I'm Much Obliged

I still call the John Wayne-Robert Mitchum classic western El Dorado the 'much obliged' movie. So it was with some curiosity that I watched this Warner Brothers short subject I'm Much Obliged. In El Dorado everyone is constantly saying how they're 'much obliged'. The only things that star George Dobbs is obliged for is a punch in the nose delivered by Lester Cole.

Dobbs plays the columnist who writes the Mr. Inquisitor column whose tagline is 'much obliged. He calls around to various entertainers looking for news for his Walter Winchell like column and he gets to hear a bit of everybody's act. The best is singer Vera Van who delivers a rendition of that smoky torch You Let Me Down which Lee Wiley made popular in the Thirties.

I'm Much Obliged is a pleasant 20 minute musical interlude.

George Dobbs writes for a newspaper; his column appears below recipes for Paradise Whip (don't get excited; it involves marshmallow, bananas and nothing salacious). His shtick is to call up people, ask them what they plan to do. They perform a musical number, he says "I'm much obliged", has an annoyed conversation with the guy at the next desk, and calls up the next act.

In other words, it's another of the variety-show shorts that most of the studios turned out to fill up movie programs. Sometimes they are varied enough to be entertaining. Sometimes the linking material is good. Sometimes the shorts involve talent that are important, or typify a movement in popular entertainment at the time.

This one does none of those. It's a few competent, forgettable acts, linked by uninspired badinage from Roy Mack's Vitagraph shorts unit.

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.

Newspaper columnist "Mr. Inquisitive" phones various people in an unnamed city and asks them what they would like to be doing. It turns out that they would like to sing (and dance), and do so. Mr Inquisitive then sings back to them "I'm Much Obliged".

This obscure short features two typically obnoxious leads (who can't muster a funny joke between them). Fortunately, though, the musical acts, while not top rank, are good second tier people who keep the short interesting, if you have any liking for the music of the 30s.

Vera Van is a torch singer with a nice alto voice (think Alice Faye with maybe 50% of the talent), who gets in a nice gloom despair and misery number, plus a jazzier tune later on.

Rosita & Fontana do an elegant Latin dance to an elegant Latin number. Nothing terribly interesting, but far better than the comedy from the leads.

Lester Cole (accompanied by a manly male chorus) sings Western tunes in an operetta style. Since the tunes themselves are pretty good, this works OK, though anyone looking for Western Swing will be surprised to find a "hayseed" Nelson Eddy.

The Heat Waves are a little tap dancing/jive singing group. They do rather well with Jimmie Lunceford's Rhythm Is our Business, and the little specialty number they have later on. This a fun group (backed by a decent band) that I wish I knew more about.

This is worth 20 minutes.