Artistes et modèles

Jack Benny, Ida Lupino, Gail Patrick, Judy Canova and Ben Blue star in "Artists & Models," a 1937 film directed by Rapul Walsh. Benny plays Mac Brewster, the owner of an advertising agency who lands the Townsend Silver Account. Mac has a ball planned, the Artists and Models Ball, and the "Townsend girl," who is to be their model, will be queen of the ball.

Mac wants his girlfriend Paula (Lupino) to be the model, but Townsend (Richard Arlen) wants a society girl. Paula takes off for Miami, where Townsend is going, and poses as a society girl. Townsend offers her the job. Mac, meanwhile, has met a bona fide society girl, the beautiful Gail Patrick, who has approached him about helping with a charity. He shows up in Miami with her.

This movie is loaded with musical numbers that, in this writer's opinion, aren't great, with the exception of the last one, a number set in Harlem. That one, featuring Louis Armstrong, would have been better if they'd hired a black woman to sing the lead instead of putting Martha Raye in dark makeup. Ben Blue and Judy Canova are a little bit over the top, and those numbers seem very dated today.

Ida Lupino looks beautiful and always turned in a good performance. When one sees her here as an ingénue, it's easy to appreciate her many accomplishments playing tough-gal roles and her work as a director. Benny is funny, but frankly, he doesn't have great material to work with. Gail Patrick, with her beautiful looks and voice, is her usual classy self. Cecil Cunningham, as Mac's secretary, is a standout with her dry wit.

All in all, not fabulous. I usually don't think of Raoul Walsh and musicals in the same thought process for a reason.

ARTISTS AND MODELS (Paramount, 1937), directed by Raoul Walsh, stars the legendary comedian Jack Benny in a lively musical as Mac Brewster, the head of a failing advertising agency who tries to promote a new campaign, the Artists and Models Ball. He uses Paula Sewell (Ida Lupino), his fiancée, to pose as a socialite who later falls in love with Brewster's important client, Alan Townsend (Richard Arlen), in fact, his only client. Brewster is given the task of crowning a queen of the Artists and Models Ball, and Paula goes after the crown to be awarded at the ball by Townsend. Because Paula is snubbed for being a professional model instead of a débutante, she grows more determined, taking the next airplane to Miami to compete against Cynthia Winworth (Gail Patrick), an attractive socialite who catches the eye on Brewster. In between song numbers, situations arise during the Artists and Models Ball when Brewster's engagement is to be publicly announced, first to Cynthia at 11:30, and to Paula at the stroke of midnight.

The supporting cast includes Cecil Cunningham as Stella, Brewster's secretary; Hedda Hopper as Mrs. Townsend, Alan's mother; along with Sandra Storme as herself in a brief model bit; Peter Arno, McClelland Barclay, Arthur William Brown, John Lagatta and Rube Goldberg as the artists; Russell Patterson's Personettos; and Andre Kostelanetz and his Orchestra.

While not "colossal, tremendous, gigantic, stupendous, the super special epic of the year" as addressed during the opening and closing of the story by Brewster's wacky associates (played by the Yacht Club Boys) who not only supply some wild antics, but one comedic musical number that opens up the story which has Brewster politely offering his opinion that "It stinks." Aside from that, ARTISTS AND MODELS succeeds with its amusing screenplay and its share songs and musical numbers in the lineup.

The musical program in order as they appear includes: "Sasha-Pasha" (performed by the Yacht Club Boys); "Pop Goes the Bubble" (written by Ted Koehler and Burton Lane/ sung by Judy Canova); "Whispers in the Dark" (written by Frederick Hollander and Leo Robin/ sung by Connee Boswell); "Stop, You're Breaking My Heart" (by Koehler and Lane/ sung by Judy Canova and Ben Blue); "Mister Esquire" (by Koehler and Victor Young/ instrumental with Ben Blue surrounded by puppet musicians); "The Ballad of Frank and Jesse James" (performed by The Canova Family); and "Public Melody Number 1" (by Koehler and Lane/ sung by Martha Raye and Louis Armstrong).

Judy Canova, who would specialize in hillbilly roles later in her career, is given a substantial role as Ida Lupino's best friend and roommate (labeled under her own name but addressed as Toots). Of her memorable highlights, the first finds Canova in the shower singing "Pop Goes the Bubble," stepping out to unwrap a towel, revealing a bathing suit underneath; and her confrontation with a "screwball" lover-boy named Jupiter Pluvius II (Ben Blue), a rainmaker whose father, it is revealed, was responsible for the Johnstown flood, leading to the amusing "Stop You're Breaking My Heart" number. Blue also takes part in a quite original number, "Mister Esquire," which is performed by Russell Patterson's Personnettos, or better known as "live" puppets playing musical instruments.

Interestingly, while Canova's interplays could have been performed just as well by Martha Raye, who had performed similar chores as the loyal friend-type from THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1937 (1936), is given a specialty musical act set in Harlem titled "Public Melody Number 1," opposite Louis Armstrong. Darkened up in the style of a light- skinned Negress, she belts out the lyrics with the sounds of Armstrong's trumpet playing and gun shots scoring out in the background. Vincente Minnelli is credited for direction of this production number. This Raye/ Armstrong number, along with the Canova Family ballad about outlaws Frank and Jesse James were usually eliminated from television prints in order to fit in this 100 minute movie into a 90 minute time slot plus commercial breaks. Fortunately the complete and unedited version of ARTISTS AND MODELS has turned turn up February 1, 2009, on Turner Classic Movies. On a final note, Connee Boswell, one of the singing Boswell sisters, seen only in silhouette, is the vocalist to the soothing "Whispers in the Dark," which becomes a large scale swimming number. This song was nominated for an Academy Award.

Aside from these production numbers taking a major part, its top-billed star Jack Benny does find time in supplying some real funny moments on screen, including he being mistaken by underwear salesmen as a model, and his physical examination with Doctor Zimmer (Donald Meek). There's even some inside humor as Brewster is escorting Cynthia (Gail Patrick) to the Artists and Models Ball and walking past a live radio where announcer Don Wilson is introducing Jack Benny, followed by Benny going on the air, "Hello, again, this is Jack Benny talking ..." Mac: "Very clever fellow, I've always liked him." Cynthia: "Oh, really, I've never cared for him." Mac: "Oh, well, everyone to his own taste.

The success of ARTISTS AND MODELS did intend for new annual musical series, which is hinted by the Yacht Club Boys ("Hey boss, have we got it, a great idea for the show next year.") Although Paramount did distribute another, ARTISTS AND MODELS ABROAD (Paramount, 1938), bringing back Jack Benny, this time playing Buck Boswell, and the Yacht Club Boys, with Joan Bennett assuming the female lead. Unfortunately, ARTISTS AND MODELS ABOARD didn't do as well to proceed with other editions to the series. However, in 1955, Paramount released a musical comedy, ARTISTS AND MODELS, starring the comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but bears no relation to the Benny films except in name only. For a good time, stick with the original. (***)

During the the 1930s' each of the Studios carved out a niche that they were particularly good at. M.G.M. polished presentations and Musicals, Warner Brothers (WB) Gangsters, Bio-Pics and the Common Man, 20th Century Fox & RKO, Action and/or Sophistication. Even a middle tier studio, like Republic knew what it was best at, Serials & Westerns or Universal, the Monsters.

Paramount during this period seemed to be in a quandary. Only Cecil B. DeMille and Ernst Lubitsch seemed to know what they were doing, because they Produced and Directed their own films. Paramount would skip around, trailing after trends other studios initiated or did better. Even when they did get it right they seldom followed up on it. Their films were a collection of samples, much like the French Navy in the 19th Century.

ARTISTS & MODELS (1937) is a perfect example of this. Is it a comedy, a musical or both? Director Raoul Walsh seemed not to be able to make up his mind or just was not interested. The cast led by Jack Benny, Ida Lupino, Richard Arlen and Gail Patrick just meander around through the thinly contrived plot which is interrupted by some rather pedestrian musical numbers. If you are expecting the quality of 42nd STREET (1933) or ROSE-MARIE (1936) you had better look elsewhere. You know you are in trouble when one (1) of your production numbers is led by Judy Canova. The other, Martha Raye in 'Black-Face'! This trend would continue with it's sequel ARTISTS and MODELS ABROAD (1938) and THE BIG BROADCAST of 1938 (1938). They may have memorable songs and even competent dance numbers, but there is nothing to make them standout as extraordinary examples of their genre.

Though there is a storyline, of sorts, running through this feature, it's really a sort of loosely compèred (by Jack Benny) collection of theatrical presentations based around the woes of an advertising executive. "Mac" (that's Benny) needs to secure a lucrative contract from the faintly libertine millionaire "Townsend" (Richard Arlen) if he is to stop his business going kerplunk. That success will all depend on his finding the right "face" to front the campaign. He favours a professional, his client doesn't. Plan? Well the solution appears to be in the hands of Ida Lupino. She is professional model "Paula Sewell" who is going to orchestrate things so she bumps into "Townsend" as the exciting new amateur prospect "Paula Monterey". Now given the man hasn't met her before, he only has to be convinced that she is the woman for him, then he tells "Mac" who gives the job to a woman called "Paula" - who just happens to be his fiancée, anyway, and so gets the million dollar contract and all in everyone's garden is rosey! What chance? Well the story all treads fairly predictable lines from here on out, and if that were all then maybe it would have worked a bit more coherently. The problem is that the propensity of musical numbers appear to have little, if anything, to do with the story and for the most part aren't really very good. That said. I did quite enjoy Judy Canova's bubble bath serenade and, indeed, she does rather amiably chivvy things alongs when things get a bit slow with a few other numbers, one of which has the most obvious example of hosepipe rain I've ever seen. Louis Armstrong brings up the rear with the Howard Arlen and Ted Koehler song he shares with Martha Raye, and that saves the best til last. It's odd to consider that people would have gone to the cinema to see this rather than the theatre, because aside from that thinnest of plots - a theatre production is what this really is.

To call "Artists & Models" a musical would be a stretch. It's more like a mash-up of various odd musical numbers that occasionally stops for a plot.

The plot (what there is of it) involves Jack Benny as an advertising executive, trying to land a million-dollar ad buy with playboy millionaire Richard Arlen. Benny promises Arlen that the queen of the upcoming Artists & Models Ball – for which Benny is the chairman – will serve as the model in a magazine ad campaign for Arlen's silverware company. But Arlen insists his new model must be a high-society girl.

Ida Lupino, one of Benny's models, follows Arlen down to Miami, where she poses as a high-society girl, while wearing the fancy clothes borrowed from her modeling jobs. She tries to trick him into selecting her as the model for his silverware ad campaign – but of course, they end up falling in love. (There's a scene where Lupino and Arlen are standing together on the diving board of a hotel's indoor swimming pool. She's wearing a fancy dress, and he's wearing a tuxedo. Can you guess what happens next?)

The plot is a thin "clothesline" on which they've hung the most bizarre train-wreck of musical numbers ever jumbled together in a movie. We get "hillbilly" comedienne Judy Canova singing a bubble bath number. Later, she joins Ben Blue for a slip-sliding, "punch-your-sweetheart" song-&- dance. Still later, Judy joins her siblings, Anne and Zeke Canova, to sing a straight-faced version of "The Ballad of Jesse James," complete with yodeling, right in the middle of the high-society Artists & Models Ball.

There's a marionette number in which, for no discernible reason, Ben Blue dances on stage with marionette dancing girls, and a Big Band number featuring a pair of Art Deco swimmers doing a water ballet in a swimming pool. When things start getting dull, the Yacht Club Boys come charging in with a chaotic musical number, or a gypsy dance troupe, or a melee of circus performers.

The best musical number in the movie is also the most problematic. The finale, "Public Melody #1," features Martha Raye in bad blackface makeup, singing on a Harlem street with an all-black dance chorus, while Louis Armstrong plays his horn. The song itself is good, and Martha Raye's performance of it is great – but the staging of it by Vincente Minelli is dated and offensive by today's standards. (If they'd gotten somebody like Lena Horne to sing it, there wouldn't have been a problem.)

But who cares if the movie is just a mash-up? It's still fun to watch. It crams all these crappy musical numbers into 97 minutes, and keeps the numbers coming along quickly, without stopping too long for the plot. I actually enjoyed watching it, and I never found it boring or annoying, as I have with some other 1930s Hollywood musicals (i.e. the "Gold Digger" or "Big Broadcast" musicals).