Moonlight in Havana

When Allan Jones had to do Moonlight In Havana, he must have cursed the day he decided to leave MGM because he didn't want to be behind Nelson Eddy all the time. He also must have wondered what happened to the studio where in fact he had done Showboat and The Boys From Syracuse.

This is one of the dumbest plots I've ever seen done for a musical and with one exception, the score of original songs by Dave Franklin is singularly unmemorable. Jones is a baseball catcher who has broken training for the last time and is on suspension. But agent William Frawley has heard him sing and wants him to pursue another career.

There's an interesting medical condition that Jones has that I will say I've never seen in another film. That magnificent tenor only emerges when he's got a cold. So in order to induce the voice, he's constantly trying to catch cold throughout the film. Besides being medically impossible, the idea of this man flirting with pneumonia to hit a few high Cs is beyond stupid. Of course to play baseball for the Blue Sox, he's got to be in good shape.

Besides the career choices Jones is also caught between two women, singer Jane Frazee and ballclub owner's daughter Marjorie Lord. If you're interested in seeing who he winds up with you are condemned to sit through the little more than an hour running time of Moonlight In Havana.

In the days before Castro, Havana was a popular place for the major leagues to appear and to do training. The Dodgers trained there until their complex at Vero Beach, Florida was opened.

I'm betting that Allan Jones probably had the producer's interpolate the public domain song of I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now into the score for him to sing. It's a particular favorite of mine and the highlight of a bad film and Jones really does this most simple and basic of love ballads real justice.

But it's not enough to save this film.