Myrt and Marge

Originally, "Myrt and Marge" was a radio show...one I have never heard nor have nearly all the folks who read this review. And, I know almost nothing about the radio show. But, what I do know is that the film was surprisingly good despite having a relatively small budget since it was made by Universal Studios....a relatively small and lower budgeted film studio during the 1930s.

The film begins with all the performers and crew of a play being told by their boss that he's broke and has no choice but to stop production. However, he also tells them that they are free to continue the production on their own...provided they can get financing. And, like you'd expect in such a film, they soon find a Mr. Jackson who is willing to invest in the musical extravaganza. But there's a huge problem...Jackson is a perv and wants to use his position to force poor Marge into bed with him.

While a post-code film would have been very vague about the sexual harassment aspect, since this is a brave pre-code film it's NOT just sexual harassment...and ultimately he tries to rape her. It's a very adult thing for movies back then, but it's also handled very deftly...and there's nothing vague about his attack nor the response it provokes! I applaud the film for being so brave about such a sensitive topic.

But the movie isn't just good because it handles the assault so well....it's also a fun and well made picture. Most of the songs are catchy, the comedy provided by Ted Healy and His Stooges is clever and the leads are all very good. Universal, in this case, was hitting on all cylinders and a 'small' picture like this should have been routine...but thankfully wasn't. Overall, very enjoyable and well worth seeing.

After first reading about this once-lost movie in USA Today back in the late '80s when it announced it was being broadcast on Cinemax at a time I lived with some relatives in Jacksonville, FL, who didn't have cable TV at the time, I finally watched this on YouTube which had uploaded this last year. It's interesting seeing Ted Healy and his Stooges (Moe, Larry, and Curly) in these early films they did before Healy split from them. There was actually another Stooge, or maybe "Stoogette" would be more appropriate since she was a woman named Bonnie Bonnell who appeared with those four in this picture and others during this period. She plays a backstage crasher to their stage crew. The banter between all of them can be pretty amusing especially when Ted and the others do their slaps and hitting each other on the head though it got better after Moe, Larry, and Curly went on their own and did those Columbia shorts that are still seen every day on TV. Incidentally, the "woo-woos" here are performed not by Curly but Ted. I read this was based on a radio show about the stage antics of the two title characters and there's a plot about one young woman being stalked by a producer that obviously makes this one from the pre-code era. To tell the truth, the Stooges is the only reason anyone would even want to check this out now so on that note, Myrt and Marge is worth a look for that reason. P.S. I always like to cite when a player from my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life, is in something else I'm reviewing so here it's J. Farrell MacDonald-the old man who castigated George Bailey for crashing his car into his old man's tree-who plays a retiring producer that leaves his show cast twisting in the wind in the early part of this movie...

This film was a Universal Pictures release. Myrt and Marge (1933), is based on the Myrt and Marge radio program, that was popular at the time. For this film, Bonnie Bonnell returns with Ted Healy and the Three Stooges, on break from their other projects. The story is simple. Myrt is a theater performer, who's theater company has pulled out, due to falling ticket sales. With a few months left on the lease, she decides to lead the company, with a real production and one, that is free of executives. She realizes she is getting old, so they conduct a search for a new actress, to lead the production, thus enters Marge. It's funny hearing Curly say the word "sex" in a film. Myrt and Marge (1933), is a pre-code film, with plenty of mature jokes being tossed around. Myrt and Marge run into all the same problems, found in other vaudeville musicals of the time. Drunk, womanizing producers hitting on the girls, creative differences, frazzled relationships, fisticuffs, arrest warrants and show closings, all plague this production.

The filmmakers really put a lot of time, money and work, into making the grand sets, needed for these 1930s, vaudeville, musical comedies. One of the neat parts to this film, was the wrap-up, explaining to the audience, with cinematic trickery, that the whole film, was just another radio broadcast. When it comes to this film, I thought the overall plot was a little bit boring, with an uneven pace. Healy and the Stooges, along with Healy's girlfriend Bonnie, seemed a little flat. It turns out, this film was a theatrical, box office disappointment. Being as Myrt and Marge (1933), was based on a radio show, plus a box office flop, creates an analogy for today, comparing it to an SNL skit, turned film idea, that sometimes fails at the box office. It is still a classic example of vaudeville musicals from the 1930s. Myrt and Marge (1933), is a cinematic artifact.

5.8 (D MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.

This film has a paper thin plot and a few catchy tunes, but by no means am I comparing it to Busby Berkeley's polished work over at Warner Brothers at the time.

Instead, this is a great chance to see real vaudevillians practice their craft. The story outline is that a struggling show's backer comes to the cast and tells them that he and his partner have become insolvent and that they are going to give the cast the rights to the show as long as the cast releases the backers from any claims or debts against them. The cast agrees. Myrt (Myrt Vail), current star of the show, speaks up first and says that she realizes she is too old to continue playing the lead dancer and wants to give a new girl a try. She'd "rather be the manager of a success than the star of a flop". The troupe's comedian isn't funny either and they will need to replace him.

For both jobs, enter stage left Marge (Myrt Vail's actual daughter) and comedian Eddie Hanley (Eddie Foy Jr.). Unfortunately, Marge's mom, played by Trixie Friganza, does not want her daughter on the vaudeville circuit living the stage life. So mom is invited to come along to chaperon - she does just that. Myrt finds a financial backer in the person of Jackson (Thomas Jackson). The problem is that Eddie and Marge are falling for one another, but married Jackson turns out to be a scum bag and moves in on Marge. Complications ensue since how do they keep the show going with the financial backer causing such emotional friction? Without him, they are too broke to make it to Broadway. Watch and find out.

The actual performance of the theater troupe in their staged act is not the real attraction here, although the numbers are not bad. The attraction is all of these actual former vaudevillians - Myrt, Foy, Friganza - doing bits of their former vaudeville act for the screen. Then there is the effeminate property manager, Clarence (Ray Hedges), throwing in a hilarious one liner here and there. This kind of act would be history after the production code but was common in film in the early 30's.

And finally I come to the Three Stooges, billed here as Ted Healy and "Howard, Fine, and Howard". They also get a lot of side bits of comedy that would have been much funnier if somebody would have put a hook around Ted Healy's neck and dragged him off stage. He chokes out the comedy of the Stooges like weeds choke out a garden. But this is important viewing because it is filmed proof that Healy cutting the Stooges loose was the best thing that ever happened to them.

There is a bit of a trick ending, which is not such a trick if you know much about the title players, and I'll leave it at that. Very much worth your time, still funny and entertaining, and great if you are recovering from a nervous breakdown.

Interesting backstage musical based on a long-running radio show. Myrt (Myrtle Vail) decides she's too old for the stage show she's in, so she bows out to manage the theatrical company once they find a new face. They find a girl, Marge (Donna Damerel--Vail's real-life daughter). They tour the sticks with the idea of taking the show to New York City.

The show's leading man (Eddie Foy, Jr.) falls for Marge but so does the show's backer (Thomas Jackson). The two men spar for Marge's favor amid a couple of not bad song numbers.

Not a bad little musical at all although the low budget shows. The stars are all quite good. There's also Marge's mother (Trixie Friganza), co-star Grace (Grace Hayes), and as crew member, Ted Healy and the Three Stooges. It's certainly an odd mix. The Stooges are billed here as Howard, Fine & Howard.

J. Farrell MacDonald and Bonnie Bonnell also co-star, and there's also Jimmy Conlin as the bum comic. Peter Lind Hayes is listed as an extra but I never spotted him.

The film's bot interesting character is possibly Clarence the very gay costume guy. He's played nicely by Ray Hedges (in his only film). I assume this character was from the radio show, pretty astonishing for a show that ran from 1931 to 1946.

The lively numbers include "Draggin' My Heels Around" and "What Is Sweeter than the Sweetness of I Love You." This one is certainly worth a look.