Thanks a Million

If you can accept the premise: that an out-of-work crooner can be nominated for governor of a state on the basis of a single speech, there are some attractive moments in this film. Dick Powell moves beyond his ingenuous Warner Brothers musical style, and seems on his way to becoming the actor he later showed himself to be. Fred Allen replicates his sharp-tongued radio persona, and is able to provide most of the humor, even though he clearly did not have a charismatic screen presence even as real as that of Jack Benny or Eddie Cantor. The satirical treatment of small-state politics is rather heavy-handed, suggesting that there is nothing but self-interest involved. The songs are nothing special, but Powell delivers them in his usual off-hand yet convincing manner. For me, the most interesting and surprising episodes in the film were the two song and dance numbers by Ann Dvorak and Patsy Kelly. Having known Dvorak only as a performer in melodrama, from Scarface to Rebel Without a Cause, I looked closely, to see whether there was a double; but there were enough close-up shots to let one see that her dancing wasn't faked.(Whether the singing was dubbed is another matter). She was always an actress whose work I found compelling, though she never achieved top stardom at Warners; perhaps because Bette Davis was slated for some roles Dvorak might have played. Probably not a "gem", but a film many will enjoy.

What a novel idea, have a talented group of entertainers be the opening number in political campaign rallies for a candidate to office. Which is what Ned Lyman discovers, as he and his troupe appear in a small auditorium where a political speech is to be given later on at the same theater by the candidate for governor of the state, Judge Culliman. Mixing theater people with politicians will appeal to voters, or so Ned thinks. The Judge in his run for governor of the state hasn't elicited much sympathy. Add to that a drinking problem and Ned sees a great opportunity.

Ned Lyman is a resourceful man that sees an angle in which keep the company he has assembled together and precede the aspiring candidate's spiel to the crowd. Since Judge Culliman can't get it together, Ned appeals to his star crooner, Eric Land, to read the speech to the audience. The singer becomes a hit and what's more, the political machinery behind the campaign see in him a person that can be manipulated. Are they in for a surprise!

"Thanks a Million" is a delightful comedy with music directed by Roy Del Ruth. Dick Powell, who appears as Eric Land at the height of his singing career is the best thing in the movie. Equally effective is Mel Allen, the radio personality in a rare screen appearances. Ann Dvorak is seen as Eric's love interest, and Patsy Kelly is a singer with the company and Ned's girl.

The film is entertaining as well as has an important message as the end when Eric Land unmask all the people that thought they could use him for their own personal gain.

Would be state governor "Judge Culliman" (Raymond Walburn) has a penchant for the bottle, so when he engages a band to help gee up support for his hustings and then suffers a terrible bout of "indigestion", his backers suggest that the band leader "Land" (Dick Powell) earn his cash by going on stage and extolling the virtuous of their illustrious candidate. A political speaker he isn't, but he does manage to précis the text and get enough response from the audience to convince the power that be that his knight be the better candidacy. Sure, he doesn't know anything about politics, but they can do all of that! Sound familiar? Anyway, he consults with his pal "Sally's (Ann Dvorak) and agrees to do it so long as he and his band can croon their way through the campaign. Gives what? This starts to work. The electorate are buying into his innocent integrity: he's not making loads of promises for them to know he won't keep. As the election looms, though, his personal life takes a bit of a tumble and when he is finally presented with a document that will ensure he is well and truly cuckolded on office, well he knows he has some serious thinking to do. I quite enjoyed the premise here, even if it does rather suggest the electorate aren't the sharpest tools in the box and are mostly susceptible to corrupt orators; there's a gentle chemistry between Powell and Dvorak and Walburn also delivers engagingly as the dipso who apparently managed to fall asleep whilst sitting in court! There are quite a few songs included here, a few of which were actually sung by the stars themselves, and in the end I felt Roy Del Ruth managed to juggled the light entertainment elements with the romance and the political quite effectively.

A fine-tuned crooner, two dancing sisters, a fast-talking agent, a gin-soaked gubernatorial candidate and an unemployed orchestra troupe collide with a pack of corrupt officials in this well-honed production, often classified as "the greatest political comedy of the Great Depression."

But, in a broader sense, it may well rank as the most entertaining political satire in film history.

Thanks a Million (20th C Fox 1935) would become an early Musical for the newly-formed 20th Century Fox Studio, for which crews constructed Sound Stage #16, a theatre set, to film "a show within a show," casting scores of extras as audience members.

This films's four leading characters arrive from varying entertainment backgrounds.... Dick Powell, a major star of Warner Bros. musicals, as 42nd Street (1933), Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Footlight Parade (1933) and Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934), had performed as a tenor in his early career.

Ann Dvorak, a child star in the Silents, had achieved recognition as a leading lady at Warner Bros. In Three on a Match (1932), she, Joan Blondell and Anne Shirley are billed above Bette Davis Warren William, Lyle Talbot, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins and Edward Arnold.

Fred Allen, host of several radio programs between 1932 and 1949, including "Town Hall Tonight" and "The Fred Allen Show," would arrive from NYC for his first major feature film roll here.

Patsy Kelly, a vaudeville dancer/comedian from childhood, had arrived in Hollywood four years earlier, to co-star with Thelma Todd in a series of comedy short films.

"Thanks a Million" introduces Eric Land (Dick Powell), Sally Mason (Ann Dvorak), Phoebe Mason (Patsy Kelly), Ned Allen (Fred Allen) (Actually should/be Ned "Lymon"), along with Tammany (Benny Baker) and David Rubinoff and the Yacht Club Boys (Charles Adler, Billy Mann, George Kelly, James V. Kern) in its opening scene, aboard a bus being chauffeured (by Herbert Ashley) through a downpour.

As the vehicle's radio receives an instrumental version of the song "Thanks a Million," performed by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, Ned challenges the Bus Driver that his troupe could outperform (after a little edging by Phoebe).

As the band prepares, Sally learns from Eric that he hails from this state, which they're crossing en route to New York City, and once swore that he wouldn't have returned without achieving success as a singer.

But soon, they're stranded. During a stop over, Ned schemes employment with Mr. Grass (Andrew Tombes) and other Commonwealth Party's gubernatorial candidate's election committee members to embellish the ticket with entertainment coinciding with speech-making.

This plan partially backfires on the heels of Sally and Phoebe's song and dance performance of "Sugar Plum" and Eric's spectacular delivery of "Sittin' on a Hilltop," no one would stay to hear Judge Culliman (Raymond Walburn).

At a celebration party, with Eric, Phoebe and the Yacht Club Boy's singing a politically flavored rendition to the tune of "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue," Ned enters to douse their enthusiasm, delivering an ultimatum from campaign headquarters, thereby redirecting any plans from New City on.

But the plot thickens as Judge Culliman arrives at the next venue not feeling much pain. Enter politicians from the Commonwealth Pary: Mr. Kruger (Alan Dinehart) Maxwell (Paul Harvey), Mr. Casey (Edwin Maxwell), plus Mrs. Kruger (Margaret Irving), who form agendas of their own.

Before the election is decided, more tunes fill the air: Eric and the Yacht Club Boys team for the magnificent "Sittin' on a Hilltop."

Gov. Wildman's (Charles Richman) reelection committee hires Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, featuring Ramona and the King's Men, to perform "New O'leans."

And with David Rubinoff at his side on violin, Eric delivers the title song, "Thanks a Million," which would go on to become one of Dick Powell's hit records, as well as signature song.

Patsy Kelly and Fred Allen keep the wisecracks coming through to the ending, a scene which ranks among the most highly implausible endings in film history.

But the very premise of "Thanks a Million" is political farce, so this makes it all the more memorable.

After becoming Warner Brothers big musical star in the Thirties, Darryl Zanuck who had formerly been chief of production at Warner Brothers before going to 20th Century, got Jack Warner to loan him Dick Powell for two films. The second was On the Avenue which may have been his best film in the decade and this one, Thanks a Million which is almost as good.

Powell desperately wanted to broaden his range, but the only thing Jack Warner gave him that could be classified as broadening was A Midsummer Night's Dream and that was a bit too broad. While both Thanks a Million and On the Avenue were not heavy drama, the writing was considerably above what Powell was given at Warner Brothers.

I happened to have some old vinyl albums which contained Dick Powell's recordings of the songs he sang from this film even though I had never seen it until recently. I liked the score that Arthur Johnston and Gus Kahn wrote, very much and it was what prompted me to get a bootleg tape of Thanks a Million. I'm glad I did.

It's one of the best political satires, I've ever seen done. Powell is a singer with a troupe traveling by bus to New York when it inevitably breaks down. To sing for their supper they join forces with political candidate Raymond Walburn to provide entertainment at his rallies. Soon they take over and one night when Walburn gets to drunk to go on, Powell gives a synopsis of his speech. Then political bosses Alan Dinehart and Paul Harvey get the bright idea to substitute Powell as their puppet candidate.

Elect a singing governor, nonsense you say. I would hasten to remind you that in that same era, Jimmie Davis was elected governor of Louisiana, Wilbert Lee O'Daniel was elected governor of Texas, and Glen H. Taylor became Senator from Idaho on the strength of their radio entertainment. Not as far fetched as you think. And very shortly Powell's home studio would be signing a mid-west sports announcer to an acting contract who would one day be president of the United States.

Powell gets able support from Ann Dvorak and Patsy Kelly as a singing sister duo, concert violinist David Rubinoff, radio's Fred Allen in the kind of role William Demarest later did for Preston Sturges. But acting honors go to Raymond Walburn. Walburn had playing these bloviating jovial type politicians down to a science, but he was never better than in this film as the tipsy fatuous judge the political bosses nominate as a puppet. He steals every scene he's in and the film should be preserved for him alone as well as one of Dick Powell's best musicals.

The songs Powell sings in this film Thanks a Million, I'm Sitting High On a Hilltop, and I've Got a Pocketful of Sunshine are very good. The last two were the philosophical type numbers that normally one would associate with Bing Crosby. In fact next year Arthur Johnston the composer part of the team would be writing for Crosby, they'd be doing Pennies from Heaven over at Columbia.

You made a million dreams come true and so I'm saying thanks a million to you, Dick Powell.