Le cavalier errant

Powell is a sporting goods salesman who goes out to the track using a well known jockey's name trying to drum up business for their sporting goods by using and wearing those goods. But the imitation is too good. Anita Louise is the niece of a rich uncle who owns a stable of racehorses, and at first wants Powell to ride the wild horse, "Jeepers Creepers" in the Steeple chase, but then changes her mind and wants him to ride her own fast but tame horse, Lady Ellen. Powell's problem is that he takes a shine to the girl and just can't say no, but he is NOT a jockey! For the girl's sake he doesn't want to lose the race nor does he want to make a fool of himself and get trampled in the process. Louis Armstrong is the groom who can only calm the wild horse by playing "Jeepers Creepers" on his trumpet. Allan Jenkins is a gangster-type who has this inside information on the horse and is leaning on Powell to throw the race AND ride the wild horse, NOT the tamer fast horse Anita Louise wants Powell to ride. How will this turn out? Watch and find out, but first make a pot of coffee. It's a snoozer folks.

On the positive side, there are some great tunes and Powell's charm and voice are usually enough to carry almost any film through. Plus there is the great Satchmo singing "Jeepers Creepers". However, the plot, point by point, is just so inane yet boring. Ray Enright directed this film, and I've noticed that he directed more than his share of dogs over at WB. I'm not sure if Warner Brothers gave Ray the dogs to direct because he was Ray Enright, or if the films were dogs because of the way he directed them. Let's just say that Ray Enright as director in the credit is usually not the mark of quality.

My recommendation - if you are a Dick Powell completist and can keep your attention focused on Powell, his antics, and his singing, this is probably going to at least keep you awake. Otherwise, have it on hand if you ever have a severe case of insomnia, because "Going Places" is a film that goes nowhere.

Forget the silly plot - watch this for the wonderful music, including Jeepers Creepers, and the incredible Mutiny in the Nursery featuring Louis Armstrong (who has a major acting role), Maxine Sullivan, and the Dandridge Sisters (including a teenaged Dorothy).

One wonders if the thugs, Allen Jenkins and Harold Huber, singing Oh What a Horse was Charley Til He Got a Charley Horse, was any kind of inspiration for the singing thugs in Kiss Me, Kate.

The plot - well, as an advertising stunt, Dick Powell impersonates a famous horseman, Peter Randall, falls in love with Anita Louise, and ends up jockeying Jeepers Creepers who only responds to the song. The race has to be seen to be believed. And even then, you won't believe it.

See it for the musical numbers.

Well, since it's Black History Month and I usually review films in chronological order concerning African-Americans in them during this time, this movie was next on my list. First, Louis Armstrong plays a horse trainer who's in charge of a horse named Jeepers Creepers and the only way he can tame that horse is by playing the song of that name on his trumpet. And he not only sings that song but another one called "Mutiny in the Nursery" along with Maxine Sullivan, the Dandridge Sisters consisting of Dorothy, Vivian, and Etta Jones, as well as white leads Dick Powell and Anita Louise. Eddie Anderson appears as a trainer of another horse named Lady Ellen. And someone named George Reed appears as a butler named Sam. Other fine supporting turns came from Walter Catlett and Thurston Hall. And since I always like to cite when players from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-appear in something else, here Ward Bond plays a cop who confronts Allen Jenkins when he has a horse walking with him at night on the road. Oh, and this was one of future president Ronald Reagan's early film appearances introing himself with an announcer-like speech not unlike when he was on radio previously. In summary, Going Places was a very funny movie with many entertaining musical numbers.

GOING PLACES is a slight comedy about horse racing that features a terrific cast of supporting players, many of them like Walter Catlett and Thurston Hall some of the best characters actors ever seen on screen. Powell, in his pre-hardboiled detective days, plays a store clerk who poses as a jockey for promotional reasons among the horse set in Maryland. Catlett is his co-worker who poses as his valet. Much identify confusion and merriment ensue, with several musical interludes, the most memorable being Mr. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong debuting the classic number, JEEPERS CREEPERS, which in the movie is the name of a cantankerous race horse the horse-shy Powell ends up riding. This sort of film and in some cases the exact same plot had been done before and would be done again many times, with better known names like Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello and The Marx Brothers. Horse racing was at its most popular in the 1930s and '40s, only to quickly decline in the TV era. The highlight of the movie is an amusing musical number called "Charlie the Horse" sung in four-part harmony by Powell, Catlett and two silly thugs who are pushing the horse-hating Powell to race. It may remind some of something out of GUYS AND DOLLS.

This pre-war comedy of impersonation and manners at a race course is amusing. Watching Louis Armstrong and hearing him sing the old standard, "Jeepers Creepers," makes the movie. Hollywood's casual acceptance of racial bias and denigration of blacks is cooly reflected by two race track gamblers addressing Armstrong as "Uncle Tom" when they meet him.