That’s Entertainment!: TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM (Columbia 1941)

Most of you “Cracked Rear Viewers” know I run an occasional series titled ‘Cleaning Out the DVR’, where I do capsule reviews of five or six different films. TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM was going to be included in my next ‘DVR’ entry, but after watching it, I’ve decided to give it the full treatment. This has happened only once before (see PENELOPE ). It’s a 40’s B-movie lovers dream, a second-tier all-star musical comedy, and it gives The Three Stooges probably their best feature showcase of the 40’s. Plus the tap-dancing wonders of lovely, leggy Texan Ann Miller. Now how can you beat that!

The plot’s as old as film musicals themselves: theatrical agents Rudy Vallee and Richard Lane become successful, and develop a hit show. Lane’s former flame (Rosemary Lane, no relation) comes between them, and the partners break up. Vallee and sidekick Offbeat (comic Allen Jenkins) discover Rosemary’s maid (our girl Ann) and plan on starring her in the big show. But Rosemary schemes to get the part herself and become a Hollywood star, ditching Richard in the process. Richard finally wises up, dumps Rosemary, makes amends with Valle, and the whole thing is capped off with the production number “Time Out for Rhythm”.

The real fun is to be had in between all the romantic shenanigans. Moe, Larry, and Curly keep popping up as three dumb clucks trying to break into show biz. They get to perform some of their tried-and-true material, like the ‘Maha’ (“ah ha”) routine, where nearsighted Curly does a knife-throwing act. They’re hired to impersonate gangsters (complete with the George Raft coin-flipping bit) in order to keep Rosemary on ice. They dig up one of their old Ted Healy routines, “Melodrama”, where Curly (as usual) gets the brunt of the punishment. They share a scene with Vallee and Jenkins as three dopey messengers and, finally, the Stooges trot out on stage as rhumba dancers in a musical number, with Curly dressed in drag as Carmen Miranda!

Radio stars Brenda & Cobina (Blanche Stewart, Elvia Allman) play secretaries, doing the shtick they made famous on Bob Hope’s radio show (they even sing and dance with the Stooges in the rhumba number). Singer Joan Merrill appears as singer Joan Merrill (talk about typecasting!) and does a few songs, including a duet with crooner Vallee. Six Hits and a Miss add some 40’s song stylings, Eddie Durant’s Rhumba Orchestra provides the Latin flavor, and the popular Glen Grey and his Orchestra swing out ditties like “Boogie Woogie Man”, a bizarrely shot novelty tune sung by Pee Wee Hunt you’ve just gotta see:

Director Sidney Salkow was a ‘B’ vet mostly associated with westerns, but he handles things well on TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM. Cowriter Edmund L. Hartman worked with Hollywood funsters Abbott & Costello, Bob Hope, Martin & Lewis, and even Don Knotts, but is remembered as writer/producer of two TV family comedies, MY THREE SONS and FAMILY AFFAIR. Plenty of Familiar Faces show up in this movie, like Stanley Andrews, Billy Benedict, Richard Fiske, a very young Alan Hale Jr (GILLIGAN’s Skipper), and Stooges vets Bud Jamison and Eddie Laughton.

But the spotlight’s clearly on Ann Miller here, in her first Columbia picture. Even though she was only eighteen when filming TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM, Ann was already a show biz veteran, having appeared in films like STAGE DOOR, YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU, and the Marx Brothers’ ROOM SERVICE. Columbia had high hopes for their new contract star, yet continuously wasted her in ‘B’ vehicles with titles like REVILLE WITH BEVERLY, WHAT’S BUZZIN’ COUSIN?, and JAM SESSION. Ann Miller later signed with MGM and was given better material (EASTER PARADE, ON THE TOWN, KISS ME KATE), but television had pretty much killed the film musical by the end of the 1950’s. Ann would remain a star via Broadway shows and touring companies. She even did a well-remembered commercial with satirist Stan Freberg spoofing her Hollywood days:

TIME OUT FOR RHYTHM won’t make anyone forget SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN, but fans of The Three Stooges and/or Ann Miller will love it.  It’s a fine example of ‘B’ moviemaking from back in the day, and entertaining as all get out. Like I said earlier, how can you beat that?

Gangsters On Horseback: James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart in THE OKLAHOMA KID (Warner Bros, 1939)

James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart traded in their tommy guns for six-shooters in THE OKLAHOMA KID.  The film moves like a serial, going swiftly from one set-piece to the next. The plot’s your standard cowboy outing, but what makes THE OKLAHOMA KID so much fun is seeing the two great gangster stars going through their paces in a Western setting.

When the Oklahoma land rush is opened, Whip McCall (Bogart) and his gang decide to rob the stagecoach carrying newly minted silver to pay the Cherokee Nation. The Oklahoma Kid (Cagney), a free-spirited rascal, beats them to the punch. The Kid enters a camp where he meets Judge Hardwick (Donald Crisp) and his pretty daughter Jane (Rosemary Lane). Jane’s beau, Ned Kincaid (Harvey Stephens), knows something about the Kid’s mysterious past. McCall then puts a “sooner” claim on a parcel of land that becomes Tulsa. The town is wide open thanks to McCall, now running the saloon and gambling joint. The concerned citizens decide to take on the racketeers, I mean outlaws, by running Ned’s dad John Kincaid (Hugh Southern) for mayor. McCall frames Kincaid for murder, then tricks Judge Hardwick into going to Kansas City, setting up his own corrupt judge to preside at the trial. Jane sends The Kid to fetch him back, but it’s too late. The hand-picked jury has found Kincaid guilty.

The Kid decides he’s going to bust Kincaid out of jail, but the old man won’t go with him, preferring law and order over anarchy. McCall incites a lynch mob to grab Kincaid and they hang him high. The truth is now revealed: The Kid is Kincaid’s son! He tracks down and kills McCall’s gang except for Doolin (Edward Pawley), who confesses McCall gave the order for the frame-up and lynching. Meanwhile, Ned has been named U.S. Marshall and goes to arrest McCall. The villain gut-shoots Ned, then engages in a wild brawl with The Kid. McCall’s about to finish The Kid off when Ned, in a last desperate act, shoots the bad guy down, thus saving his wayward brother before he dies.

Cagney’s Oklahoma Kid is a smiling, swaggering maverick who has no use for “civilization” (and he explains why in a well-written, libertarian speech to Judge Hardwick). He’s a charming rogue of an outlaw, and his portrayal of The Kid is fun to watch. Cagney even gets to sing a tune (“I Don’t Want To Play In Your Yard”) during the course of the action. Bogart plays his usual slimy bad guy as McCall, dressed all in black and ordering around his minions. The cast is full of Western veterans (Ward Bond, George Chesebro, Bob Kortman, Al Bridge), and director Lloyd Bacon keeps things moving along. Max Steiner’s music helps set the mood, and the cinematography of legendary James Wong Howe adds greatly to the overall atmosphere. THE OKLAHOMA KID is a fun movie to watch, made even more fun by the presence of Cagney and Bogart out of their gangster element.