Les as du stade

I've seen about half a dozen Ritz Brothers movies and have tried hard to like them...with no success. This was not the case with Wheeler & Woolsey. In their case, the more I watched, the more i enjoyed that comedy team. Perhaps, if I see more, I'll also grow to like the Ritz Brothers...or, I'll become suicidal! Now if anyone can get good performances out of the brothers, it should be the director of this picture, William A. Seiter, as he directed one of the greatest comedies of the 1930s...Laurel & Hardy's "Sons of the Desert". He also directed one of Wheeler & Woolsey's best, "Peach-O-Reno".

The film is set at Lombardy College and begins with Nat Pendleton arriving and making me groan. Why? He's supposed to be an American-Indian and it about as stereotypical and insulting as possible. Perhaps folks laughed at this in 1937 but today it just comes off as sad and painful to watch. It also actually had the purpose of making me look forward to seeing the Ritz Brothers enter the picture!

The plot involves the school and their losing football record...so they force Coach O'Hara to resign even though just about everyone likes him. The new Anerican-Indian student wants to help...and is fabulously wealthy. But he doesn't want anyone to know he's rich...otherwise folks (like the Ritz brothers) will want to become his friend. So, he asks the Ritz Brothers to pretend to be the donors and give the money a huge endowment...provided they keep O'Hara. This Indian also wants to be quarterback. What's next? Plenty!

In addition to the Ritz Brothers doing their schtick, Joan Davis is also on hand to provide comic relief...such as it is. Surprisingly, she manages to be more annoying than the Brothers, as hers is a strictly one-note performance as the man-crazy girl.

If it sounds like I didn't adore the film, you're right. However, oddly, it wasn't the Brothers' fault (though it usually is). The insulting Indian character and Davis manage to do a lot to make me dislike the film. Overall, a misfire and a film which has its moments...but it also has a lot to dislike as well.

By the way, I am not sure about the rules for football back in 1937, but I looked and today it IS legal for a quarterback to throw the ball to himself (even if it's not tipped) if he's lined up in the shotgun formation.

This just isn't a good movie. That Ritz Brothers' comedy is limited, best in their dance numbers and very weak in the dialogue passages. They can't carry a feature-length film on their own.

But there's nothing else here to carry it for them. The script is obvious and lame- brained, and the other performers can't do anything with it. (Who could?)

And then there's the blatant racism, mostly directed against Native Americans. It's sobering to remember that this movie was made by Fox Pictures, a fairly important studio, in 1937, the same year Fox released Shirley Temple's Heidi, and two years after it starred her in The Little Colonel with Black dancer Bill Robinson.

There really isn't anything to recommend this picture. The few mildly funny passages won't compensate for sitting through 80 minutes of tedium and embarrassing racism.

Nat Pendleton as "George" the American Indian rings the changes of just about every possible stereotype ("Me-um, How, etc.) that the most gutter-minded person could imagine. It's not quite at the level of "Birth of A Nation" but comes close. I know this was a different and less sensitive time, and maybe it is wrong to judge it by current standards. At best, it is an indicator of how far we have come in the 80 years since it was filmed.

I enjoyed this movie very much. Plenty of good humor if you're not overly woke. The drop dead gorgeous, Marjorie Weaver it's only in the movie at the 42 - 46 minute mark, and she has no lines!

A hilarious scene is actually the one with Marjorie Weaver. Here, the Ritz are bribing the college dean to keep the coach. A lot of good humor and song and dance. I laughed out loud several times while viewing.

Too often the Ritz boys were not allowed to just let loose and run away with a picture like other comedy teams of the time. Even as headliners in this one, they are not really given the chance to shine as characters. In "Life", they are three college-campus tailors who befriend an American Indian who shows up as a freshman and is promptly abused by his classmates.

Fans of the politically correct steer clear, as this film does not treat Native Americans with a whole lot of respect. The first shot of the film is a sign identifying the college as a school for American Indians. A girl says, "I've never seen an Indian here". An older gentleman replies, "Oh the school was started for Indians, but they have schools on reservations now. A few years back an Indian tried to go here, but of course we ran him out!" Enter Nat Pendleton as the latest Indian, nearly running folks over on his motorcycle.

But back to the Ritzes. They get three specialty song and dance numbers entirely unrelated to the plot. Some good crazy dancing. One or two funny scenes otherwise. Meanwhile the leading man is entirely unlikeable and a bad actor to boot, so we don't even root for him to get the girl. Tony Martin has what amounts to a cameo. Joan Davis fans will be pleased.