Swing Your Lady

SWING YOUR LADY (Warner Brothers, 1938), directed by Ray Enright, suggested from the play by Kenyon Nicholson and Charles Robinson, is not really a college musical of dancing co-eds doing the jitterbug to swing music, but actually a one-of-a-kind hillbilly comedy starring non-other than the legendary Humphrey Bogart. Bogey, who had made his mark on stage and screen playing gangster Duke Mantee in "The Petrified Forest," followed by other notable roles of promise as 1937's THE BLACK LEGION and DEAD END, up until now had not established himself to the popular leading man he was to become after 1941. In spite of active support working opposite the studio's own resident tough guys as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson in its major productions, along with some leading roles in others, Bogey here plays it straight, leaving whatever laughs take place for the supporting players. With SWING YOUR LADY and THE RETURN OF DOCTOR X (1939) categorized as Bogey's worst films, regardless of their reputations, they are each on a watchable level. SWING YOUR LADY on the other hand, contains musical numbers with dance direction by Bobby Connelly and fine vocalization by a young brunette named Penny Singleton, formerly Dorothy McNulty, shortly before achieving fame as Chic Young's blonde comic strip character, Blondie, in a long series of successful films for Columbia (1938-1950). For now, SWING YOUR LADY, which looks more like a predate of the "Ma and Pa Kettle" comedies of the 1950s, is both Bogey and Singleton before their prime of life.

The plot revolves around Ed Hatch (Humphrey Bogart), a fight promoter, along with his associates Popeye Bronson (Frank McHugh), "Shiner" Ward (Allen Jenkins) and their dim-witted Greek wrestler, Joe "Hercules" Skapapoulos (Nat Pendleton) driving through Mussel City, Missouri, from New York City. Just about out of money and ideas, they come to Plunkett City, Kentucky (population 749), where Ed hopes to find a man to wrestle Joe. Ed later encounters Sadie Horn (Louise Fazenda), a mountain woman whose husband had gone possum hunting 11 years ago and never returned, now supporting herself and three kids (Tommy and Sonny Bupp, Jean Howard) as a lady blacksmith. After witnessing Sadie lifting his car stuck in a morass of mud with one hand (taking a can of spinach had nothing to do with this), Ed stumbles upon an idea of Joe wrestling Sadie, which would draw crowds and money, but once he meets her, Joe falls to dumb love in spite of complications after-wards with her jealous suitor, Noah Webster (Daniel Boone Savage). With the help of his girlfriend, Cookie Shannon (Penny Singleton), Hatch schemes up on other ideas to get his wrestling match to take place, with middling results.

SWING YOUR LADY, containing typical hillbilly humor and stereotypes ranging from a cross-eyed character to bearded types with "shootin' irons" and jugs of moonshine with triple X labels. Along the way, there's time out for musical interludes to such songs as "Dig Me a Grave in Missouri" (Sung by the Leon, Frank and Elviry Weaver); "The Old Apple Tree" (sung by the Weavers, reprise by Penny Singleton); "The Hillbilly From Tenth Avenue" (sung by Singleton); "The Old Apple Tree" (reprise); "Swing Your Lady" (sung by Penny Singleton wearing overalls); "Mountain Swingaroo" (sung by Singleton and Sammy White) and "Swing Your Lady" (reprise) written by M.K. Jerome and Jack Scholl.

With the cycle of Warners musicals in decline by 1938, SWING YOUR LADY offers little to redeem it but plenty of surprises to honor it. How many movies can one find Humphrey Bogart surrounded hillbillies instead of New York City thugs? How many hillbilly comedies can one find a future U.S. President (Ronald Reagan) appearing briefly as a sports reporter? Louise Fazenda, padded up a bit to appear broad-shouldered and strong-armed, is quite satisfactory as Sadie while Nat Pendleton, who, early in his career played convincing tough guys, to now be playing dumb clucks. McHugh and Jenkins offer nothing new in their familiar sidekick roles, while Penny Singleton, in her Warners debut, brings life to the story with her fast talking character and song and dance. Shortly after the release of SWING YOUR LADY, the Weavers would turn out a series of hillbilly comedies of their own over at Republic Studios before fading to obscurity. Had SWING YOUR LADY been remade in the 1940s, what great material this would have been for the comedy team of Bud Abbott (fight promoter), Lou Costello (wrestler) and Marjorie Main (Sadie) in the cast.

While SWING YOUR LADY has never been distributed on home video, it's been broadcast over the years on the Ted Turner cable channels starting with Turner Network Television (1988-1992) and presently on Turner Classic Movies. With the film containing some swinging, either on the dance floor or the wrestling mat, it remains a real curio and delight for the "Ma and Pa Kettle" or "The Beverly Hillbillies" crowd. (**)

Yes, of COURSE this is a hokey movie, but that's what makes it so funny. Louise Fazenda steals the show. Bogey is uncomfortable in his role, to be sure, but who cares? It's entertaining and wasn't meant to be anything other than that. In my opinion, it is NOT a Bogey movie - it's Louise Fazenda all the way! The music is entertaining as well and, as usual, Frank McHugh and Allen Jenkins do their part well. My favorite scene?.....Bogey asking Fazenda if she wants to "wrassle" (not meaning to wrestle him). She throws him to the ground in one fell swoop and says, "Now, say 'Hootie Owl'." I think it loses in translation...but I laughed out loud.

The main reason for my enjoying this flick is the ending. I was feeling a bit emotional today and was happy with the outcome of the film. I actually sat through all those songs that were performed throughout the film (and I detest most musical stuff). I think the best facet of this film was Louise Fazenda. She just tickled me with the way she presented herself and she was big in Mack Sennet films of yore. She just did everything asked of her without any problems. Bogie seemed totally our of school here, being pushed around physically and really over acting some of his situations. One the whole, for 1938, it could see why some people would see this to escape their every day drudge. I just finished reading a bio of Bogart and felt that he was just thrown in because Warner Bros. could do so. He showed up, did his shtick and went home.

Ed Hatch (Humphrey Bogart) manages dim-witted wrestler Joe Skopapoulos. He discovers local strong hick Sadie Horn and comes up with an unusual match. Joe falls for her and refuses to fight. Ed uses all his underhanded lies to gin up another fight.

This is not necessarily for Bogie fans unless you're a completist. It's a musical comedy about rural wrestling with a strong woman. I don't find it that funny although I like most of the characters. Bogie is fine but it's not enough. I like the idea of wrestling Sadie but the movie turns away from that. I don't think it's as bad as advertised but that's not high praise.

Six stars. And that's rounded up. Why? Because Bogart could play anything and make it work (as long as a New York accent is okay). Even a crappy part like Ed Hatch in a crappy movie like this. And because, for all the absurdity of her character, Louise Fazenda also turned in a good performance. Everything else was strictly B-movie stuff. Including a 77 minute run-time that devoted at least 15 of those minutes to four over the top musical production numbers that were designed to make fun of the country hicks. In fact another real problem is that the tone of the film wobbles drunkenly between sneering at the yokels and code-approved "love conquers all" stuff. I won't go into the plot. Suffice to say it is a rural screw-ball comedy that is as ridiculous as the production can make it. But one final word of praise: When Penny Singleton showed up, I HATED her part. She comes in as another witless, annoying harridan. But then she got to do her song-and-dance stuff. And, as absurdly over-the-top as the material was, she was absolutely the real deal as a song-and-dance girl.

Bogart is my favorite actor. That's why I dug this one up. And it was probably a relief for him to get to play something other than a gangster in 1937. He also got to be the nominal star of the film. Pretty rare, at that point in his career. By my count, this was his 24th film. I've seen 18 of those, and Bogie was in the star in four of them. So I'm guessing he jumped at the chance for a starring role, even in a crappy B-movie comedy. If you're a HUGE Bogart fan, you should watch this. Otherwise, take a pass. 31 July 2024.