I'm Much Obliged

The Mr. Inquisitive column in The Morning Daily newspaper has the tagline "I'm Much Obliged". That's his catch-phrase. His office mate is a grumpy old man writing The Auntie Pru's Recipe column. He calls various telephone numbers and asks what they would like to do. Inevitably, they all do a song and dance.

I don't know how the phone calls work. I don't think we're supposed to, but it does bug me. It occurs to me that this should be a magical phone. He can call any random number and the other side would do a song and dance. This needs to do an exposition on that premise. Aside from that, this is a bit of harmless non-sense.

My headline says it all. But I fell in love with George Dobbs merely because he looked fantastic in his clothes. The 20's, 30's & 40's were the superior decades for men's fashion. Plus his voice had a familiar, sincere Bolger-esque quality.

But my romantic entanglements don't end with he... i also fell deeply in love with The Heat Waves right from the start. Rhythm is Our Business is one of my fave tunes & their cover is memorable. Then when they came back for a costumed & orchestra accompanied tap number!?... Well, I was sunk, gate. Now I find myself searching the world wide web for these men's names and have come up completely too short. So, I'll make it a mission to try and remedy that.

Getting back home from a night out,I decided to catch a short and sweet movie before bed. Having picked up this title mid-last year,I felt obliged to finally go for a viewing.

View on the film:

Dancing for just over 20 minutes, director Roy Mack & editor Bert Frank bring a breezy playfulness to the Musical set-pieces with editing trick shots making the various slick dance acts kick out to the screen. Threading a wafer thin plot, the screenplay by Cyrus Wood just about makes the movie sway on charm thanks to the 30's newspaper chatter of Mr. Inquisitive in making the acts feel obliged.

The Vitaphone division of Warner Brothers was devoted to making short films--most often musical films. And, they tended to showcase acts that were not yet big--many on their way up and many who would probably rise no higher. The format of "I'm Much Obliged" is a bit different from most, though it is essentially a musical showcase.

The film begins with a newspaper columnist, 'Mr. Inquisitive' (George Dobbs) randomly calling people and asking them what they wanted best to do. Not surprisingly, all the people ended up singing!! But because people are talking about their fantasies, the numbers are set on the range or in South America or other places--all which look like they are in a sound stage (particularly the South American dance scene). It's all reasonably pleasant but undistinguished--the sort of thing many younger folks today would find pretty dull, though technically, for the time, they are pretty good. Overall, mildly entertaining but little to make it a must-see, that's for sure.

Though it is short on both running time and thematic continuity, this is a rather entertaining film. It is a compilation of performances by singers and dancers, some of whom are rather talented. In fact, other than the first song performance, I enjoyed all the acts.

In particular, watch for the tap dancing routine; the lead dancer is terrific. On the other hand, the dancers that surround Vera Van as she sings "Merrily Bound for Nowhere" are a sloppy assemblage, which is typical of troupes of the day.