Flying with Music

"Flying with Music" is a film with an overall rating of 4.0. However, despite this a couple reviewers gave this one 10s...which I just don't understand...especially since 4.0 seems, if anything, a bit generous.

There is not a whole lot of plot in the film...mostly because it is a musical and clocks in at only 46 minutes. The scant plot finds Don running to Latin America from authorities for back alimony payments. Simply paying the money would have ended it...but instead he poses as a nerdy tour guide for some hot to trot young ladies and their fun-hating chaperone. Along the way is a bit of romance and MANY forgettable musical numbers and a particularly bad male singer. It also sports a tacky black-face portion...which just made me cringe.

Because of the silly and thin plot and the overabundance of musical numbers, I actually found this film pretty dull. It's also one of the lowest rated 'Streamliners' from Hal Roach Studios...ultra-short B-movies that they made in the early 1940s. Worth seeing if you love these sorts of movies, but if you must watch some Streamliners, try the military films with William Tracy and Joe Sawyer or the taxi films with William Bendix and, again, Joe Sawyer...all quite enjoyable and with a few laughs.

This Movie, "Flying with Music" was shown on Turner Classics today! It was shown as part of "Movies nominated for Oscars" Month. My Tivo decided it was something I would want to watch...and BOY was my TIVO right! "Flying with Music" is just so bizarrely wonderful. There is something about Roach Studios Movies of the early 40s that captures an essence of the 40s that neither the Large Studios, nor the Poverty Row Studios ever really got. It is hard to put into words, but there is a "reaching" for quality above means, and from the looks of it, "Flying with Music" may have had the largest budget spent on a movie from this Studio.

Everyone sings, everyone dances...there is barely a breath taken between unfamiliar songs with a Latin Beat, or songs simply crooned in the best Bing Crosby manner. There is an endless Lagoon Number number featuring Tribal Beats and scantily clad dancers.

But what you really need to see is sequence with the Oscar nominated song "Pennies for Peppino". It comes out of nowhere, and if you didn't know that THIS is the Oscar nominated song from the movie, you may not give it much thought. A group of children see the cast in the back of a Cart being slowly pulled to town and begin to "beg" for Pennies to be thrown to them ...offering to sing, dance, stand on their heads just for "Pennies for Peppino".

There is just something about knowing that this little song, in this short sequence, in this "little " movie lost the 1942 Best Song Oscar to White Christmas gives it that tiny bit of majesty.

A private collector has finally allowed me to see this almost forgotten musical -and it deserves to be forgotten. It is a 50 minute Hal Roach musical programmer that is grade B in every way - there is an erroneous official timing of 71 minutes that proliferates but I am trying to get that removed.

The plot is almost non-existant. The characters are thinly drawn and the direction, acting and production values are beneath contempt.

George Givot plays a man on the lam from a divorce and alimony. He disguises himself as a tour guide for five young socialites. The lead socialite, Marjorie Woodworth, is looking for love from a latin singer she idolizes - the reason for the trip - but is romanced by a pilot. Eventually all things end happily. The only bright spot is a midget, Jerry Bergen, who plays the comic foil for the detective who is trying to nail Givot.

The score (five forgettable numbers) and the song PENNIES FOR PEPPINO earned Oscar noms - totally and irrevocably undeserved - these were the days when every studio could submit its "best" as nominees in the categories of sound, score, scoring, song and special effects.

It took me over forty years to find this turkey and the result was not worth the effort. Note that lyricists Chet Forrest and Bob Wright went on to create SONG OF NORWAY and KISMET on Broadway.

This is a typically wacky fast-paced Hal Roach comedy padded with some laughably ridiculous musical numbers.

It has everything - coochie dancers, pan-American travelog, Latin crooners, jungle romance, buxom blondes, blackface mammies, mediums, even a midget. The only furnishing it lacks is a suitably funny leading man. George Givot's performance as the obnoxious boob running from alimony payments wont leave you begging for more. Despite the occasional cramp he puts in the fun, the rest of the cast sail through the gags effortlessly.

I hope it shows up as an extra in a DVD package in the future - a true delight.

Okay, so it isn't Oscar material. Okay, so all the leads are completely unknown to today's audiences. Okay, so the plot is silly and laughable. But when you see the extent that was gone to, to put together this musical, with all the sets and the songs, you have to appreciate this really precious little minor musical. It's really a shame that movie makers don't have the impetus to concoct entertainment of this type any more. Commnents such as 'but it was an innocent time' don't deserve credence. It's all around us, the stuff that exists to put together something of this caliber. The girls are beautiful, the sets are interesting and colorful and the songs are a lot of fun. The musical is so reminiscent of it's era that is literally a time capsule of this nation in the grips of World War II and how it was being coped with. It's well worth the time spent viewing and should be converted to DVD to send the message.