Artistes et modèles

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).

Jack Benny stars as the owner of a bankrupt as agency. He can save his company by landing the $1 million Townsend Silver account. He convinces the company's owner, playboy Richard Arlen, that the secret to success is finding the Townsend Girl and getting her to be the queen of the annual Artists & Models Ball. Arlen agrees, but the catch is that he does not want the Townsend Girl to be a professional model. He wants a society girl. Young model Ida Lupino overhears and travels to Florida to pose as a society girl and land the Townsend Girl job. This film's split down the middle ... half screwball comedy, half musical. The comedy elements work well, the musical elements are terribly creaky.

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.

"Artists and Models" of 1937 has lots of talent in a revue format of a musical comedy. Jack Benny headlines a cast with several prominent actresses of the day. Benny is still early in his film career when his comedy is very good, fresh and natural. In his later TV days he was funny but not very innovative or original. But this film has some unusual aspects that make it quite good. Some of those will appeal to specific interests.

For instance, there is a fantastic scene of life-side puppets choreographed to music. Russell Patterson was a famous puppeteer of the day, and he designed the lifelike dolls for this film that he called "personettes." I've never seen anything like this before, and it's superbly done.

Then, there are the cameos of several off the top cartoon artists of the day - again, something I don't think has ever been done before or since in a movie. Benny's Mac Brewster is emceeing the Artists and Models benefit show that has six prominent artists all painting a model. He introduces each one separately - getting their names wrong for some humor. They include Rube Goldberg, John LaGatta, Russell Patterson, Peter Arno, McClelland Barclay and Arthur William Brown.

And, this film has a good peek stage life. Lots of movies have been made in which the theater is central to the plot. While most of them give snippets of details behind the scene and stage, very few films have shown the whole operation in setting up a stage for a play. This one does that in the opening. It shows sets going up, lighting and cameras being set, and a good picture of overall behind the scenes production work.

The bevy of prominent female entertainers of the day include Ida Lupino and Paul Sewell, Gail Patrick as Cynthia Wentworth, Jud Canova as Toots, Martha Raye as Specialty, Hedda Hoper as Mrs. Townsend and Cecil Cunningham as Stella. A very young looking Louis Armstrong blows his horn along with music provided by Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra. Other top actors in the cast are Richard Arlen as Alan Townsend, Ben Blue as Jupiter Pluvius, and Donald Meek as Dr. Zimmer.

Judy Canova and Ben Blue have an excellent song, dance and acrobatic skit, titled Public Melody No. 1. This film is quite wacko in places, but that adds to its enjoyment as a very good musical comedy.

An exchange between Benny's Brewster and Rube Goldberg is one of the wackiest scenes ever. The viewers can't see the canvas that Goldberg was painting during this conversation. Mac Brewster, "Oh, do you mind if I look over your shoulder?" Rube Goldberg, "No, I'd love it. It annoys me terribly." Brewster, "Oh, I don't want to appear critical, but haven't you got her left arm just a little out of place?" Goldberg, "That's her foot." Brewster, "Ohhhh, yes. That explains the shoe." Goldberg, "Well, it's all finished now. Whaddaya think of it?" Brewster, pointing to a gorgeous live model, "Uh, you mean to say this is her?" Goldberg, "Yes, I saw her up there and I brought her down here." (The picture shows two old codgers in a balancing act.) Brewster, "Well, the trip certainly didn't do her any good." Goldberg, "A good likeness, really. I'm, I'm proud of it." Brewster, "Mmm. You mean to tell me that that's art?" Goldberg, "No, no. (He points at one and then the other of the two figures.) That's Sam. That's Art with the beard. Brewster, "Ohhh. Ohhhh! And what connections has he with the model?" Goldberg, "That's her grandfather. I knew him well."

Here are some other not so crazy, but good comedy lines.

Mac Brewster, after falling backward in his chair the fourth time, "I'm either going to get a new chair or spurs."

Mac Brewster, "Look, Paula, let's you and I go out and take a nice long walk - maybe it'll rain."

Mac Brewster, "Now, wait a minute. I may not be any Don Juan, but if I haven't got more appeal than a 40-story jump out of a window, I'll....all right, 20 stories."

Mac Brewster, "I love babies." Cynthia Wentworth, "Oh, do you?" Mac Brewster, "Oh, yes. I used to be one myself."

Mac Brewster, "Don't think I'm jealous. I always turn green this time of year."

Cynthia Wentworth, "Oh, Mac, you have so much to learn about love." Mac Brewster, "I guess so. You know, father was always gonna have a talk with me, but he kept putting it off."

Mac Brewster, "You know, you and I must go out together some time and have our heads examined." Rube Goldberg, "Oh, why bring them along?" Brewster, "Oh, that's right. We'll have more fun alone."