Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Gary Lewin This little gem lasts just over an hour but packs an amazing amount into it. And none of it is dull. The pace is frenetic. But everybody does a great job to keep it going. There are some amazing acts on show. And the comedy is first rate and there are no dull moments. There simply isn't time.Ellen Drew, the leading lady, is very beautiful and evocative in the classic 1940's style. And the rest of the cast play well around her.The story is quite original. The tale of a miserable rich man who was a frustrated cartoonist. He hasn't smiled in years and nobody is sure why till the man's ex-wife explains about a cartoon her ex-husband once drew on the wall of a restaurant. I'm sure had the movie been made by one of the bigger studios it would be better remembered today. It's certainly worth seeing as a curiosity. And I can recommend it highly.

Alex da Silva Betty Moody (Ellen Drew) tries to cheer up her father (Minor Watson) who is feeling melancholy by gathering together entertainers to perform for him. A psychologist, Dr Svatsky (Leonid Kinsky) is also at hand to help in the proceedings. Can anyone make Mr Moody laugh again....? This is a really stupid story of no interest and doesn't make sense, especially the part where Ellen Drew meets her mother Hettie (Madeline Grey). It's all so appallingly fake. The best lines come from Mr Moody when he tells people to get out coz they are annoying him. And he's right. The last thing he wants is an intrusion of crappy entertainers in his front room. The film is an excuse to string together some acts of the time. Unfortunately, the most interesting of these, Peppy and Peanuts (P&P), is interrupted by that nuisance of a doctor played by Leonid Kinsky. He is unbearable throughout the film and it is criminal how the film cuts from away from P&P for more irritating footage of Kinsky. The four stars are for Gene Rodgers (boogie woogie pianist), 'Pigmeat' the butler and Peppy & Peanuts (cabaret dance act).

paghat There's nobody named "Peggy" in the cast, that's "Peppy" the tall jitterbug clown-dancer.Plus, "Peanuts" is not playing "himself" but "herself," she's the tiny jitterbug dancer.The team were called "Peppy and Peanuts" and they appear in a couple of soundies and two films, very obscure, but were once popular on the burlesque circuit as burlesque included comedy dance teams pretty regularly.They had a really a charming act, and it's great to see part of it preserved in this little film. How sad they're so forgotten, and even miscredited.The film also provides a chance to see part of the act of Mike Riley and His Musical Maniacs. The "Crying" routine was one of his best known. It's awful, but it reportedly made audiences hysterical in the burlesque houses.Riley owned The Madhouse in Hollywood, a tavern never forgotten by anyone who ever saw the inside, designed to be packed with sight gags.-paghat the ratgirl from the weird wild realm

dm032 Father runs a big corporation but is suffering from a severe case of melancholia. Daughter and persona non grata boyfriend cook up a plan to have every ex-vaudevillian and dancer on the club circuit that they can find attempt to make him smile. Groan. Scatterbrained ex-wife finally saves the day by remembering that father once had ambitions to be a newspaper comic illustrator (!) Nevermind, it doesn't make that much sense.Not the most enjoyable movie ever made, but an amazing time capsule of vaudeville acts: Gene Rodgers, the stupendous boogie-woogie piano player; Mitchell & Lytell, Abbot and Costello wannabees; Alphonse Bergé & Doris Duane, a must-be-seen inverse striptease act; Al Mardo and his priceless bulldog; and most of all Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham, who steals the show with his break dancing.