Garden of the Moon

Choreographer Busby Berkeley, known for his contributions to films like 42nd Street, Dames, the Gold Diggers films, and so many others, also did quite a bit of movie directing.

He directed this 1938 musical starring Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, and John Payne. The leads were intended for Bette Davis and Dick Powell, but Powell allowed took a suspended rather than do the Payne role.

John Quinn (O'Brien) manages a night club, Garden of the Moon, that has booked Rudy Vallee and his band. When Valee is in a car accident, Quinn's secretary Toni (Lindsay) books Don Vincente (Payne) -- a nobody -- and his band.

The band is thrilled to have the steady work, but when they arrive, they find out that they are only to be there for two weeks. Vincente feels duped, and from there on, war is declared.

Toni and Vincente fall for one another, and Toni plots a scheme to keep him and the band there. By the time Vincente gets a lucrative offer to do some radio shows, Quinn is determined to do anything to keep him.

Pleasant musical with some very funny bits in it, including a maharajah "friend" of Don Vincente who brings a lot of publicity to the club, in spite of the fact that he is in reality an ex-waiter and a not so ex- thief.

Payne, a real find for Darryl Zanuck, who signed him and made him a star in 1940, sings like a dream and is a solid romantic lead. Like Powell, this wasn't his favorite kind of role, and, like Powell, he ultimately went the noir route.

This movie was a departure for Margaret Lindsay, who had played heavier roles in the past; nevertheless, she pulls it off and probably fit it better than Bette Davis would have.

As Quinn, Pat O'Brien is great. He plays an abrasive boss with a soft spot for royalty, and he can be friendly when he has to be - that's almost never to an employee, with the exception of Toni.

Berkeley did a good job with this - it's pleasant and funny with good comedy and singing. Not terribly special, but entertaining.

This film is a pip and I'll tell you why- the presence of Johnny 'Scat' Davis.He was always the PERFECT musical sidekick in so many of the lightweight musical/ comedies of the late 30s and lights up the screen w/ his sincere energy and wholesome smile. JUST recently I've wanted to know more about him, and this is one of his best! Pat O'Brien is great and funny in a real 'rat you love to hate' kinda way. I can't look at pretty Margaret Lindsey without expecting to see Frankenstein's monster lumbering around the scene. This is a great little warm and fuzzy Busby Berkeley film. Perfect on a rainy afternoon. Caught it on TCM. John Payne is passable as the band leader, though he's not the best singer, if that's his voice. Definitely worth seeing!

GARDEN is one of those forgotten "B" undercard films that has found new life on TCM. Pat O'Brien and a very young John Payne cross swords as a prickly nightclub manager and a struggling band leader, respectively. The plot is incidental, and involves Payne and his band traveling from NYC to play in O'Brien's popular L.A. club, only to find they are being swindled by O'Brien. The story is not to be taken seriously, and the film largely exists for a lot of big band era music, with some swing numbers thrown n, although no black players appear that I recall. Payne looks and sounds great, and is ably supported by a marvelous actress, completely forgotten today, named Margaret Lindsay and of course the cantankerous, fast-talking O'Brien. Pop-eyed, nonsense-spouting Jerry Colona is along for the ride. The novelty number, "Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish," better known today thanks to a Looney Tunes cartoon, made its debut here.

Whether or not you like this film may depend a lot on whether or not you love musicals...as well as the singing voice of John Payne. Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of musicals and I distinctly did not enjoy Payne's singing. And, on top of that, the character played by Pat O'Brien is very familiar--though meaner than the sort of guy O'Brien often played. A bit less singing and a bit less meanness and I might have enjoyed this more.

This film, directed by Busby Berkeley, begins with Rudy Valle's bus being run off the road and several members of the band (none of which you ever see) are injured. As a result, they are not able to play for the opening of O'Brien's nightclub, The Garden of the Moon. No other big-name act is available Margaret Lindsey convinces O'Brien to take his chance on an unknown band led by John Payne. The band is thrilled but soon after they arrive, O'Brien begins treating them like garbage. This could have been done well, but they frankly made O'Brien a total jerk. As a result, later in the film when the film makers wanted you to like and connect with him, you couldn't. The rest of the film consists of on-again/off-again fights between Payne and O'Brien and Lindsey's attempts to get them to patch things up--though I was hoping Payne would just slug him! The film consists of a lot of ordinary music and some forced comedy. There was a terrible ordinariness about the film and while there isn't a lot to hate, the film was only mildly diverting and nothing more. Frankly, everyone in the film did better work than this!

The Garden of the Moon is the name of a nightclub in Los Angeles and it is obviously meant to represent the Cocoanut Grove Night Club which was located in the Ambassador Hotel. It was THE premier nightspot in Tinseltown and only the best acts appeared there.

The Ambassador Hotel also entered history for a tragic reason, it was there that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Some twenty years after that the Ambassador was torn down and the old Cocoanut Grove was razed. It hadn't been operating for some years before that.

But in this film it's the Garden of the Moon and it's run by the fast talking, imperious Pat O'Brien. The only time O'Brien ever slowed down the tempo of his dialog was to play priests in Angels With Dirty Faces and The Fighting 69th while he was with Warner Brothers. But Pat was always entertaining.

O'Brien was most often teamed with James Cagney, but also he did several films with Dick Powell usually as a manager, agent, mentor, etc. for Powell who would sing. Powell was getting tired of doing musicals and the role of the band-leader/crooner in this film was so obviously written for him.

A newcomer named John Payne got a break here playing the Powell part. He gets a telegram from O'Brien signing him for an appearance at the Garden of the Moon and he and the band race across the country and then find out it's only for two weeks. For the rest of the film O'Brien and Payne are at each other's throats and Payne is helped by nightclub publicist Margaret Lindsay who works for O'Brien, but has fallen big time for Payne.

Songs here are by Harry Warren and Al Dubin and the director is Busby Berkeley. Like Dick Powell, they were coming to the end of their Warner Brothers contracts. Berkeley didn't break any new ground and no hit songs emerged from the score, but the three of them did their jobs in their usual professional style.

Curiously enough John Payne right after this was signed by 20th Century Fox to be a musical Tyrone Power who he resembled. And also Payne's career followed a similar path to Dick Powell's in that eventually he eschewed musicals for dramatic parts and did them as well as Powell did.

It's minor league Busby Berkeley, but even in the minor leagues it's still good entertainment.