Sweet Mama

So few of Alice White's films have survived that it is especially delightful that such an entertaining star vehicle should pop up on home video. This pert, vivacious blond easily carries this film about love and gangsters. At a time when Ruth Chatterton earned her pay by rolling her "R"'s and making you wait for each word, Alice White stands out for her lack of hesitation. As "Goldie", she is caught "riding the rails" by a cop [Robert Elliot, who played ALL the WB/FN cops since Lights Of New York]. He need only ask one question and Goldie comes across with all the straight dope. So impressed is he by her veracity that he buys her a ticket. The plot is thusly advanced rapidly, and the film does its business in under an hour. David Manners is fine, but to see him really act try '31's The Miracle Worker. Director Cline includes a lot of rear projection and Alice does a fine song and dance which prefigures Busby Berkeley by 3 years. If you ever wondered who the Warner Brothers/First National diva was before Bette Davis, Sweet Mama will satisfy more than your curiosity.

We first meet Goldie stranded with a travelling troupe of bad actors - they certainly cast them well - they're terrible! Fortunately we only have to endure them for five minutes but they do serve a purpose in making Alice White look like a good actress.

That's not meant to sound nasty, Alice White is so utterly adorable that although she's a pretty awful actress you want all the stars to align for her or for some miracle to happen to make her seem better than she actually is. It can't be just because she's so amazingly pretty, it's certainly not her acting ability but there's something magical about her which makes her so endearing. She's got real star quality, you can't put your finger on why she's so adorable, she just is!

This film however is a stinker. In 1930, Warner Brothers / First National were still doggedly using their beloved Vitaphone system despite realising that competitor systems were better. Vitaphone was a cumbersome system which severely limited the movement and imaginative use of the camera, it kept the actors still, confining them to where the microphones were and made it impossible to edit or re-shoot. Warner's output consequently in 1930 was looking very dated compared with what the other studios were producing. Over at Paramount for example, Rouben Mamoulian made his musical drama APPLAUSE at the same time as this yet his movie is as watchable now as anything made today. This picture suffers horribly with all these problems. It looks awful.

It's not however just the crippling production techniques which hamper this. The story is absurd, the dialogue is completely unrealistic and the direction is shocking. Edward Cline, director of silent slapsticks seems out of his depth. None of his characters are remotely believable, you can't engage with any of them or be interested in the plodding plot. With a running time of less than an hour you'd think this would be fast-moving but no, it's really boring. You'd think therefore that this rubbish must be unwatchable. It would be were it not for one thing - Alice White, she is just so mesmerising!

Travelling burlesque chorus girl Alice White (Goldie) has a boyfriend David Manners (Jimmy) who she dotes on. She gets a telegram informing her that he has landed in jail so she jumps on a train to be with him. She has no ticket and gets indebted to policeman Robert Elliott (Mack) who pays for her journey. Alice meets with her boyfriend who has been bailed and who now works for gangster and nightclub owner Kenneth Thomson (Joe). Alice then gets involved in undercover shenanigans that puts both her life and her boyfriend's at risk.

It's an ok film made interesting by the musical number sung by White that is set to a Busby Berkeley type routine. It's ahead of it's time. Alice is also fun to watch as a cute flapper character. The film is nothing great but it does have an interest factor that puts you back in another time-zone. I read that the film had all its musical numbers cut as American audiences were fed up of musicals in 1930. The copy I saw kept the catchy "Giving it this and that".