Big musicals were quite the thing in the (Tosthirties. Universal had Deanna Durbin, Warner Brothers had Busby Berkeley, RKO had Fred Astarie and Ginger Rogers, and MGM had MacDonald/Eddy, Garland/Rooney and the Broadway Melody series which featured Eleanor Powell. "Born to Dance" is basically a sequel to "Broadway Melody of 1936" which had made a star of Powell. Not only was she in this film, but other carry-overs included Una Merkel, Sid (not Phil) Silvers, Frances Langford and Buddy Ebsen. Jimmy Stewart was a young (27) newcomer, who was in eight films in 1936 including one MacDonald/Eddy and one Thin Man film. This, however, was his only singing role.
As musicals go, this is in the revue tradition, with the lightest of plots tying together a collection of song and dance numbers, comic bits and of course, a big, show-stopping finale. The plot here, mixing sailors and Broadway shows only occasionally flirts with reality. The score, written for the film, is entirely by Cole Porter and includes two of his best-known standards, "Easy To Love", and "I've Got You Under My Skin". Though fun, most of the other numbers are in service of the film and were not written to become popular without it. Composers rarely threw a whole group of top songs into a musical, though Porter himself did late in his career with "Kiss Me Kate".
The songs do all serve their purpose. The opening number, "Rolling Along", introduces all the sailors with a male chorus singing something similar to a college fight song (Porter had famously written Yale's). Powell is introduced quickly after this with an orchestra playing "Easy to Love" as she walks down the street, establishing it as the film's love theme. It will be repeated in a big number in Central Park sung by Stewart and Powell. Powell is dubbed by Marjorie Lane, but Stewart is not. His voice is a bit like Fred Astaire's: a light tenor with an almost wispy feeling at times, singing in a way that is somewhere between talking and really belting out a song.
"Rap, Tap on Wood" is a show-biz style number that gives Eleanor a chance to dance in a lobby where four sailors pop up and not only sing, but also play a flute and three ocarinas. "Hey Babe Hey" with a carousel-like melody, gives all three couples a chance to sing in the same number. This film has not just the usual second couple (Merkel and Silvers), which traditionally is comedic but even a third couple. People here fall in love immediately and for no apparent reason, hence Frances Langford and Buddy Ebsen are a couple. Ebsen was an accomplished tap dancer, but here does some swaying moves like he's made of rubber, creating an odd visual effect..
"I've Got You Under My Skin" goes to Virginia Bruce, who plays a Broadway diva whose penthouse is done up in an all-white mix of Deco and Rococo with a gigantic mirror and a terrace with its own fountain. It's on the terrace that she sings it to Stewart, hoping to win him away from Powell. It's a great setting for a great song. The gigantic finale takes place on a stage version of a battleship with everyone done up in white tails and sequins and the music of "Swingin' the Jinx Away" a razzmatazz, Irving Berlin-style number with jivey sections that mention Cab Calloway as their inspiration. This gives everyone a chance to do their specialty and ends things fittingly with only the shortest of scenes afterward to tie up the ends of the plot.
Within all this director Roy Del Ruth places three extended bits by character actors, all of which are memorable. Barnett Parker was a stuffy butler with few lines in many films, but here he does a funny turn as a model home salesman-interior designer in a pompous British manner. Another Brit, Reginald Gardiner, comes on as a cop in what would usually be a ten second walk-on to interrupt the main characters (think "Singing In the Rain") but instead ends up doing a hilarious impersonation of Leopold Stokowski ("Fantasia") conducting. This bit, his first in films, made him a regular character actor in Hollywood. He's now probably best known for "Christmas In Connecticut". Ruth Troy, popular radio comedian, does a shorter but funny bit as a secretary on the phone with a friend.
Overall the film is pleasant if awfully light. The lightness actually helps as there's no need to develop any plot complexities and doesn't overdo it with too many gargantuan numbers. Some of the lines of banter in the script are genuinely funny. Mostly it's Eleanor Powell just bursting into stardom as one of the screen's best dancers ever. She also has a winning way with her character. She's warm and friendly and much like a girl next door, but also can project sophistication and social grace. Una Merkel is her usual loveable, down to earth character as the lead's friend. Stewart was himself just breaking out and had even been given some villainous roles up to this point, but here amid all the foolishness seems genuinely in love with Powell. A good, if not great musical with two great Cole Porter classics.
