the club where they both work. June (Dale Evans) is a lovely singer at the club and Sandy is secretly smitten with her. However, when he sees her at a wrestling match, he realizes she loves burly he-men like The Devil, a bad-boy masked wrestler. Their boss (Lionel Stander) decides to help and tells June that Sandy IS The Devil....but it's a secret! What's Sandy to do....go with this ruse or tell her the truth?

This film requires a bit of suspension of belief...that's for sure! But the story is cute and made me smile...silly as it is. And, for a cheap B-movie, "The Big Show-Off" is terrific...one of the better B films you can find.

A little romance, a little light comedy, a little song and/or dance - and that's a wrap! I guess the world needed something small and frivolous in 1945, and Republic Pictures was happy to provide. It's rather rough in its construction, with instances of choppy editing, brusque cinematography, and meager pacing in addition to some decided ham-handedness. Still, I'd be lying if I said this weren't clever and funny at its best. László Vadnay and Richard Weil poured some fine wit into their screenplay, and between director Howard Brethreton and the cast the proceedings maintain just enough energy to keep the mirth aloft and the audience engaged as pianist Sandy tries to woo singer June, and the "help" of his friend Joe causes makes matters complicated. 'The big show-off' earns some genuine laughs along the way, and the cast is pretty swell themselves, with Arthur Lake, Dale Evans, and Lionel Stander all gladly embracing the silliness; given only a small supporting part, Emmett Lynn is nonetheless highly memorable.

Setting aside some rough edges in a more general sense, I do think this stumbles right at the end where the writing is concerned. Right when the convolutions of romance and ruffles are at their most knotted, the movie makes an enormous leap and blithely informs "and everything ended just so." This is to say that instead of resolving the plot, we're effectively given an unspoken line that says "well, anyway, that all got cleared up," and then a curt final scene. Maybe this is a matter not of Vadnay and Weil's script but some manner in which the work got mangled after the fact, but one way or another it's not a good luck. Still, I've seen much bigger films go much more poorly, and just as this only wanted to have a good time, so does it succeed. The sets and costume design are splendid, the music is suitably enjoyable, and this is aptly entertaining for such a fairly small feature. Even if you're a diehard fan of someone involved or contemporary fare I don't think there's any need to go out of your way for this, but if you do have the chance to watch, 'The big show-off' is a pleasant diversion for a lazy day and worth checking out.

after a miserable day at work I watched this 1945 film and my mood immediately lifted. How can you go wrong with Arthur Lake (during his period of playing Dagwood in the Blondie series)and Dale Evans (sans her hubby Roy Rogers)making a delightful duo. He's a shy pianist at the club where he teams with Dale, a singer. He can't get the girl and is the butt of jokes from George Meeker (as sleazy MC). But his boss Lionel Stander likes him (Max from Hart to Hart)and helps him in his plan to pretend that he is really the manly masked wrestler!!! that Dale admires so that she will fall for him. Lots of fun and mistaken identities abound. Especially liked two of the song numbers- Dale singing Hoops My Dear to a background of chorus girls with hoola hoops (got to be a first!!)at the nightclub and Dale singing (her own composition)at the music school where the musicians all wander in from their various rooms to join in. Also liked the cartoon drawings over the credits they got Lionel Stander's crumpled features to a T. Don't think to hard about this one just enjoy it, I certainly did.

Arthur Lake takes a break from the BLONDIE series to appear in this very pleasant comedy for Republic. He's the piano-player at Lionel Stander's nightclub and in love with Dale Evans (who's taking a break from Roy Rogers), and unaware that Dale is sweet on him. Convinced that she likes muscular, aggressive men, Lionel convinces her Lake moonlights as "The Devil", a masked wrestler, played by a picture-painting Paul Hurst. Naturally, Dale is distressed by the thought and tries to get Lake to quit the ring; however, Hurst doesn't want to give up the character, and no one can figure out how to fix the situation.

Republic is best remembered for cowboy pictures and one Oscar winner, THE QUIET MAN, but it was quite a lively minor studio which produced some good movies when studio boss Herbert Yates wasn't trying to promote his wife, Vera Hruba Ralston, into a major star. Under the direction of studio jack-of-all-trades Howard Breatherton, it's a lively little musical comedy, with a nicely shot production number early on, a few good eccentric comedy bits by minor players, and some nice acting by the leads; Miss Evans shows more range than she had since her early days at RKO and Lake gets to moderate the flustered idiot he had been playing since silent movies. In total, it's a very pleasant movie with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments.

This is kind of a one gag film with pianist Arthur Lake pretending to be a masked wrestler known as "the Devil." This could easily be a plot on a half hour situation comedy. Veteran Director Howard Bretherton, who started in silent films, does a good job of keeping the plot moving, keeping it amusing and finishing it in less than an hour. You have two fine character actors in bumbling Arthur Lake and tough guy with a heart of gold Lionel Stander. They are both playing characters in their comfort zone. It is nice to see Dale Evans without hubby Roy Rogers here. She gets more of a chance to act and show her comic side than in most of the Roy Rogers Westerns she was in. She's really quite charming, coming off kind of like Joan Blondell. You're not going to write home to the family about this one, but it does put a pleasant goofy smile on your face for an hour.