East Side of Heaven

Easy-going Bing (Denny) has a job as a singing telegram and is engaged to receptionist Joan Blondell (Mary). However, things go wrong for Bing when he is tricked into singing Happy Birthday to the influential and controlling character that is C Aubrey Smith (Barrett Snr). He loses his job but gets another as a singing cab driver! They had some weird ideas in those days. The plot takes a crazy turn about halfway through when Bing is charged with looking after a baby and all kinds of confusion and misunderstandings ensue before the film resolves itself into a happy ending.

It's an easy-to-watch film that passes the time enjoyably with 2 points to note. The first is that the baby isn't annoying. In fact, the baby is a scene stealer as you watch her interactions with the characters - it is quite fascinating as she reaches to grab Blondell's hair or casts loving looks at Bing hoping he will croon and cradle her again. I usually can't stand children in films but this one is ok. The second is that Mischa Auer (Nicky) isn't annoying. He plays Bing's roommate and he is actually quite funny. I didn't expect that as he is usually very odd, playing for comedy and never hitting the mark. Well, in this film he is funny! Alongside some humorous dialogue is a very funny bell-boy - check him out!

It's another good film with a misunderstanding about a baby from 1939, the other being "Bachelor Mother" starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven.

Did you ever see Bachelor Mother, the 1939 comedy that deals with the mix-up of a little baby? Well, East Side of Heaven isn't as cute or funny, but it is cute and funny in its own right, so give it a try if you want something light and sweet in the afternoon.

Bing Crosby delivers singing telegrams, but when he upsets a bigwig, C. Aubrey Smith, he gets fired. Joan Blondell, his telephone operator girlfriend who's constantly pursued by radio man Jerome Cowan, is devoted and sweet to Bing, even when he's unemployed and struggling to pay his bills. Luck quickly comes his way, because he gets the coolest job as a singing taxi driver! The cab company has only one driver who serenades his fares, and each time you're lucky enough to get him, you also get a free ride. That way, people will always want to hail that company's cabs for the chance to hear Bing! Isn't that genius?

For that reason alone, this movie is worth seeing. Every cab company should do that! The rest of the movie is pretty cute, and the fast paced story doesn't drag. Mischa Auer plays Bing's silly roommate, and while I would have preferred Felix Bressart, some of Mischa's lines are funny anyway. Bing and Joan are adorable, the plot is intriguing, and with the exception to one lengthy number, the songs are cute. And if you like babies, this one is extremely well-behaved and well-trained. Check it out!

This is one of two films Bing Crosby-a Paramount contract player-made on loan to Universal. In this one, he's originally a telegram singer before getting fired and becoming a crooning taxi driver. He's engaged to Joan Blondell and has Mischa Auer for a roommate. Oh, and there's a baby involved. I'll stop there and just say that the songs sung by Bing are entertaining especially one number taking place in a café where both the female cooks and some waitresses join in. There's plenty of funny lines and mannerisms especially from Auer. And this baby, whose name is Sandy, is sure cute! Really, this was a breezy 90 minutes that didn't test my patience. So on that note, East Side of Heaven is worth a look.

East Side of Heaven, like most of Bing Crosby's 1930's vehicles, is mild, but very enjoyable entertainment. This one may rise a bit above the others because Crosby, on loan-out from Paramount to Universal, operates with a different and perhaps more sophisticated cast than usual. Not the least of which is that gorgeous, buxom hunk of womanhood, comedienne and fine actress Joan Blondell co-starring as his fiancé. The inimitable, delightfully and bizarrely funny Mischa Auer is on board as Bing's wacky, bug-eyed room mate. Auer, known as "the Mad Russian", had by this movie's 1939 release become a fixture in the period's screwball comedies. Labelled a stereotype by the present generation's politically correct doctrinaires, he was anything but. He was in fact a one of a kind comedian whose act, which has to be experienced rather than described, enlivened every picture he was in. Jerome Cowan contributes one of his typical nasty slickster, a radio gossip monger, while tall, distinguished C. Aubrey Smith adds a touch of class as a gruff millionaire trying to find his grand baby.

And here we come to the real attraction of the show, aside from Crosby's crooning. Baby Sandy, the most utterly adorable, cute, well-behaved, and cuddly baby every produced by American motherhood, I'm sure. Even and old grouch like me couldn't resist her. The winsome kid is being kept by Crosby, a singing taxi driver, while the mother tries to get matters straighted out with her hubby, Smith's ne'er-do-well son. That with expected complications comprises most of this likable musical comedy's fluffy plot. Never mind, the show is carried by Bing's mellow singing, Auer's hilarious antics, Joan's big, blue-eyed good looks, and of course that precious little Sandy baby.

Crosby's numbers included "Sing A Song Of Sunbeams", the warbling cabbie's theme song, the title song, sung at the end, and "Hang Your Hat On a Hickory Limb". This last is the best, as it expands into an elaborate song and dance number involving everyone in a large diner. Three plump old dolls, who must have started show biz in the Gay Nineties, sing a trio that almost steals the show from Bing, and a dancing chef-drummer uses everything in the kitchen for an instrument.

Director David Butler, who also produced and wrote the story, guides all with his usual smooth, sure hand. He was in his element here. Through the 'thirties, 'forties, and 'fifties, before turning to television, he directed with consummate skill dozens of similar light weight but fun musicals and comedies. But he occasionally demonstrated versatility, as when he shifted gears to direct (with some uncredited help from Raoul Walsh) one of my favorite westerns San Antonio (1945 -- see my review).

East Side of Heaven may have been a cheap production, but sets are first rate and the black and white cinematography sumptuous. It has the same smooth, polished look and sound of all big studio productions of the late 1930's through the late 1940's. Thoroughly enjoyable entertainment from America's favorite crooner and Old Hollywood's Golden Era.

East Side of Heaven is one of two pictures Bing Crosby did for Universal. In exchange. I believe Paramount got the services of Allan Jones for The Great Victor Herbert and Honeymoon in Bali. Crosby's second film for Universal was If I Had My Way.

This one for Universal was done on the same skimpy budget that Paramount normally gave 1930s Crosby vehicles. But loan outs are good to see because you get a chance to watch a leading star with players that are not from his home base. Crosby gets a spirited leading lady in Joan Blondell in their one and only film together. Similarly he has supporting players like Mischa Auer, Irene Hervey, C. Aubrey Smith and Jerome Cowan who are all very good and also never worked with Crosby again.

Crosby is first a singing telegraph messenger and later a singing taxi driver who's going out with Joan Blondell and she's a switchboard operator at a radio station. Jerome Cowan who plays a Walter Winchell like columnist has eyes for her. An old friend of Bing's, Irene Hervey who married a wealthy heir, deposits her baby with Bing while she sorts out her marital problems caused by her meddling father-in-law, C. Aubrey Smith. The baby is believed kidnapped and the fun begins.

Bing has four good songs to sing, written by Jimmy Monaco and Johnny Burke. Two of his patented philosophical numbers, Sing a Song of Sunbeams and Hang Your Heart on a Hickory Limb, a ballad East Side of Heaven and the hit of the movie That Sly Old Gentlemen sung to put Baby Sandy to sleep.

The plot involving a potentially kidnapped baby was very relevant with the news of the Lindbergh baby fresh in everyone's mind. Fortunately all is righted at the end.

IF you love Bing as I do, see this movie.