Artistes et modèles

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).

Pleasant enough musical from Paramount featuring JACK BENNY as a man who must find a socialite model for the ARTISTS AND MODELS ball being sponsored by one of his wealthy clients (RICHARD ARLEN). A very young IDA LUPINO co-stars as a model who sees her big chance if she snags the queen of the ball title by making Arlen believe she's a socialite.

GAIL PATRICK, HEDDA HOPPER, JUDY CANOVA and GIL LAMB have featured supporting roles, while MARTHA RAYE and LOUIS ARMSTRONG have a Harlem themed specialty number (with Raye in blackface) that's better left unmentioned.

The songs are sprightly but the musical taste is strictly from the late '30s. Some of the jokes are amusing but many of them fall flat. DONALD MEEK gets some laughs as a doctor who mistakenly takes his own heartbeat for Benny's and predicts he shouldn't even be walking around.

It passes the time pleasantly enough for those who like these rather creaky musicals from the past before MGM took over with their splashy Technicolored musicals. One of the hit songs, "Whispers in the Dark," (nominated for an Oscar) is sung by Connee Boswell who sings the entire number in dim lighting so that her features are barely even visible.

Some good moments, but a very uneven hodge podge of comedy and music.

Fun collection of stars! Jack Benny stars (without "Rochesterrrrr") in a love quadrangle, and right up to the end, we're not sure just who will end up with whom. Benny is Brewster, who handles the advertising for Alan Townsend (Richard Arlen). The lovely and talented women involved are Paula (Ida Lupino) and Cynthia (Gail Patrick). They sure got their money's worth out of Louis Armstrong and Martha Raye... they do a medley of songs and dance that just goes on and on....Martha Raye in blackface, which so many movies thought they had to do to be hip at the time. Look for Donald Meek as the doctor (worked with WC Fields and all the others) and Hedda Hopper as the rich society dame. Probably the best part of all this is Judy Canova, who sings a fun, lively, saucy number WHILE taking bubble bath. Too bad they didn't put her in more films. Look for a bit with Rube Goldberg. There's a cute bit with violins and orchestra instruments that play themselves. In several scenes, the audio is a little off from the video. Also, the ending is a little abrupt, but all the loose ends are neatly tied up. Lots of fun subtle jokes where Benny lets the costar tell the joke. Ongoing gag with the telephone, but you'll have to watch to hear it. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song "Whispers in the Dark".

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.

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.