Dreadfully Boring

An action-packed slog

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

There's a lot of seriousness amidst the comedy of the Broadway classic "Burlesque", and in its three movie versions, the plot was altered for various changes in structure. "Swing High, Swing Low" is a semi-musical with Fred MacMurray as a trumpet player who marries the pretty Carole Lombard but drifts apart from her as his career soars. Along the way, he meets Latin spitfire Dorothy Lamour who has no hesitation in going out of her own way to seduce MacMurray, leading to the conclusion Lombard believes to have MacMurray cheating on her with Lamour. She moves on to a potentially more loyal partner, but he's more than determined to get her back.The film starts off amusingly with Lombard and pal Jean Dixon (not the famous psychic of the later day 1900's) working as beauty experts on a cruise ship and getting into trouble when they get distracted while working on someone's hair. What is distracting them? Crossing the Panama Canal, and MacMurray's wisecracks towards Lombard as he tries to get the perky Lombard to go out with him. Of course, she eventually agrees (sort of having no choice being dismissed from her job) and they end up working in a shady nightclub run by Cecil Cunningham. MacMurray leads the band with his trumpet and she sings, but he gets a big opportunity to go to the Big Apple and that's where the scheming Lamour takes advantage.A great cast helps this sometimes slow-moving and somewhat overlong comedy up to being better than it would have been with less talented performers. In addition to Lombard, MacMurray, Dixon and Lamour, there's the always funny Ben Blue, a very young Anthony Quinn and an amusing Franklin Pangborn as the beauty shop boss on the steamship. In some ways, this reminded me a lot of "Young Man With a Horn", particularly one dramatic scene where MacMurray is desperately trying to pawn his trumpet to get some money. A lavish look provided by the excellent director Mitchell Leisen adds to giving the film some style. Unfortunately, it's missing the spark to be consistently enjoyable, lacking substance and much needed more music.

The third Fred MacMurray/Carole Lombard film is a bit more serious than Hands Across the Table and The Princess Comes Across. It's yet another adaption of the play Burlesque which apparently was popular back in the day.The original play Burlesque ran on Broadway in the 1927-1928 season for 372 performances and it's the role that Carole Lombard plays that Barbara Stanwyck originated on Broadway that brought her to Hollywood. A version starred Nancy Carroll in the early days of talkies and later on Betty Grable and Dan Dailey did still another version of it in When My Baby Smiles At Me.In fact I have a vinyl album of a radio version that Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler did for the Lux Radio Theater. That's an interesting work, believe me.Anyway MacMurray and Lombard do fine by the old chestnut, the story is now set in a nightclub where Lombard is a singer and MacMurray is a jazz trumpeter. Note a nice performance by Dorothy Lamour as the Latin vixen who gets between Fred and Carole. Also Anthony Quinn is in one of his earliest films as a wolf on the make for Lombard.Swing High, Swing Low holds up real nice today and I wouldn't be surprised if we see yet another version of Burlesque for the Twenty First Century.

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW (Paramount, 1937) directed by Mitchell Leisen, is not necessarily a Tarzan flick, but a reworking of an old Broadway stage play, "Burlesque" (1927) that brought forth to the screen THE DANCE OF LIFE (1929) with Hal Skelly and Nancy Carroll, and a second remake, WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME (20th Century-Fox, 1948) starring Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. While these films were simply backstage stories, this second version takes a different turn set in night clubs, featuring non singers/ dancers Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray as a couple whose musical act consists of he trumpet playing and she talk-singing some "hot" songs.The story opens on a ship passing through the Panama Canal Zone where Marguerite "Maggie" King (Carole Lombard), a singer, earning passage money as a manicurist, traveling with her companion, Ella (Jean Dixon), to California with Maggie planning to surprise Harvey Dexter (Harvey Stephens), a wealthy rancher and fiancé of three years. During a rest stop, the girls spend the day in Panama where they encounter "Skid" Johnson (Fred MacMurray), an ex-Army man posing as a tour guide wanting to get better acquainted with Maggie. They soon land themselves in jail after Skid's fight with a Spanish speaking Don (Anthony Quinn), for trying to pick up Maggie, leaving the nightclub in shambles, thus, causing Maggie to miss her boat leaving port. After Skid's bungalow roommate, Harry Rankin (Charles Butterworth), the "hottest piano player in Panama," pays their bail, Maggie, stranded and broke, becomes their new star boarder, shortly followed by another, a chicken named Butch. Posing as husband and wife, Maggie and Skid obtain jobs at Murphy's (Cecil Cunningham) café and bar, he trumpet playing and she as dancer and hostess. In spite of warnings regarding Skid's bad reputation, Maggie not only forms a successful act between them, but marries him in the process. Things go well until Anita Alvarez (Dorothy Lamour), one of Skid's ex-girlfriends and singer at Murphy's, interferes. She soon leaves for a better jib offer at the El Greco in New York, much to Maggie's delight. However, when Georgie (Charles Arnt), a talent scout, offers Skid an big opportunity trumpet playing in New York, Maggie encourages him to take the offer against his wishes. At the advice of Georgie, Maggie agrees to remain in Panama until Skip makes a hit for himself and sends for her, a decision she would live to regret when Skid becomes a sensation at the El Greco with Anita as his new partner.Songs include: "Swing High, Swing Low" (sung by chorus during opening title credits) by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed; "Lonely Little Senorita" (instrumental/trumpet play by Fred MacMurray); "Panamania" (sung by Dorothy Lamour) by Al Siegel and Sam Coslow; "I Hear a Call to Arms," "I Hear a Call to Arms," "I Hear a Call to Arms"; "Then It Isn't Love," "Then It Isn't Love" (all sung by Lombard) by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin; "Swing High, Swing Low" (instrumental/trumpet) and "I Hear a Call to Arms" (finale/Lombard).For their third time on screen together, Lombard and MacMurray, best known for comedic roles, demonstrate themselves as fine dramatic actors, particularly during the second half of the story. While the movie is a fine blend of comedy and drama, the musical portion comes as a letdown. With the exception of the title tune, the songs are uninspired. There are no production numbers to back them up and frequent high notes on the trumpet gets to become headache inducing after a while. Dorothy Lamour's "Panamania" is lively enough but her vocalizing is interrupted with cutaways of spoken dialog, and never heard through once. Lombard, a fine comedienne in her own right, doesn't cut it as a singer. She made this clear earlier in the story in responding about her singing, "Not very good." Her vocalizing comes off as sultry in the Marlene Dietrich manner, but with MacMurray's trumpet playing, it drowns her out. MacMurray's performance comes off best as the egotistic trumpet player who rises to fame only to lose everything except his trumpet, and roaming the streets a broken down unshaven derelict. Although MacMurray's performance wasn't recognized to be nominated by the Academy as Best Actor, Dan Dailey's interpretation of Skid Johnson in the 1948 remake was.For years, WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME was the better known of the three adaptations due to frequent television revivals.Just as it slowly faded away by the 1970s, the nearly forgotten SWING HIGH, SWING LOW got into the swing of things when it sufficed in the 1980s, notably on a weekly public television series called "Sprockets." A victim of public domain, SWING HIGH, SWING LOW suffers from poor quality prints, ranging from too dark to fuzzy, and available at different running times. (Goodtimes Home Video from the 1980s was the most accurate with its 95 minute run time). Having been shown on several cable networks throughout the years, including the Nostalgia Channel in the 1990s, Turner Classic Movies premiered SWING HIGH, SWING LOW August 17, 2006, an all day tribute to Carole Lombard as part of its annual "Summer Under the Stars." Expecting to finally see this restored to clear picture and sound quality, it's surprising to find the TCM print to not only be of poor quality, but 15 minutes worth of missing material. At present, DVD copies circulating are this shortened 81 minute cut.SWING HIGH, SWING LOW may occasionally hit some high notes, but is of sole interest today mainly for its leading players than anything else. (***)

'Swing High, Swing Low' is a semi-musical, based on a Broadway play (not a musical) called 'Burlesque' which was originally filmed as 'The Dance of Life' when censors wouldn't approve the original title. The play and the original film took place in vaudeville and burlesque: this remake, surprisingly, spends most of its time in Panama City (well away from the Keith-Orpheum circuit). About all that remains of the original is the male anti-hero's name: Skid Johnson. In the original story, the nickname 'Skid' made sense because he was an eccentric dancer. In this remake, Skid Johnson is a jazz trumpeter ... so why is he cried 'Skid'?Fred MacMurray got typecast as nice guys, but just occasionally he got a chance to show his acting ability in nastier roles. He gives an excellent performance as Skid Johnson: brash, bragging, conceited, yet nagged by self-doubts. But in this version, some of Skid's motivations are highly contrived. When Skid first meets unemployed singer Maggie (Carole Lombard, less impressive), he straight away starts bragging about what a wonderful guy he is. Oddly, he trumpets himself constantly yet he never says a word about his abilities as a trumpeter. There's an extremely contrived scene in a Panama nightclub, when MacMurray casually picks up the trumpeter's horn and blows a few licks. (Yes, professional musicians always leave their instruments lying about so the customers can have a go.) It turns out that Skid Johnson is a brilliant jazz trumpeter. So, why is this braggart so very modest about his one genuine talent?There's a soap-opera plot line when Skid becomes 'The King of Trumpeters' in Manhattan while Maggie is growing Spanish moss in Panama. One of the cast members of the Broadway drama 'Burlesque' was Oscar Levant, who got to play piano onstage and fire off a few wisecracks. Levant repeated his stage role in the film 'The Dance of Life', but his part was seriously cut. In this remake, Levant's role is expanded again, but regrettably not played by Levant this time. Charles Butterworth plays Skid's pianist buddy Harry. I've never liked Butterworth, whose screen roles usually include some very contrived business to make Butterworth a 'character'. In this movie, he wears winter clothing during a Panama heat wave. Very credible, I don't think.Maggie is courted by Harvey Dexter, a self-made millionaire who sincerely loves her. But this is one of those annoying movies in which the gal gives up the steady level-headed guy in favour of the unreliable bum who's handsome and charming, and we're supposed to approve her choice. There are bad motivations elsewhere, too. In the first scene, MacMurray is a soldier who talks on sentry duty ... because it's his last day in the army, so they can't fire him. (No, but they can extend his hitch while they give him a nice long sentence in the stockade.) For all its faults and forgettable songs, 'Swing High' features some extremely impressive montage sequences: the best I've ever seen in a Paramount film. (Though not up to the standard of Warners.) Franklin Pangborn appears very briefly, playing his usual cissy role, but he gives here one of his most energetic performances: he twirls frenetically, he taps his fingertips together impatiently. This is one of Pangborn's very best performances, buried in an obscure film. Dorothy Lamour sings pleasantly here but wears a very harsh makeup. Fred MacMurray gives Anthony Quinn a punch in the nose. Any movie where Anthony Quinn gets punched in the nose is fine with me.There's a good performance by Jean Dixon as Lombard's 'seen it all, dearie' pal. Dixon wisecracked her way through several major Broadway roles, but never caught on in film. There's also a good performance by an actress with the mannish name Cecil Cunningham, who plays a nightclub landlord known only by the mannish name Murphy. Cunningham was the ex-wife of vaudevillain Jean Havez, who wrote Groucho Marx's song 'Everybody Works But Father'. That song would have livened up this movie. I'll rate 'Swing High, Swing Low' 5 points out of 10.