Sarong Girl

The best way to describe "Sarong Girl" is that it is both entertaining and dumb. Much of it is because it's a cheap B-picture from Monogram, a company not generally known for quality pictures. It's also a showcase for some C-list talent...and that in no way helps the movie.

Dixie is a burlesque dancer who is in trouble with the law. Her shyster lawyer convinces the judge, however, that Dixie can't go to jail because she is the sole support of her poor mother. The problem is that she has no mother, so when she's placed on probation, she and her lawyer need to come up with one.

At the same time, Dixie is somehow mad at the prosecutor and so she sets out to seduce his son. However, when he falls for her and wants to marry her, things get complicated.

I think had the film only focused on the characters I mentioned, it might have worked much better. But the studio decided to cast some comic relief. Manton Moreland, always the professional, is just fine. But Tim and Irene Ryan, well their C-list impersonation of Burns and Allen just comes off as grating...as Irene is far LESS subtle than her Granny Clampet character she played on "The Beverly Hillbillies"...FAR, FAR LESS. In fact, she's just grating and awful. Combining that with the ridiculous ending to the story and too many tunes, and you have a far less satisfying film than it really should have been.

A song with that name is sung in a nightclub. Hawaii and Harlem seem to be viewed as equally foreign and exotic.

Ann Corio is appealing as the title character. She was indeed a famous burlesque dancer. Whether she wore sarongs or not, I'm not sure.

This is a Monogram picture. Their movies are generally fun. They were made very cheaply and it shows -- endearingly.

Irene Ryan is the comic relief. Yes, Granny from TV, but with dark hair. And comic she is! At first she does a kind of Gracie Allen routine. But her singing is hilarious: She sings a song in close-up and her lower lip trembles as she sings. She is in the Cass Daly, Joan Davis tradition. What a tradition, too.

(And Judy Canova was in that tradition - sort of. She was in a class of her own: a very high class. I wish her movies would be brought out on DVD!) This movie is no great work of art. But it's pleasant and Corio is quite some dish.

SARONG GIRL is a low-budget Monogram Studios romp that turns out to be quite entertaining. The well-known burlesque star Ann Corio (in one of her five films) is the nominal star as Dixie Barlow, a burlesque queen whose shyster lawyer gets her out of a jail term by telling the judge she is the sole support of her elderly mother, the plot used earlier in 1934's LADY BY CHOICE with Carole Lombard and May Robson (although this is not a remake). Lawyer man sets up Annie in his pal bookie Tim Raynor's apartment and moves her and the faux ma into it without bothering to inform Mrs. Raynor about it. The Raynors are played by vaudeville stars Tim & Irene Ryan, here making one of their first feature film appearances. Soon Dixie is offered a stint at an upscale nightclub (Monogram's version of an upscale nightclub anyway) at which her most prominent stage door Johnnie is none other than the son of the judge who threatened her with jail. Seeking revenge, Dixie plots to vamp the scion and end up part of the wealthy family.

This short (the print airing in 2007 on Turner Classic Movies ran 64 minutes, not 70 as IMDb states) musical moves quickly and breezily thanks to a talented cast which includes silent star Betty Blythe as a society matron. Miss Corio is stuck with a role thinner than her wardrobe but this being a mainstream film, doesn't get to the display the striptease talents that made her quite famous off the screen. Here she is limited to a very mild hula (the movie's title is curious and apparently chosen just because the moniker "sarong girl" was quite famous during the period thanks to Dorothy Lamour and various South Sea island adventure films; Miss Corio never actually wears a sarong but rather typical Hawaiian garb despite Dixie Barlow being listed as "The Sarong Girl" on billboards at the nightclub.)

The true joy of the movie is actress Irene Ryan, some 20 years before achieving fame as Granny on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, in a deliciously wacky role as the dingy lady of the house. Irene produces genuine laughs out of silly quips in her Gracie Allenesque role and stops the show with a satiric "weeper" song. While all of the cast is good, Irene Ryan raises the film to a higher level and shows she had big time talent years before she hit the big time.

This is sort of a Shakespearean comedy, in that it sends the heroine off on a masquerade, presents her with a dilemma of love and morality, and abounds with subplots featuring minor characters who, although sketchily drawn, are more interesting than the lead characters. I'd like to mention bandleader and trumpeter Johnny "Scat" Davis, who imitates Louis Armstrong (I'm not sure if it's supposed to be understood as an homage or if it's just an overwhelming influence) but comes up with one or two surprise licks of his own. I admit that unlike another commenter, I did not see how the plot was going to end up. When the fellow whom the female lead sets out to bamboozle turned out to be someone she could find fairly likable, I figured the rest is a slam-dunk, but it doesn't work out quite that way.

This very amusing Monogram comedy has a number of strong points, including a silly plot which you can largely ignore, since it is pretty much obvious how it is going to turn out from the beginning. But it has a marvelous comic turn by Irene Ryan (best known as 'Granny' on the Beverly Hillbillies), the dependable Black comic Mantan Moreland and some fine, energetic musical numbers. The whole thing is well directed and if the print quality is a little off -- a little too dark for my taste -- it is nicely cut and edited.

This will not go down in anyone's book as a must-see classic, but it does fill in an hour or so very nicely. What more, really, can you ask from a low-budget movie?