Uma Família Gozada

More musical numbers with the three male leads in this film would have been nice, and raised it a star or two. "Sing, You Sinners" is a nice pairing of three good musical talents. Bing Crosby was well-established as a singling star by this time, and Fred MacMurray was more known as a comedy and dramatic actor. But he too had a considerable musical background, and was able to use it in some of his earliest films. Along with those two established actors comes the young Donald O'Connor. This was just his second credited film, and his first major role. As a child actor, O'Connor showed fine talent for dancing and acting, that would be his forte in his adult career. Together in this film, the three make up the reluctant Beebe brothers trio.

The comedy in this film is on the light side, with a screenplay and story that was more dramatic because of the usually tense situation that the family found itself in. That was mostly because of finances since the dad died a few years before. Elizabeth Patterson does a good job as the mother, Mrs. Daisy Beebe, caring about her sons and trying to steer them in the right direction. Ellen Drew played Martha Randall, MacMurray's long-waiting fiancé.

It's a nice look at the talent of the three, and I think it would have been more entertaining with less of the wanderings and uncertainly of Crosby's Joe, and the guys making a go of it singing, dancing and playing instruments.

This Wesley Ruggles souffle, in which Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray and Donald O'Conner are singing brothers who... well, it doesn't much matter, does it? Every character and situation is written right in the middle of the performer's comfort zone (not that Fred MacMurray ever felt much stretched; he claimed that Billy Wilder was the only director who ever called on him to act).

I had a good time and can't remember much of anything. It's just the sort of movie with production values meant to anchor a film program you go to because of Bing Crosby and the next day you tell the guys about the Popular Science short or maybe the latest Popeye. With Ellen Drew as MacMurray's fiancee and Elizabeth Patterson as everyone's mother.

This is one of Bing Crosby's best films from the 1930s. It gave him a great opportunity to show off some dramatic ability and a couple of big selling hits one of which served as the title of the current biography by Gary Giddins.

Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray and Donald O'Connor are the three Beebe brothers. And Bing is the source of much concern with mother Elizabeth Patterson. He's a lazy, shiftless, irresponsible and charming man who won't just settle down. The burden of supporting the family is left to brother Fred MacMurray who keeps postponing marriage to his long time sweetheart, Ellen Drew, until the family is all provided for. And finally kid brother Donald O'Connor idolizes Bing and wants to grow up just like him to the despair of Patterson and MacMurray.

Bing up and leaves the family, promising to go to Los Angeles, get into a steady business and settle down. Of course his idea of a steady business is to own a racehorse named Uncle Gus. He sends for Patterson and O'Connor and later MacMurray and Drew come and are all shocked.

The rest of the film is the usual run of movie plots where racehorses are concerned.

The Beebe brothers also have a singing act which MacMurray hates, but which brings in needed cash when the bills start piling up. That's where the musical score written by Jimmy Monaco and Johnny Burke comes in. Done as a trio number in the film, I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams became one of Crosby's biggest hits from the 1930s. Crosby's one solo number is Don't Let That Moon Get Away and in another trio number MacMurray is the lead singer in Laugh and Call It Love. Before he came to Hollywood, Fred MacMurray sang and played saxophone in various bands and also was in the original Broadway cast of Roberta. He had a pleasant, but thin tenor voice, but I don't think he'd have lasted in Hollywood if he had done musicals.

This was Donald O'Connor's first big break and he shows a hint of the dancing talent he had during the Pocketful of Dreams number. He and Crosby later re-united in the second version of Anything Goes in 1956.

One song was added into the score. Composed by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser, Small Fry was done as a novelty number by the trio. However Bing recorded it with his good friend Johnny Mercer and that novelty song also became a monster hit.

Sing You Sinners should be seen back to back with the James Cagney/Pat O'Brien film The Irish in Us as they have very similar plot development and characters.

This was the first of two Crosby films with a racetrack background, the other being Riding High. Curiously enough they had opposite plot conclusions. No spoilers here though, see both films and see what I mean.

SING YOU SINNERS (Paramount, 1938), directed by Wesley Ruggles, is, regardless of its misleading title, is not one about an evangelist and congregation gone astray, but a semo-comedy about an aged mother and her three sons, headed by Bing Crosby taking a new outlook in his career. Up to this point, Crosby was featured in many routinely made musicals, mostly for Paramount. In this case, SING YOU SINNERS, what might have worked a straight dramatic story, is completely different from anything he's done thus far.

Set in a small town, the story starts on a Sunday morning with the Beebe family walking to church as the bells ring in the background. (An original premise introducing its characters using their portrayal names superimposed on screen beneath the actors one at a time). The Beebes consists of Daisy (Elizabeth Patterson), the mother; Joseph (Bing Crosby), age 35, single and unemployed, shiftless, homespun and down-to-earth individual believing the secret of success lies in taking gambles; David (Fred MacMurray), completely opposite, engaged to Martha Randall (Ellen Drew), works long hours as a garage mechanic, saving his hard-earned money to someday have a repair shop of his own; and Mike (Donald O'Connor), the youngest, looks up to Joseph, much to the dismay of their "Maw." The one thing the brothers have in common is their devotion to music, earning extra money singing together in local night spots. Because he feels himself to be a bad influence on the family, Joe strikes out on his own, moving to Los Angeles. After about a month, Mother Beebe receives word that Joe has acquired a successful business in the second-hand trade. Believing he's finally made a success of himself, she sells her home, bringing the family to Los Angeles, only to find Joe had sold his business and traded it in for a race horse called "Uncle Gus." Unable to pay the rent, the Beebe brothers unite by performing as a singing trio in a night club before Joe trains the thoroughbred for an upcoming race, with Mike, acting as jockey. Before Derby day, trouble arises when gambling gangsters step in, forcing Mike to throw the race.

With the music and lyrics by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Monaco, the song interludes include: "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams" (sung by Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray and Donald O'Connor); "Don't Let the Moon Get Away" (sung by Crosby); "Laugh and Call It Love," "Small Fry" (specialty written by Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael); and "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams" (reprise/ all sung by Crosby, MacMurray and O'Connor).

Of the tunes, "Pocketful of Dreams" (that might have served better as the movie title) is one that symbolizes Crosby's on-screen character, with lyrics pertaining to him, "I'm no millionaire, but I have no time to spare," or "Lucky, lucky me, I could live in luxury." The night club act featuring "Small Fry" is a worthy offering, having MacMurray, dressed in women's attire, playing an over-sized "wife," puffing his corncob pipe while sitting on a rocking chair, knitting, repeatedly reciting, "Of yes, Oh Yes, Oh Yes," while Crosby plays a bespectacled father with white beard. O'Connor, acting the title song of the troublesome son in overalls, reciting such lyrics as "You ain't the biggest catfish in the sea." One credited song not used in this production, "Where Is Central Park?" is never used, only instrumentally during its opening credits.

Ellen Drew, formerly Paramount starlet, Terry Ray, since 1936, assumes her first major role here as MacMurray's love interest. MacMurray, the middle, more logical and stronger member of the brothers, who, other than given a rare opportunity singing on screen, shares a climatic scene where he and his weaker brother Joe (Crosby) battle it out fist fighting in the stables with the crooked gamblers. Donald O'Connor, in motion picture debut, performs his task well, ranging from singing to playing jockey while either sitting on a stairway banister or on the racehorse. Surprise casting goes to Elizabeth Patterson in a rare opportunity where she virtually carries the story as the ever loving but patient mother trying to keep her sons together while steering her eldest to the right direction the best way she knows how.

Aside from Crosby's occasional crooning to good but nearly unmemorable songs, he does offer some funny bits in the midway point where, after coming to Los Angeles, starts winning bets on his first day at the race track by merely exchanging tickets with a racing addict (Tom Dugan) using what he calls the "Australian system," which means to bet on a horse with the most i's and a's in his name. Coming across as something from a Bob Hope comedy, Crosby puts it off well.

SING YOU SINNERS, which had frequent television revivals on commercial television back in the 1960s and '70s, was last seen broadcast in the early to mid 1980s on WOR-TV, Channel 9, in New York City as part of its "9-All Night" movie viewing. Unseen in many years, SING YOU SINNERS was finally distributed onto DVD in 2011 and broadcast on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: August 3, 2016). In closing, what really makes SING YOU SINNERS stand apart from the Crosby films of the day was his offbeat characterization, one that occasionally has the young O'Connor frequently refrain in despair with these words, "My own brother!" Oh, yes, oh yes, oh, yes. (***1/2)

Did you know Donald O'Connor was a child actor? If you didn't, go out and rent Sing You Sinners as soon as possible. He's so adorable! He sings, dances, gives typical pre-teen attitude, and rides a horse, all at the tender age of thirteen and in his third film. I wonder if he hated Mickey Rooney, whom he replaced in this movie; not only could he have played many of the parts Mickey did, but Donald played Huckleberry Finn in 1938 in a forgettable film, and the following year Mickey was recruited and immortalized in the role.

Did you know Fred MacMurray could sing? If you didn't, go out and rent Sing You Sinners. He plays the middle child in the house, the only one responsible enough to support the family even though all he wants to do is marry his girl, Ellen Drew. Fred, Donald, and Bing Crosby are Elizabeth Patterson's sons, but because Bing is a deadbeat and flighty, he doesn't contribute to the family income. In a completely atypical role for Bing, he's a scoundrel who parties, tries to steal his brother's girl, and hops from new idea to new idea. Did you know Bing Crosby could play a bad guy? If you didn't, well, you know what you should do.

Sing You Sinners, while not featuring the title song, is a very cute family flick. There are cute moments that lighten the darker situations, and plenty of exciting scenes that make you devoted to the family. Check it out; you'll want to adopt little Donald!