Artists and Models

Jack Benny, Ida Lupino, Gail Patrick, Judy Canova and Ben Blue star in "Artists & Models," a 1937 film directed by Rapul Walsh. Benny plays Mac Brewster, the owner of an advertising agency who lands the Townsend Silver Account. Mac has a ball planned, the Artists and Models Ball, and the "Townsend girl," who is to be their model, will be queen of the ball.

Mac wants his girlfriend Paula (Lupino) to be the model, but Townsend (Richard Arlen) wants a society girl. Paula takes off for Miami, where Townsend is going, and poses as a society girl. Townsend offers her the job. Mac, meanwhile, has met a bona fide society girl, the beautiful Gail Patrick, who has approached him about helping with a charity. He shows up in Miami with her.

This movie is loaded with musical numbers that, in this writer's opinion, aren't great, with the exception of the last one, a number set in Harlem. That one, featuring Louis Armstrong, would have been better if they'd hired a black woman to sing the lead instead of putting Martha Raye in dark makeup. Ben Blue and Judy Canova are a little bit over the top, and those numbers seem very dated today.

Ida Lupino looks beautiful and always turned in a good performance. When one sees her here as an ingénue, it's easy to appreciate her many accomplishments playing tough-gal roles and her work as a director. Benny is funny, but frankly, he doesn't have great material to work with. Gail Patrick, with her beautiful looks and voice, is her usual classy self. Cecil Cunningham, as Mac's secretary, is a standout with her dry wit.

All in all, not fabulous. I usually don't think of Raoul Walsh and musicals in the same thought process for a reason.

Okay, let me address the "Public Melody No. 1" number: As staged by Vincente Minnelli (this being his first film assignment), it's quite an energetic dance sequence with fine trumpet playing and singing by Louis Armstrong and great singing and dancing by Martha Raye. Now if she had real dark burnt cork with white lips, I'd have a real problem with her makeup but since she looks authentic as an African-American woman, I give this one a pass. As for the rest of the movie, well, Jack Benny is fine being mostly deadpan especially when a clip of his radio show with Don Wilson announcing has his character in the movie commenting on it! Judy Canova is an acquired taste but I mostly enjoyed her hillbilly characterization. That Connee Boswell number was wonderful and deserved an Oscar nomination but why was she not lit brightly? Ben Blue was funny whether performing with Ms. Canova or with some stringed puppets playing instruments. Young Ida Lupino was quite a beauty back then, wasn't she? I think I've said enough so on that note, I say give Artists & Models a look.

"Artists and Models" of 1937 has lots of talent in a revue format of a musical comedy. Jack Benny headlines a cast with several prominent actresses of the day. Benny is still early in his film career when his comedy is very good, fresh and natural. In his later TV days he was funny but not very innovative or original. But this film has some unusual aspects that make it quite good. Some of those will appeal to specific interests.

For instance, there is a fantastic scene of life-side puppets choreographed to music. Russell Patterson was a famous puppeteer of the day, and he designed the lifelike dolls for this film that he called "personettes." I've never seen anything like this before, and it's superbly done.

Then, there are the cameos of several off the top cartoon artists of the day - again, something I don't think has ever been done before or since in a movie. Benny's Mac Brewster is emceeing the Artists and Models benefit show that has six prominent artists all painting a model. He introduces each one separately - getting their names wrong for some humor. They include Rube Goldberg, John LaGatta, Russell Patterson, Peter Arno, McClelland Barclay and Arthur William Brown.

And, this film has a good peek stage life. Lots of movies have been made in which the theater is central to the plot. While most of them give snippets of details behind the scene and stage, very few films have shown the whole operation in setting up a stage for a play. This one does that in the opening. It shows sets going up, lighting and cameras being set, and a good picture of overall behind the scenes production work.

The bevy of prominent female entertainers of the day include Ida Lupino and Paul Sewell, Gail Patrick as Cynthia Wentworth, Jud Canova as Toots, Martha Raye as Specialty, Hedda Hoper as Mrs. Townsend and Cecil Cunningham as Stella. A very young looking Louis Armstrong blows his horn along with music provided by Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra. Other top actors in the cast are Richard Arlen as Alan Townsend, Ben Blue as Jupiter Pluvius, and Donald Meek as Dr. Zimmer.

Judy Canova and Ben Blue have an excellent song, dance and acrobatic skit, titled Public Melody No. 1. This film is quite wacko in places, but that adds to its enjoyment as a very good musical comedy.

An exchange between Benny's Brewster and Rube Goldberg is one of the wackiest scenes ever. The viewers can't see the canvas that Goldberg was painting during this conversation. Mac Brewster, "Oh, do you mind if I look over your shoulder?" Rube Goldberg, "No, I'd love it. It annoys me terribly." Brewster, "Oh, I don't want to appear critical, but haven't you got her left arm just a little out of place?" Goldberg, "That's her foot." Brewster, "Ohhhh, yes. That explains the shoe." Goldberg, "Well, it's all finished now. Whaddaya think of it?" Brewster, pointing to a gorgeous live model, "Uh, you mean to say this is her?" Goldberg, "Yes, I saw her up there and I brought her down here." (The picture shows two old codgers in a balancing act.) Brewster, "Well, the trip certainly didn't do her any good." Goldberg, "A good likeness, really. I'm, I'm proud of it." Brewster, "Mmm. You mean to tell me that that's art?" Goldberg, "No, no. (He points at one and then the other of the two figures.) That's Sam. That's Art with the beard. Brewster, "Ohhh. Ohhhh! And what connections has he with the model?" Goldberg, "That's her grandfather. I knew him well."

Here are some other not so crazy, but good comedy lines.

Mac Brewster, after falling backward in his chair the fourth time, "I'm either going to get a new chair or spurs."

Mac Brewster, "Look, Paula, let's you and I go out and take a nice long walk - maybe it'll rain."

Mac Brewster, "Now, wait a minute. I may not be any Don Juan, but if I haven't got more appeal than a 40-story jump out of a window, I'll....all right, 20 stories."

Mac Brewster, "I love babies." Cynthia Wentworth, "Oh, do you?" Mac Brewster, "Oh, yes. I used to be one myself."

Mac Brewster, "Don't think I'm jealous. I always turn green this time of year."

Cynthia Wentworth, "Oh, Mac, you have so much to learn about love." Mac Brewster, "I guess so. You know, father was always gonna have a talk with me, but he kept putting it off."

Mac Brewster, "You know, you and I must go out together some time and have our heads examined." Rube Goldberg, "Oh, why bring them along?" Brewster, "Oh, that's right. We'll have more fun alone."

To call "Artists & Models" a musical would be a stretch. It's more like a mash-up of various odd musical numbers that occasionally stops for a plot.

The plot (what there is of it) involves Jack Benny as an advertising executive, trying to land a million-dollar ad buy with playboy millionaire Richard Arlen. Benny promises Arlen that the queen of the upcoming Artists & Models Ball – for which Benny is the chairman – will serve as the model in a magazine ad campaign for Arlen's silverware company. But Arlen insists his new model must be a high-society girl.

Ida Lupino, one of Benny's models, follows Arlen down to Miami, where she poses as a high-society girl, while wearing the fancy clothes borrowed from her modeling jobs. She tries to trick him into selecting her as the model for his silverware ad campaign – but of course, they end up falling in love. (There's a scene where Lupino and Arlen are standing together on the diving board of a hotel's indoor swimming pool. She's wearing a fancy dress, and he's wearing a tuxedo. Can you guess what happens next?)

The plot is a thin "clothesline" on which they've hung the most bizarre train-wreck of musical numbers ever jumbled together in a movie. We get "hillbilly" comedienne Judy Canova singing a bubble bath number. Later, she joins Ben Blue for a slip-sliding, "punch-your-sweetheart" song-&- dance. Still later, Judy joins her siblings, Anne and Zeke Canova, to sing a straight-faced version of "The Ballad of Jesse James," complete with yodeling, right in the middle of the high-society Artists & Models Ball.

There's a marionette number in which, for no discernible reason, Ben Blue dances on stage with marionette dancing girls, and a Big Band number featuring a pair of Art Deco swimmers doing a water ballet in a swimming pool. When things start getting dull, the Yacht Club Boys come charging in with a chaotic musical number, or a gypsy dance troupe, or a melee of circus performers.

The best musical number in the movie is also the most problematic. The finale, "Public Melody #1," features Martha Raye in bad blackface makeup, singing on a Harlem street with an all-black dance chorus, while Louis Armstrong plays his horn. The song itself is good, and Martha Raye's performance of it is great – but the staging of it by Vincente Minelli is dated and offensive by today's standards. (If they'd gotten somebody like Lena Horne to sing it, there wouldn't have been a problem.)

But who cares if the movie is just a mash-up? It's still fun to watch. It crams all these crappy musical numbers into 97 minutes, and keeps the numbers coming along quickly, without stopping too long for the plot. I actually enjoyed watching it, and I never found it boring or annoying, as I have with some other 1930s Hollywood musicals (i.e. the "Gold Digger" or "Big Broadcast" musicals).

Pleasant enough musical from Paramount featuring JACK BENNY as a man who must find a socialite model for the ARTISTS AND MODELS ball being sponsored by one of his wealthy clients (RICHARD ARLEN). A very young IDA LUPINO co-stars as a model who sees her big chance if she snags the queen of the ball title by making Arlen believe she's a socialite.

GAIL PATRICK, HEDDA HOPPER, JUDY CANOVA and GIL LAMB have featured supporting roles, while MARTHA RAYE and LOUIS ARMSTRONG have a Harlem themed specialty number (with Raye in blackface) that's better left unmentioned.

The songs are sprightly but the musical taste is strictly from the late '30s. Some of the jokes are amusing but many of them fall flat. DONALD MEEK gets some laughs as a doctor who mistakenly takes his own heartbeat for Benny's and predicts he shouldn't even be walking around.

It passes the time pleasantly enough for those who like these rather creaky musicals from the past before MGM took over with their splashy Technicolored musicals. One of the hit songs, "Whispers in the Dark," (nominated for an Oscar) is sung by Connee Boswell who sings the entire number in dim lighting so that her features are barely even visible.

Some good moments, but a very uneven hodge podge of comedy and music.