Time Out for Rhythm

Thanks to TCM, the most pleasant viewing surprise I’ve had in a long time was “Time Out for Rhythm” (1941), a nice little Columbia B musical starring Ann Miller, Rudy Vallee and a couple of Warner Bros. refugees, Rosemary Lane and Allen Jenkins. But most important, The Three Stooges are in it. Big time.

I didn’t know anything about this movie, but did recall seeing the title in a Stooges filmography. I was expecting a cameo appearance, or maybe having them show up in a musical number. To my very great surprise, and delight, they are featured throughout the whole movie and enjoy as much footage as the film’s stars. It’s like discovering previously unknown Stooges shorts from the Curly era.

The plot is typical of these B musicals, a trifle to hang an assortment of production numbers on, the best of which is a terrifically imaginative production number called “Boogie Woogie Boy” performed by Glen Gray’s Casa Loma Orchestra. Rudy Vallee and Richard Lane (Inspector Farraday from the Boston Blackie series) are bickering theatrical producers always on the lookout for talent. They spot Ann Miller, a maid who is first seen tap dancing to a song on the radio. There’s a tempermental star (Rosemary Lane) who you just know will cause so many problems the producers will call on Miller to save the day.

Interspersed among all this are The Three Stooges who are desperate to break into show business and are forever hounding Vallee and his aide Allen Jenkins. Devoting so much footage to the Stooges means there’s less of the preening Rudy Vallee to contend with, which is a good thing. (He was one year away from career resurrection via Preston Sturges in “The Palm Beach Story.”). They do their famous “Ma Ha” routine and generally make a nuisance of themselves.

Some of the funniest scenes show the Stooges interacting with two women (Blanche Stewart and Elvia Allman) who may be homelier than they are. At one point one of the Stooges (I forget which one) says something like “I can’t believe five people who look like us are in the same room together.” The girls later join the boys at the end for the big musical number. I’m not familiar with these actresses and not sure if Columbia was grooming them as a female Stooges team, but they were very funny and played well with the Stooges.

Watching “Time Out for Rhythm” was like watching a film from an alternate universe. It’s odd seeing the Stooges acting with name players from the era. It’s one thing for them to share screen time with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in “Dancing Lady” (1933) when they were still with Ted Healy and hadn’t yet fully developed their personalities.

In something like “Time Out for Rhythm”, however, they are completely and gloriously The Three Stooges, accompanied by the full arsenal of sound effects courtesy the Columbia short subjects department. Hearing these familiar sound effects one minute, and then Rudy Vallee crooning a love song a few minutes later, is surreal. Adding to the oddity is regular Stooge foil Bud Jameson as a short order cook in one scene. What are all these denizens of Stoogedom doing in Rudy Vallee and Ann Miller land? The Boys are even referenced by name in the final production number of the title song, a terrific number from Ann Miller.

There’s no great meaning in this movie, just 75 minutes of an unending series of funny comedy skits and musical numbers. Sony has had enormous success with their chronological sets of Three Stooges shorts, with the eighth and final edition due June 1. I recall reading an interview with a Sony home video exec who said the titles were so successful they weren’t considered catalog titles, but regular DVD issues. If Sony is still looking to make more money off the boys, they should consider releasing “Time Out for Rhythm” on DVD and playing up the Stooges on the cover. Stooges fans would be pleased. What a treat this movie was.

The Three Stooges Meet Reefer Madness

No DVD reviews this time, but a posting about an odd coincidence in film history that I noticed last night while watching the notoriously campy anti-drug movie “Reefer Madness” (1936).

During one of the film’s party scenes, a wild jazz tune is playing on a record. It’s the same tune that Moe, Larry and Curly play during their courtroom shenanigans in “Disorder in the Court”, also from 1936. It’s a different arrangement, played by a full jazz band rather than the version offered by the Stooges, but it’s the same tune. (I wish I knew the name of it and who composed it. It’s quite catchy).

And the judge in “Reefer Madness” is the same judge in “Disorder in the Court.” I looked him up on IMDB. His name is Edward LeSaint, and he specialized in playing authoritarian types like judges and college deans. He was born in 1870 and died in 1940.

The Spoilers (1942), Useless Three Stooges Trivia

With a cast of headed by Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and John Wayne, a bevy of great character actors and sterling production design, Universal Pictures’ production of “The Spoilers” (1942) can’t help but fail to entertain. This story of gold miners in Nome, Alaska circa 1900 is hugely entertaining, cramming comedy, romance and action, including one of the movies’ longest fist fights, in a brisk 87-minute running time.

“The Spoilers” has long been a favorite of the movies. Based on a novel by adventure writer Rex Beach, it’s been filmed many times, several times in the silent era, in 1930 with Gary Cooper, and again by Universal in 1955 with Anne Baxter, Rory Calhoun and Jeff Chandler.

There’s no great psychological shadings to the characters here, or elaborate back stories (thank God), just a lusty, brawling tale of early Alaska, where a glamorous saloon hostess (Marlene Dietrich) loves one of the miners (John Wayne) while fending off the advances of the new Gold Commissioner (Randolph Scott) who wants the gold for himself and other unscrupulous men who use the cover of the law to steal the earnings of the miners.

I’ve always loved the production design of this movie. Nome is recreated in all its grimy, muddy streeted glory, where a man gets killed in a gunfight and lands in the mad with a resounding plop. No running in the streets here, just trudging through the mud to cross the street is an ordeal in itself.

The saloon is a marvelous design too, with large spaces and plenty of room to stage the famous fistfight at the climax. Lasting almost five minutes, Wayne and Scott really go at it here, as the fight starts in Dietrich’s upstairs bedroom, moves onto the second floor balcony, makes its way down to the main floor and then outside the saloon finishing in the muddy streets. The fight is only ruined by an instance or two of camera undercranking, causing the fighters to move in fast motion.

Plus, there’s a honey of a steam engine that becomes part of the action-filled climax. Anytime trains are used as part of the action in a western earns extra points in my book.

What a supporting cast too, with each fame filled with familiar faces. There’s former Warner Bros. star Margaret Lindsay as a romantic rival for Wayne’s affections (she seems so nice and sweet, but looks can be deceiving); the sublime Harry Carey as Wayne’s partner; Richard Barthelmess as Dietrich’s employee, desperately in love with his boss; George Cleveland (the grandfather in the old “Lassie” TV show) and Russell Simpson as a couple of prospectors; Samuel S. Hinds (the father in “It’s a Wonderful Life”), as a seemingly honest judge but who is as crooked as they come; weasely Charles Halton; silent film star William Farnum (I believe he starred in one of the silent versions of “The Spoilers”), and perennial drunk Jack Norton. Norton has a drunk scene here too, but he’s only pretending to be drunk to help effect Wayne’s escape from jail. After seeing Norton play nothing but drunks in countless movies, it’s a pleasure to watch him in a heroic mode, even if it’s only a short scene.

The rousing score is by Universal staff composer Hans J. Salter, and anyone familiar with the Universal horror movies of the 1940s will recognize Salter’s style. It’s one of his best scores.

Director Ray Enright earned his stripes directing movies at Warner Bros. in the 1930s, a studio known for the pace of their movies. He learned his lessons well, as he moves the story at a speedy pace. However, there is some forced racial humor that contemporary audiences might find uncomfortable.

For action fans, “The Spoilers” is rousing entertainment.

Rating for “The Spoilers”: Three stars.

Useless Trivia Department: Kudos to Sony Pictures for finally treating The Three Stooges correctly. After years of thoughtlessly bunching up Stooge titles on VHS and DVD, they finally decided to do it right, re-mastering the Stooges shorts and releasing them in chronological order. The first volume came out several months ago, covering the years 1934-1936, and the shorts never looked better.

The other night I watched “Hoi Polloi” (1935), the first of their shorts where some well-meaning types attempt to turn the boys into gentlemen as part of an experiment.

What I found really interesting is their introductory scene, where the boys are on a street picking up garbage. It’s not the Columbia backlot, as would be expected on a short subject, but an expansive downtown somewhere in Los Angeles. A theater marquee is shown advertising Bing Crosby in “Mississippi” (1935). Now that is a Paramount movie and the Stooges made their shorts at Columbia. There was no way that Columbia studio head Harry Cohn would promote a rival’s product.

If you look at lots of old movies that have scenes with theater marquees, they always are showing the home studio product. So if “Hoi Polloi” was shot on the Columbia back lot, you can bet a theater marquee would be advertising a Columbia title. Apparently Columbia went to the expense of shooting on location for this short. Nothing earth shattering here, but I found that very interesting.