Colleen

Despite the fact that Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are the stars in their seventh and final screen pairing, the key character here is Hugh Herbert. That unfortunately is Colleen's problem.

There are times when Hugh Herbert can be extremely funny, but a whole film really shouldn't be built around him. You can overdose on Hugh Herbert.

In the Road to Zanzibar one of the gags, but far from the whole film involved Crosby and Hope getting involved with eccentric millionaire Eric Blore. He goes around just giving the family fortune away and sells them a diamond mine for a nominal cost. Like Herbert in Colleen, Blore has his keepers. But the whole film isn't built around him.

In this film the family business is run by Dick Powell for Herbert who is his uncle and Herbert's sister Louise Fazenda. They've hired a keeper in Berton Churchill who breaks away from his usual stuffy banker type and here is the essentially decent, but eternally put upon keeper.

Herbert gets involved with a couple of sharpies, Jack Oakie and Joan Blondell who take advantage of this nut job to rake in some big bucks. Ruby Keeler is the bookkeeper at a dress shop that Herbert buys for Blondell and the Powell/Fazenda/Herbert family are now guarantors of all the debts owed and accruing.

Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote some nice songs for the film that did not boast any hits at all. Dick Powell never even bothered to commercially record any of them. The finale had dancer Paul Draper cleverly worked in to partner with Ruby while Powell sang. It was always a problem with them as a team, Ruby's flat singing and the fact you'll notice Powell never danced in any of their films.

Colleen is pleasant enough entertainment, but the Powell/Keeler combination was definitely on the wane here.

Sorry to have to disagree with the "disaster" rating in the previous "user comments". Just for the record, Dick Powell/Ruby Keeler musical comedies aren't supposed to have thick plots.

This film is supposed to be a light hearted musical comedy for the depression-era audience, and that is just what it is. I'll grant you that the musical numbers aren't as memorable as other Powell/Keeler films(by the way, they were never married - Powell married Joan Blondell that year). I'd also say that Paul Draper's tap dancing is a cut below the flowing moves of Fred Astaire.

However, the film has some redeeming comedic value. Hugh Herbert is a gem of a bumbling business executive, and Joan Blondell was in her element as Jack Oakie's conniving sidekick.

Overall, I found this film to be quite acceptable.

COLLEEN (Warner Brothers, 1936), directed by Alfred E. Green, reunites the musical team of Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler for the seventh and final time. Powell plays Donald T. Ames, the nephew Cedric Ames (Hugh Herbert), an eccentric millionaire whose wife, Alicia (Louise Fazenda), suspects him of philandering around with other women. He encounters Minnie Hawkins (Joan Blondell), a chocolate dipper working at the Itsey-Ditsey Nut Chewsie, becomes impressed with her, buys a dress shop where she gets to be in charge of the establishment. While investigating the books of the dress shop, Donald meets and becomes infatuated with Colleen Reilly (Ruby Keeler), the bookkeeper. Instead of closing up the shop, Donald agrees to keep it open for as long as Minnie behaves herself, but Minnie, the fortune hunter as she is, pretends to be interested in Cedric (who plans on adopting her as his daughter), and two-times him with Joe Cork (Jack Oakie), Colleen's steady boyfriend. Romance blossoms between Donald and Colleen, but further complications follow before things get under way on board an ocean liner.

A silly comedy that somehow works,COLLEEN brings back Powell and Keeler to familiar surroundings made famous from their earlier collaborations (GOLD DIGGERS OF '33 and DAMES), as a romantic couple surrounded by gold digger(s), an eccentric millionaire with scatterbrained wife, along with plenty of song and dance. It's not the usual backstage story. The production numbers this time just happen on screen with a bright score composed by the then popular Harry Warren and Al Dubin, which happened to be one of those rare cases where they failed to produce a single song hit. The score includes: "I Don't Have to Dream Again" (sung by Dick Powell, followed by singing and dancing models in a musical fashion show hosted by Keeler, highlighted with a tap dancing story by Paul Draper and Keeler); "The Boulvardier From the Bronx" (sung and performed amusingly by Jack Oakie and Joan Blondell as they dine in a Chop-Suey joint); "An Evening With You" (sung by Powell to Keeler as they take a stroll through the park); "You Gotta Know How to Dance" (sung by Keeler/danced by Keeler and Draper, and sung briefly by Powell), followed by a short reprise of "An Evening With You" sung by Powell to Keeler on deck of the ship.

Watching the ten minute finale of "You Gotta Know How to Dance," choreographed by Bobby Connolly, this number at times has the feel to the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers production number of "The Continental" from their 1934 hit, "The Gay Divorcée" (RKO), which finds the camera following a group of dancers in long shot range and average shot towards its main focus of Keeler and Draper. Paul Draper, in his movie debut, is an unusual dancer (and bad actor whose participation in the plot is thankfully limited), with a much different style to Astaire's. However, he doesn't have that grace and elegance that made Astaire so popular and likable, which probably explains why Draper's film career was so short-lived. Draper's tapping at times drowns out the Vitaphone Orchestra underscoring in the two production numbers opposite Keeler.

Also seen briefly in a large cast of Warners stock players are Marie Wilson as Mabel (sharing one short scene near the film's opening opposite Herbert); J.M. Kerrigan as Colleen's father; Berton Churchill as Cedric's lawyer; and Luis Alberni as Carlo, the dress designer. As for Joan Blondell, who spends much of the time going about Bink-eyed and speaking in a dead-pan manner, it's Hugh Herbert who nearly walks away with the story since the main focus is on him instead of Colleen.

COLLEEN, an overlooked musical, is quite amusing and entertaining, offering Keeler an opportunity to sing and dance more than she ever did on screen in the past. However, her dancing opposite Draper has become no threat to the song and dance team of Astaire and Rogers. COLLEEN is worth viewing through once whenever presented on Turner Classic Movies.

One final note: Let's hope that someday COLLEEN goes through a restoration process since the audio can be slightly distorted and picture covered with acid spots that's quite noticeable near the conclusion. (***)

A passable enough movie but all over the map, and while it was a vehicle for the Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler tandem, I liked it more for their supporting cast, featuring Hugh Herbert as a bumbling millionaire and Joan Blondell as a gold-digger. The musical numbers are mildly entertaining, but tap dancer Paul Draper lacks charisma and Ruby Keeler's singing is flat. I liked "Boulevardier from the Bronx" performed by Blondell and Jack Oakie more, as goofy as he was, and perhaps influenced by Blondells's décolleté. It's not horrible or anything, but you can do better. I suggest trying a movie like Footlight Parade from 1933 instead.

Cedric Ames (Hugh Herbert) is an absent-minded wealthy businessman playboy. Most of the business is done by other people including his loyal nephew Donald Ames 3rd (Dick Powell). Cedric recklessly hires sneaky assistant Joe Cork (Jack Oakie). He falls for gold-digging chocolate dipper Minnie Hawkins (Joan Blondell). He even buys her a dress shop where Colleen Reilly (Ruby Keeler) is the bookkeeper. Donald works to save Cedric from himself.

This is a rom-com drama musical. I'm not really taken with the drama. The Donald Colleen romance comes and goes. I like the song and dance musical although nothing really stands out. There is one or two bigger production scenes. This is fine for the musical fans.