Playmates

John Barrymore's career came to an ingloroious end when he was top billed by Kay Kyser and was acting basically as a stooge for Kyser and the rest of the cast of Playmates. Most especially Patsy Kelly who plays agent to an actor named John Barrymore.

Peter Lind Hayes is Kyser's agent and the two of them cook up a plot to help the both of them. For his radio show with studio audience Kyser is to be taught Shakespeare by one of the Bard's most noted exponents.

Kay Kyser was a very big name on radio and in record sales for the whole decade of the Forties. Occasionally he did a film like Playmates and he never played anything more than Kay Kyser which is what the movie-going public wanted from him.

The music is fine, it's always nice to hear Harry Babbitt and Ginny Simms sing. Poor Barrymore though. This was what he was reduced to at the end. At the same time he was doing this in his final career engagement he was also being a stooge for Rudy Vallee on his radio show The Fleischman hour.

There's another Hollywood tragedy here as well. Lupe Velez plays a female bullfighter not too much different from her Mexican Spitfire character. In two years she would be dead by suicide. Lupe was a major star at the beginning of sound, but she liked to party hearty and she ended in B films.

Playmates is good for fans of Kay Kyser, but poignantly sad for those who like John Barrymore and Lupe Velez.

I would have had a much more positive view of this movie if I didn't know and admire John Barrymore.

On the surface of it, this is as good as any of the rest of Kay Kyser's ouevre. If you like him (he is, admittedly, an acquired taste), you will probably like this movie. Lupe Velez and Patsy Kelly add their talents to the usual mix of corn and Swing supplied by Kay, Harry Babbitt, and Ish Kabibble (the true inventor of the Beatle haircut).

What keeps me from truly enjoying this film is the presence of the great John Barrymore in a role more suited to Edgar Kennedy. In his last screen appearance, Barrymore grimaces and cavorts like a Stooge and is obviously reading his lines from cards because he can't remember them anymore. Whether or not the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks are real as he mumbles through Hamlet's soliloquy one last time, mine were real enough.

If you don't reverence Barrymore, and you are a student of the Kollege of Musical Knowledge, this will be your cup of tea. If either of the above isn't true, give it a miss.

I have to agree with akroyal's review above, and say that I really enjoyed this movie and laughed out loud many times! Although I did know that Barrymore was a great and respected actor when I watched the movie, I wasn't all that familiar with his life story, so his scenes didn't have a pathos or pain for me. I didn't feel pity for him: I believe he was having fun with a silly, over-the-top role, and was giving it his all.

I'm not a fan of Kay Kyser, and find him rather silly, but he was okay in this movie. Can't say the same for the members of his band, though, whose dopey dialogue and antics got tiresome fast.

I am a big fan of Patsy Kelly, and she gets lots to do here, which adds to the merriment.

All in all, a really fun comedy!

Well, I'll stick my neck out & say that I think the great JB enjoyed himself making this movie & was happy to not be the " star ". I'm ignorant of the genre but seems that Mr. Kyser is the big name here based on his musical skills & radio profile. Ish, what can we say about Ish ... " What is the difference between a duck ?" This guy was a long haired pot smoker 25 years before the rest of the world caught up. No folks here we have The Nanny, with minor twists, in 1941. The major characters are there, check it out. Any plot line that could support a TV series with less that great entertainers, in any field, has no problem sustaining 95 minutes with this cast. This movie is a hoot, enjoy it for the farce that Mr. Barrymore played it as.

Agents Patsy Kelly (as Lulu Monahan) and Peter Lind Hayes (as Peter Lindsay) decide to get their famous clients - legendary actor John Barrymore (as John Barrymore) and popular band-leader Kay Kyser (as Kay Kyser) together for a profitable publicity stunt. The plan is to have Mr. Barrymore teach Mr. Kyser to perform Shakespeare on stage. At first, both resist. But, Kyser relents and Barrymore needs money. This film features Kyser's very popular band members, sweet singers Harry Babbitt and Ginny Simms along with Beatle-Ish Kabibble, guest star Lupe Velez, Sully Mason, and others...

More importantly, this was Barrymore's last film appearance; he died shortly after its release, and "Playmates" is considered evidence of the once highly-respected actor's sad decline. This is true, for the most part, but you've got to love Barrymore's reciting of Hamlet's "To Be or Not to Be" speech. The Great Profile's reaction after saying "there's the rub" for Kyser in "Playmates" is a must for Barrymore followers. His performance of "Hamlet" on stage was considered one of Barrymore's greatest roles, but there was, sadly, no filmed version; note, a tantalizing "Hamlet" color screen test scene is available on popular video sites.

***** Playmates (12/26/41) David Butler ~ John Barrymore, Kay Kyser, Patsy Kelly, Peter Lind Hayes