La grande vie

Rosetta and Vivian Duncan have always done things together. When Rosetta gets fired for being a little free in her vocabulary, Vivian quits. Fortunately, agent Benny Rubin has seen their act at the company show. Along with Lawrence Grey at the piano, they are a hit in vaudeville. But Rosetta thinks it's all them, so Grey gets downgraded... until Vivian marries him. That breaks up the act, and neither is particularly good without the other.

The Duncan Sisters had commitments that made them unavailable for THE BROADWAY MELODY, so MGM made this diagetic musical for them You can see what made them a starring pair in live performances in their performance of "I'm Following You". There are also a couple of two-strip Technicolor sequences for the big production numbers. They definitely were crowd pleasers, but given the advances made in movie musicals over the years, they haven't aged particularly. Even so, it's a decent if unremarkable movie, and excellent for 1929. With Jed Prouty, Oscar Apfel and, I am told, Ann Dvorak in the chorus.

Unfortunately, Alexander Gray is not half as engaging in Sam Wood's "It's a Great Life" as he was in "Sally" (1929) in which he romanced Marilyn Miller. Here he is paired with Vivian, the prettier (if less talented) of the Duncan Sisters who turn out to be comedians rather than the single-minded, full-throated singers I always imagined. Rosetta is the real clown of the act, Vivian the straight "guy" who also sings a little. While Gray struggles with his role as Vivian's love interest, Rosetta's romantic partner turns out to be Jed Prouty, who is surprisingly effective, considering he made no less than seven other movie appearances in 1929, including his most well-known role as the stuttering uncle in "Broadway Melody". There are also some effective cameos from the crowds of extras. The first half of the movie is an unalloyed delight. Director Sam Wood certainly gets things off to a really great start. In fact, I nominate it as the best ever opening sequence for a musical. Better still, this M-G-M production, I'm very happy to say, still has its two Technicolor sequences intact (even in the first is printed a little too dark and the second a little too light in the current DVD).

This is one of the few movies I've had a hard time sitting through to the end. One might guess that the title was an intentional effort by MGM to draw an audience in the dark times of the Great Depression that had just begun. The film came out less than six weeks after the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929. Otherwise, the title, "It's a Great Life," is meaningless with the story.

This is one of the first MGM sound pictures, and it even has a couple of short scenes at the end that are in color. Those are of staged dance and costume extravaganzas. But, at best, they are B-level talent and entertainment. The film's opening scene is a real hoot and the only real comedy in it. What this movie is otherwise, is a scripted play that serves to knit together a few skits and song and dance routines of the Duncan Sisters, Rosetta and Vivian. They were a vaudeville team for some time, and Vivian wrote some of the songs for their act. They had played the title roles in a Broadway musical, "Topsy and Eva," that ran just over four months from late December 1924 to early May, 1925. Those were black face roles of the two characters from "Uncle Tom's Cabin," in a musical play written as a sequel to the Harriet Beecher Stowe story.

MGM was casting about looking for the talent that would soon make it the master and premier studio of cinema musicals. But this film clearly is third-tier for entertainment. The singing would hardly qualify for professional anywhere. The hoofing of the sisters amounts to nothing more than some synchronized steps and movements. And their comedy is lame. It may have been good enough for the smaller venues of the huge vaudeville circuit of the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. In that time, every town big enough to have a theater and people hungry for entertainment had vaudeville.

Some of the early 1929-1930 films with vaudeville-like revue formats had very talented entertainers, some of whom went on to have successful careers in cinema. But, others had people with lesser talents who wouldn't make the cut. This movie is in that group. Besides the lesser music and dance talent, the three leads are very hammy throughout. And the screenplay is sappy melodrama and overacting in the frequent epithets of disgust between Jimmy and Casey.

So, it It should come as no surprise that this was the only sound picture and last of three total feature films that the Duncan Sisters made. But for one more short they made together seven years later, they were finished in films. It is interesting, though, that most of the rest of the staff, including the bit players here, had long careers in film. Jed Prouty who plays David Parker would have 149 credits in films and then television into the 1950s. Benny Rubin who plays the Hogan Sisters' agent, Benny Friedman, acted in cinema and TV for more than six decades, and has 212 credits. Others have more.

One doubts that many people today would find this film entertaining. Most would probably give up on it by halfway through. I'm something of a cinephile who's interested in all aspects of the cinema and its origins and performers. Some others with similar interests, or students studying cinema may appreciate this film for those purposes. But I doubt that there will be many more to join the few who have commented positively on this film to this time. Most may even find my four stars a stretch. But the opening scene is worth one all by itself, and the color sequence toward the end with the choreography and unusual sliding scene earn it one more of the four stars I give it.

Here's an example in the dialog where the vaudevillian hamminess blots out the slight humor. Babe Hogan, "Jimmy, Jimmy, were...were you really thinking of me when you wrote that?" Jimmy Dean, "Sure I was. Every great composer has a girl who inspires his masterpieces."

I love old movies and have a very high tolerance for old fashioned style films, but "It's a Great Life" was very, very hard for me to watch. When seen today, you wonder how the Duncan Sisters could have been such a successful stage act, as they are, at times, godawful and hard to take.

When the story begins, Casey and Babe (Rosetta and Vivian Duncan) are working at a department store and hate the job. Once thing they like, however, is the upcoming store talent show. Unfortunately, the acts bomb one after another and it culminates with Babe performing a terrible song. To try to save it, Casey goes on stage and tries to inject some laughs into the act...and it is a hit. Soon the sisters plan on doing a vaudeville version of this act but this plan is scuttled when Babe gets married...and Casey absolutely hates her new husband, Jimmy. So Babe and Jimmy try their hand at performing...and fall flat on their faces. Casey does better but longs to get back with her sister....but her hatred of Jimmy stops any chance of reunification. What's to come of this?

The main problem with this film is that the singing is just horrid...so bad that it's painful to watch. Some of the acting isn't especially good either (the end with Casey and Babe is just horrible) but frankly these non-singing portions are the highlights! Overall, a curio...just not a very good one. And, frankly, I cannot understand the reviews giving it scores of 8-10. This is NOT another "Broadway Melody" and is best seen for it's historical importance and NOT its entertainment value...which is nil.

Incidentally, if you subject yourself to this one (DON'T!), you'll get to see a couple two-color Technicolor sequences.

What a treat! Early talkie musical starring Broadway and Vaudeville stars, the Duncan Sisters. They sang, danced, and did comedy. This film is sort of a knock-off of THE Broadway MELODY. The Duncan Sisters were wanted for that film but were on the road, so the producers copied them in hiring Bessie Love and Anita Page. Later that year MGM snagged the Duncan Sisters for this film.

They play sisters who work in a department store along with handsome Jimmy (Lawrence Gray). When smart-alec Casey (Rosetta Duncan) gets fired, they all quit and launch a career in "the show business." Jimmy is sweet on Babe (Vivian Duncan) which infuriates Casey.

Anyway, they form an act built around Jimmy's songs. He plays piano while the girls sing and dance. They are a hit, but there is constant friction between Casey and Jimmy. The couple gets married and Casey goes berserk, breaking up the act. Casey goes solo, while the couple tries to make it alone. They all flop. Some time after, Babe gets really sick and Jimmy is forced to track down Casey and bring her back home.

While the plot is creaky and the acting is not always very good, the musical numbers are vintage gold. "I'm Following You," which was a big hit, is sung several times. There is also a great comic version of "Tell Me Pretty Maiden," which was the theme song of FLORODORA GIRL, the terrific Marion Davies film which also starred Lawrence Gray. "The Hoosier Hop" is also solid and done in 2-strip Technicolor. Another color sequence is a fashion parade that goes comically wrong.

Gray is charming and handsome and it's hard to figure why he wasn't a bigger success in talkies. He also has a great singing voice. Benny Rubin and Jed Prouty co-star.

Of the sisters: Rosetta is the shorter one and the broad comic. She kept reminding me of Patsy Kelly and Beryl Mercer. Vivian was "the pretty one" and has an OK soprano voice. They duet on several songs and are quite effective. They both are passable dancers and comics. They were big stage stars but didn't do all that well in films. Their only other feature together was TOPSY AND EVA, based on their smash hit stage musical. They also did a few shorts.

I liked them and thought they were both talented and personable. Maybe they could have found a niche in films. Rosetta was on the verge of a comeback on TV (WILD BILL HICKCOK) when she was killed in a car accident. Vivian apparently retired and lived to be 90.

IT'S A GREAT LIFE is creaky and stagy but what a treat to see these big stars on film.