Sweet Music

Sweet Music (SM) is an obscure little seen Warner Brothers musical comedy from 1935. It stars Rudy Vallee and Ann Dvorak, who were ably supported by such seasoned stalwarts as Allen Jenkins, Ned Sparks, Robert Armstrong and Alice White. SM has none of the fame generally associated with the Busby Berkeley WB musicals from the same period, although it was smartly directed by the veteran Alfred E. Green. He kept the proceedings moving at a fairly rapid pace, and the energy level of SM is just about as high as any of the better-known Berkeley films.

Rudy Vallee is often characterized as an acquired taste, but during the peak of his movie celebrity (late 1920s to early 1930s) he had achieved quite a following-----certainly as notable as contemporary crooners Bing Crosby and Dick Powell. Often somewhat stiff and bland in his early film appearances, Vallee showed us a much more nuanced screen persona in SM. He was at times romantic, funny, capable of dancing (somewhat) and personally very engaging in his role as the leader of a band (!) that presaged Spike Jones and His City Slickers (with a generous dose of antics a la The Three Stooges). Today, Vallee is probably best remembered for his several late film career straight character parts (e.g. The doctor in the movie version of I Remember Mama 1948) and The Boss in both the stage and movie versions of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Ann Dvorak was an attractive somewhat offbeat looking actress who could sing, dance and emote at a level at least equal to the best of her peers-----including Joan Crawford and Ruby Keeler. She achieved early success with such hit films as Scarface (1932) and Three on a Match (1932), but the fame that Dvorak properly deserved somehow managed to elude her. Perhaps it was due to a feisty personality or possibly her relentless (often unsuccessful) striving for better roles that could appropriately utilize Dvorak's large talent. In any event, she never reached the fullness of her considerable potential, and spent much of her career mired in the world of "B" movies. During the WWII years, she was in England with her first husband (Leslie Fenton)-----and served there as a volunteer ambulance driver for her contribution to the war effort. This experience somewhat parallels that of Myrna Loy'in the same period, when Loy took a leave of absence from making movies in Hollywood and worked as a full-time volunteer with the American Red Cross.

SM is an unusual film, combining generous doses of wild slapstick comedy with many lovely sentimental musical interludes and an old fashioned romantic story of the "misunderstanding" variety. Vallee and Dvorak had a pretty good screen chemistry together, and Dvorak in particular was delightful as the engaging and energetic song and dance chorine whose on-again off-again romance with Vallee provides the principal support for the paper thin plot. Seeing it is a fun movie experience. Find it if you can!

I was actually rather surprised that I enjoyed "Sweet Music" as much as I did. While I have enjoyed a few of Rudy Vallee's later films when he played supporting roles, I have never been in love with his starring roles. Plus, here he plays a super-nice guy...something that according to every source I have read (including IMDb), Vallee was notorious for mistreating everyone around him.

When the film begins, you get to see Vallee's band doing some of their hi jinks. It's rather clever and was a better than average musical number. The story that follows is about Skip Houston (Vallee) and his feud with a temperamental dancing and singing diva, Bonnie Haydon (Ann Dvorak). They bicker a lot...and most of it seems to be coming from Ms. Haydon. Despite this, Houston is such a swell guy that he works hard to try to get Haydon's career off the ground. But when it falters, she unfairly blames Skip and that's sad...as they've begun to fall in love. Can things be righted and everyone live happily ever after? Or, will Skip's idiot publicity agent (Allen Jenkins) keep doing his best to foul up everything?

The music in the film was okay...but a few of the songs were rather goofy and that helped make the film more watchable. Also, the film was well written and very pleasant viewing. Worth your time.

Rudy Vallee and his band turn professional about the time Ann Dvorak breaks out of the chorus with the help of agent Ned Sparks. As they move through the bypaths of entertainment, from being kicked out of a Broadway show to radio, they wrangle start to fall in love.

There's a little bit of everything in this musical, from raw slapstick performed by Vallee's band to idiotic back-and-forth lines traded by Allen Jenkins and Alice White, to gangster Robert Armstrng crooning out of the side of his mouth. There are even signs of satire, offered by Al Shean and Joseph Cawthorne as brothers who sponsor a radio show while they wrangle with each other. In other words, it's a kitchen-sink musical with Rudy Vallee the star of the show. He sings a lot of songs. Most of them do not please me. He singing usually strikes me as mechanical and lifeless, and his orchestrations dull. However, one song, "Fare Thee Well, Annabelle" is performed with a staccato rag beat and a full production number to back it (choreographed by Bobby Connolly) is so far from his usual mode and energetically performed as to enthuse me. There's also a great torch number by Helen Morgan.

The new cycle of the Warner Brothers musicals that initiated with 42nd STREET (1933) continues with SWEET MUSIC (1935), directed by Alfred E. Green, featuring Rudy Vallee making his debut with the studio, and Ann Dvorak in her first musical role. A story that would have been tailor made for its resident song and dance team of Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, Warners goes one better in acquiring the services of Vallee (singer), and Dvorak (dancer), supported by familiar Warners stock players, notably Allen Jenkins and Ned Sparks, both being no strangers in these backstage stories.

The plot revolves around a couple of entertainers: Skip Houston (Rudy Vallee), an orchestra leader whose publicity agent, Barney Cowan (Allen Jenkins) never ceases in coming up with new angles promoting his friend and employer, only to have them backfire on him; and Bonnie Haydon (Ann Dvorak), whose publicity agent, William "Ten Percent" Nelson (Ned Sparks), not only discovered "Ruby Keeler, Al Jolson and Ben Bernie," but takes his ten percent interest in her both financially and personally. Following his engagement at the State University reunion, Skip's next stop is at the Chez Pierre in Chicago where he encounters Bonnie, who has always hated Skip, even more now that her name has been removed and replaced by Skip's on the marquee. Realizing the Houston and Haydon feud might stir up more publicity, Barney arranges in keeping them together after their move to New York City. When the feuding partners show signs of falling in love, misunderstandings take place that keep them apart, thanks to one of the publicity agents.

An entertaining musical with a handful of good tunes, all forgotten today, that takes up less than half of the 95 minutes of screen time without getting in the way of things, as supplied by an assortment of including from Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain, Allie Wrubel and Mort Dixon; and Al Dubin and Harry Warren. The soundtrack is as follows: "Snake Charmer," "42nd Street" "Fan Dance" (instrumentals); "Sweet Music" (sung by Rudy Vallee); "Ev'ry Day" (sung by Vallee); "Ev'ry Day" (danced by Ann Dvorak); "There's a Different You" (sung by Vallee); "Good Green Acres of Home" (Vallee and male chorus); "The Selzer Theme Song" (sung by Vallee and Dvorak, with Dvorak combining this with "Isn't That the Human Thing to Do"); "Outside," "Tavern in the Town" (both sung by Vallee); "I See Two Lovers" (sung by Helen Morgan); "Sweet Music" (reprise by Vallee); "There'a a Different You," "Fare Thee Well, Annabelle" (sung by Vallee and Dvorak); and "Good Green Acres of Home" (sung by Robert Armstrong).

In the supporting cast are Alice White as dumb blonde type named Lulu taking part of Barney's publicity stunts who later becomes his wife; Robert Armstrong as her gangster brother "Dopey" Malone, who wants to be a crooner(!); Henry O'Neill as Louis Trumball, a promoter with his nose for news; along with Al Shean and Joseph Cawthorn as the middle-aged accented Selzer brothers. In spite of the legendary Helen Morgan's name being placed fourth in the casting credits, she's seen very briefly in the audition sequence singing a sentimental torch song, "I See Two Lovers," originally written for and discarded from Powell and Keeler's FLIRTATION WALK (1934). This, and its finale, "Fare Thee Well, Annabelle" as choreographed by Bobby Connolly, are highlights. For the film's opening, Connelly attempts to duplicate the Busby Berkeley style by starting off things with a trombone glowing in the dark, followed by overhead camera shot of comic members of the Milt Britton Band spoofing a fan dance number from FASHIONS OF 1934 (1934), among others. For its duration, much of the song and dance takes either at a night club, radio station or theater. While Rudy Vallee's acting proved an embarrassment with his debut film, THE VAGABOND LOVER (RKO, 1929), it has improved considerably by this time, offering him an opportunity in slapstick comedy by cracking a violin over a band member's head as part of a comic act, and his imitation of radio comedian Fred Allen, an Italian and a Englishman during one of his songs numbers. He comes off best singing in patriotic manner, "Green Acres of Home." He and Dvorak work well together as feuding partners exchanging sarcastic remarks at one another. Skip on Bonnie: "You may not care for the dancing, but at least remember she's came from Chicago."

Quite enjoyable as it is underrated, whenever SWEET MUSIC should ever play on television, which isn't often enough, try locating it on Turner Classic Movies. (***)

The first fifteen minutes or so of "Sweet Music" plays like an uninspired Three Stooges short. What, one asks, are Rudy Vallee and Ann Dvorak doing in this trash? Then, out of nowhere the movie seems to come to its senses, turning into a standard and competent backstager about a radio band leader and crooner (Vallee, of course) and his rocky relationship with a singer-dancer (Dvorak). Inserted generously are performances by Vallee of pleasant if mediocre pop songs along with a couple of folksy numbers and a very busy production number of "Fare Thee Well, Annabelle" with loads of extra lyrics and patter and even a bizarre segment featuring a row of chorus girls in blackface, suddenly wiping it off mid-song (via camera editing); the choreography is by Bobby Connolly in Busby Berkeley mode.

Vallee's singing talent, preppie good looks and overall youthful charm are on full display, compensating for his cadaverously wooden effect in "Vagabond Lover" (1929). Dvorak displays a solid singing voice and assured dance moves as good if not better than anything Ruby Keeler ever displayed. The supporting cast includes Warner Bros stalwart Allen Jenkins, the ever-reliable Ned Sparks as a fast-talking press agent, Robert Armstrong showing comic flair as a gangster, Alice White on the career downslide as a sometimes clever, sometimes dumb chorus girl and even Helen Morgan singing "I See Two Lovers" in full throttle. Composer Sammy Fain (who contributed some songs to the film) also makes a cameo appearance as a singing pianist. Dvorak and White look great in snug generously accessorized Orry-Kelly outfits. For fans of the genre, a pleasant hour (not counting the opening scenes).