Maleejandra

Claire (Thelma Todd) and Gerald (Roland Young) are carrying on a rather heated affair, but just as they are about to go away together to Venice, Claire's javelin-throwing husband Stephen (Cary Grant) returns home. In order to dispel his distrust, Gerald hires a woman to pose as his wife. Germaine (Lili Damita) is a hungry young French actress who poses as a more experienced woman named Chou Chou. She vamps Gerald incessantly while Stephen is around, and she is so successful that she makes Claire insanely jealous.

This sing-songy film is a delight to watch. It is fast-paced, comedic, and filled with a stellar cast, but it is not well known today. Film collectors find it interesting because it marks Cary Grant's first screen appearance and because it is one of the few films of Lili Damita, a popular but heavily-accented French star. Her career fizzled quite quickly, but not before she appeared with stars like Gary Cooper and Laurence Olivier.

Fans of the pre-code era will enjoy this one quite a lot, as it is peppered with naughty jokes ("I was living in Cin--, I was Naughty.") and a running gag about Todd losing her clothes.

When Henry Aldrich (Jimmy Lydon) learns he has a new music teacher, he expects the worst, but when he discovers she is a youthful beauty, he takes a new interest in the school band. He and the other kids are thrilled to discover that she has an appreciation for swing music, but the principal doesn't like it, and forbids her from playing it. Trouble ensues. To top things off, a famous violin player comes to the school to play with the students, only to get his Stradivarius mixed up with an ordinary violin.

This is an enjoyable B-film, which is in fact the 6th of the series, the 4th with Lydon. It originally was a Broadway show which got a radio series, and was so popular, that Paramount made it into a films series. It is not remembered today, and the films are difficult to track down, but when they can be seen, they're worth the wait.

This film is lighthearted and fun with an enthusiastic cast, great music (including "Ding Dong, Sing a Song"), and a good sense of humor. Real teenagers play the teens, so the film has an air of authenticity about it. When the gang gets together to play some music, their timidity shows through as being genuine, but they have true talent. You'll find yourself swinging it too!

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy find themselves mixed up in a crime mystery. They perform at a nightclub with Sheila (Constance Moore), a singer whose boyfriend Bill (John Sutton) is hot on the tail of a powerful swindler (Louis Calhern). He is being held in South America for the proof of his accusations, but one-by-one his friends are being killed. It is up to the gang to get Bill back in one piece.

This is really a curiosity piece today; we don't really have anything equivalent in modern society. Candice Bergen said in her book that her father really belonged to the vaudeville stage and was able to extend his career into the radio and TV era. His style of entertainment is an old one, and it is hard for modern audiences to forgive Edgar's lips moving when he does Charlie's voice, or laugh at the corny jokes he tells.

But some people will get it, and they'll love it. Sure Charlie's humor is a bit outdated, but that doesn't make it unfunny, just different. He gets some really great one-liners, especially making fun of his "master," which he was famous for. Mortimer Snerd is my favorite, though, a doofus all over, with a hilarious drowsy face and a voice to match. He pops up randomly throughout the film and provides wonderful breaks from the plot.

Now, this isn't a great movie by anyone's standards. The mystery is dull and the supporting cast members seem like they belong in another movie. Bergen and his pals are the stars, but they just seem to weave in and out of the story without any real reason for being there. But it is enjoyable enough and a great way to SEE Bergen and his famous pals rather than to simply hear them on the radio.