Top Banana

I remember seeing this on TV as a kid in the mid-1950s and was curious about seeing it again. Then I found it on Kanopy. What was I thinking?

I won't repeat the other comments here; they are mostly accurate. The burlesque routines are spectacular and Silvers and his friends are terrific. But musically, it's a dud all around except for the title number. I expected much more from Johnny Mercer who otherwise has a great catalog of compositions.

As I learned from the other reviews, there were more songs on Broadway than here. It is disappointing that most of Rose Marie's role was cut yet she suddenly appears in a production number in the second act. It is billed as her big song on the TV show but she shows up only at the end of a long dance sequence singing a final chorus with everyone else. You can hardly hear her voice above the din. So much for editing.

I'm a Broadway baby, so I don't mind the single camera shots of a stage. That's how I would see it in a theater. But please, edit for continuity. Silvers, in a suit at the department store, suddenly changes into an artists outfit with no explanation or set up. There are other sudden unexplained jumps that are very distracting.

This film seems like a last ditch effort to salvage something from the stage production for a quick buck in movie theaters. And it shows.

This is a dreadful movie. However, the problem with this movie is in the production, not the performances. Phil Silvers and his supporting cast were great. "Top Banana" is essentially a showcase for old-time burlesque comedy presented by Phil Silvers and company, all of whom were veteran burlesque comics. In fact, the very title of the movie, "Top Banana", is an old burlesque term for the lead comic in a burlesque show, who's was invariably supported by a "Second Banana".

"Top Banana" was a long-running hit show on Broadway. The problem with this movie is that it is basically nothing more than a filmed version of the original stage show, and a very badly-filmed version, at that. The scenes are static, which is what one would expect when the director id doing nothing any more creative than to have a single fixed camera film a show being presented upon a stage. Worse that that, however, is that the movie is poorly edited, disjointed, chaotic and often incoherent. One can only suppose that Phil Silvers and company must have been appalled when they finally saw what a mess the movie studio had made of their hit Broadway show.

Previous users have done a great job of commenting on this "film." It's definitely B-grade - a poorly filmed Broadway production. Actually, quite a bit of early-50s television is BETTER than this Vaudeville rehash. TCM plays this every once in a while, and I happened to tape it this afternoon. Although I rarely fast-forward through a film, I couldn't resist it with this bomb. Sure, it is great to see Rose Marie as an early version of "Sally" from "The Dick Van Dyke Show," but that's about all it has going for it.....well, that, and the Johnny Mercer score. I'm really surprised at how low-tech this film appears, in production value, as well as color quality.

In 1951, Phil Silvers starred in a Broadway musical comedy satirizing the then-champ of TV, Milton Berle -- his ego, his drive, his anything-for-a-laugh desperation. It ran a year but lost money. That didn't stop producer Albert Zugsmith from filming the show, and I mean filming the show -- at a Los Angeles theater, with audience-reaction shots and no attempt at movie production values. It was filmed in cheap color and 3-D (no 3-D prints survive) and given a limited release.

The current print has a vastly reduced running time, with several musical numbers missing. As a movie, it isn't much. But as a curio of a certain kind of stage musical at a certain time in theater history, it's invaluable. The music is loud and brassy, the staging unsubtle, the pace fast. And while Silvers disparages the movie in his autobio, it's a fine documenting of his comic style and energy. The general tackiness of the enterprise (perfunctory song cues, boilerplate romantic subplot, cheesy sets, non-PC attitudes toward women by today's standards) actually add to its period charm. It's also fun seeing a pre-Dick Van Dyke Rose Marie, playing a very similar part.

I believe the only current way to truely appreciate this movie is to get the soundtrack of the stage play on disc or CD and listen to it. It will certainly fill in a lot of the gaps and lessen the confusion when the VHS video is viewed. Somewhere I read that "A Word A Day" was never filmed; too bad, as it's a great number. Based on the soundtrack, which has surprisingly good fidelity (especially after listening to the video), one can envision the play, and possibly uncut movie, as having been very enjoyable. So after watching the video, close your eyes and listen to all the outstanding musical numbers on the soundtrack and envision the stage play as it was and movie as it should have been. Let's hope an full length print someday surfaces.