Campus Cinderella

This colorized version of the short is about a basketball player who falls in love with a co-ed played by Penny Singleton (Blondie). She is the best thing about this short in my opinion. This short is cute and silly for the time. It's worth watching for those who became stars later on in their careers. Hard to believe it's done in 1938 and in color.

In keeping with the wonderful packaging Turner Entertainment has undertaken in recent years, with "Bringing Up Baby", they include lots of nice extras other DVDs neglect. For example, along with the feature, with the MGM and Warner Brothers feature films, they package a short as well as a cartoon--and occasionally another short or two. In this case, the feature also included the short and cartoon--as well as two great documentaries. Wow.

This short is filmed in a rather archaic form of Technicolor--looking a bit odd and emphasizing pastels. It's not bad looking--just unusual. The film stars a brunette Penny Singleton (who was famous for playing Blondie in a ton of films). Penny is conspiring with a friend to convince a promising athlete to come to her college. The star athlete comes there but doesn't tell his big-shot daddy. There's a lot of singing and 'the big game' but it mostly looks like they took a B-movie and scrunched it into a tiny time slot--and a little something felt like it was missing. Not bad--but not all that good either and probably only of interest to members of the Penny Singleton fan club.

I consider myself a major Penny Singleton fan, so needless to say I enjoyed this little two-reel musical made only months before she achieved stardom in the "Blondie" movie series. Penny stars as co-ed who woos a major basketball recruit to the campus where her father is dean. This movie was shot in early Technicolor and was recently included as a special feature on the "Bringing up Baby" DVD - the print is gorgeous and almost flawless with the exception of a few brief scenes. This little short gives us a rare chance to see Penny return to her vaudeville roots with singing and unique knockabout dancing style. Johnnie Davis was a radio jazz singer/comedian of the era who was never that big and he's OK - more appealing is Anthony Averill who never really got anywhere in the movies, just 14 films including unbilled bits and often cast as a "henchman" in Warner Bros. melodramas. He is quite handsome and if that studio were smarter it would have tried to make him a romantic tough guy like Steve Cochran a decade later. I agree with another reviewer's comments that you don't know if Penny and Johnnie are supposed to be just friends or dating at first, presumably just friends given Johnnie's eagerness that Penny vamp Anthony and get him to register at their college. The movie's name is kind of odd too given the movie is not really a romance but a sports film. Of special note for movie buffs future superstar Susan Hayward in a bit part as one of the co-eds in Averill's first scene (she's the redhead in the blue bathing suit)- she is also briefly spotted to the extreme right in Davis' next song number. This director clearly was no star maker - Susan is one of the co-eds who never gets a really good shot in the film. Another coed is future "Citizen Kane" actress Dorothy Comingmore - she is much tougher to spot because presumably she is not a blonde like she is "Kane". In all, this film is quite a little treat for movie buffs.

Campus Cinderella (1938)

** (out of 4)

Bland short from Warner about a young girl (Penny Singleton) whose father is about to be let go of at her college unless they can get more athletes to enroll. The girl managers to make a basketball star (Johnnie Davis) to fall in love with her but he's having a hard time switching schools because of his jerk father. CAMPUS Cinderella is a pretty boring affair without too much going for it. The story is simple enough but nothing is done with it. The cinematography is quite ugly as every single shot in the film looks cheap. The music are some pretty bad numbers that will make you want to hit the mute button. Even the dialogue never really pays off with. In fact, there's really nothing here that works with the exception of the brunette Singleton who is best remembered for her Blondie roles. She at least brings some life to the material but this isn't enough to save the film. The entire subplot with the fathers just add up to nothing and in the end there's very little reason to watch it.

How typical is Campus Cinderella of comedy shorts of the late thirties? The songs were far too earnest, the acting so far over the top that I wonder, still, if I loathe or love this film.

The two-strip (I'd hazard) Technicolor firmly pegs the film in its era, as does the cartoon acting style, and the pervasive swing-era ethos.

This film is included as a special feature on the 2005 special edition DVD release of "Bringing Up Baby". The madcap sensibilities of the two mesh, and seeing Campus Cinderella helped me better appreciate Baby.

It's fun to watch. The campus antics; the prehistoric basketball; the campy singing and dancing; even the splotchy, saturated color made this an enjoyable waste of 19 minutes of my time. Even if I decide I hated the film.