Varsity Show (1937)

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/16/2008 Product Description

College musicals are duds and this one is no exception

"Varsity Show", a Warner's musical from 1937, is an inexplicably long and extravagant college musical with a cast of generally second rate musical performers. When the cast lists a band leader as second in the credits and the ghastly Ted Healey third, you know that the film will be weak. Dick Powell is the sole star in this one and if he is a little less ebullient than normal, put it down to the dumb screenplay and stupid part he was given as a Broadway producer down on his luck and recruited by the students of his Alma Mater to put on their annual show.

There are a few good points:

- The finale staged by Busby Berkeley, a rousing tribute to the Ivy League
- Priscilla Lane, spunky and very cute, in her movie debut, even if her singing is characterless and her voice thin.
- Buck and Bubbles, 2 peerless black performers performing their act with especially good tap dancing from Bubbles.

Unfortunately, the negatives are too obvious:

- Rosemary Lane playing the romantic lead opposite Powell. Lane has charm to spare but her trained operetta soprano does not lend itself readily to pop songs.
- tiresome performers such as Johnny Scat Davis and Mabel Todd, doing there thing with forced charm or lack of it in Todd's case.
- endless dreary dialogue between the collegiates as they plan their next strategy for outwitting Walter Catlett as a square professor. Catlett was a renowned scene stealer and a very funny comedian but his lines here are really awful.

The print of the film is OK but it is incomplete. There are holes in the continuity and at least 2 songs are missing such as the Lane Sisters duetting "Love is on the Air Tonight" towards the end of the film. The extras include a very worn theatrical trailer and a dreadful Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy short in poor condition. In fact the best thing on the disk is the cartoon, in which the songs from the film are interpolated into a delightful fantasy as the covers of books, many of which were made into films of the era, come to life and thereby depict the leads of the films (e.g Victor McLaglan in "The Informer" and Paul Muni in "Louis Pasteur"). There is a perfunctory introduction about the politically incorrect depictions of negroes which I thought completely unnecessary, especially when the black depicted is the great Cab Calloway who had a unique performing style.

The DVD might be of interest as part of the Busby Berkeley Collection Volume 2, but otherwise, don't bother. November 17, 2008

Here's one of your few opportunities to see the work of the tap dancer Fred Astaire called the best of his generation

Why watch Varsity Show? Two words: John Bubbles, the man Fred Astaire said was the greatest tap dancer of his generation. John Sublette (John Bubbles was his stage name) and his partner, Ford Washington Lee, were Buck and Bubbles, with Buck primarily at the piano and Bubbles dancing and singing. They were major stars in vaudeville. I can't explain dancing any more than an infant can explain milk, but I know the good stuff when I see it. John Bubbles combined tap, a sort of fast shuffle and ingenious rhythm into something I wouldn't argue with Astaire about. He has a couple of short numbers in this inane college musical and one Buck and Bubbles short production number to "Have You Got Any Castles, Baby?" They make watching the movie something special.

Among the aged aspects of Varsity Show that you have to get past to enjoy the tap artistry of John Bubbles are...the jokes are so corny even Iowa wouldn't take credit for them...the pacing is just about as matter-of-fact as that bland title...several of the students have long since past their college years...ironically, Dick Powell seems too young for the part...and Fred Waring as the drama teacher is so sincere, so constantly smiling and so solicitous of the students as to be creepy.

Still, the Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer songs aren't bad. "We're working Our Way Through College," sung by Powell and the students as they stride through the campus, is bouncy and funny.

"We're working our way through college
To get a lot of knowledge
That we'll probably never ever use again.

It's swell to tell what parallel and parallax is,
But after graduation will it pay our taxes?"

For those fond of choral music there's Waring and his Pennsylvanians (they're in the movie as college students) doing some fine singing. Aficionados of college pep songs will hear a bunch of them at the big smash close. And for those with a morbid fondness for stories about alcoholics, there's Ted Healy in a major role and Lee Dixon in a minor one. Healy, who's the reason there was a Three Stooges, wound up in Hollywood as one of the highest paid comedy actors. His specialty was the big grump. Let me tell you, he was good. He also was a big-time alcoholic. He got into a drunken fight the night his first child was born (the year Varsity Show was released) and died several hours later. He was 41. Lee Dixon was big and blond, an eccentric dancer in the early Buddy Ebsen style. He was handsome enough with an open, quizzical kind of face. He towered over everyone else. He was 23 when he made Varsity Show and played one of the students, had a few lines and a couple of brief dance steps. By the early Forties he was drinking so heavily no one wanted to take a chance on him. Rodgers and Hammerstein offered him the part of Will Smith in Oklahoma after extracting the promise he wouldn't hit the bottle. He received great reviews with his two numbers, "Kansas City" and "All Er Nuthin'" (with Celeste Holm as Ado Annie). All was well for a year or so, then he started sneaking drinks, then more and more. That was that. He faded fast and died at 39 in 1954. What's the moral to Healy and Dixon? You've got me.

The story? The kids at Winfield College are putting on the annual varsity show but their professor advisor insists that there'll be nothing "swinging" or "modern." A group of them decide to go to New York and ask Chuck Daly (Dick Powell), famous Broadway producer and Winfield graduate, to take over the show. They've got a lot of great songs and ideas. They don't know that Daly has had three flops in a row and is broke. We can skip the next hour. The show is a smash, on Broadway no less, with a Busby Berkeley finale. Chuck wins a co-ed's love with Rosemary Lane the co-ed. She's second billed after Powell. Her sister, Priscilla, is third billed and gets a song to sing and a few dance steps to share with Dixon. Priscilla Lane has never done much for me, but here, at 22 and in her first movie, she's a cutie pie.

College musicals always seem to give off that indulgent condescension that so many adults reserve, usually to their regret, for the young. Still, some can be a lot of fun. There are three I like a lot. Too Many Girls [DVD] - Authentic Region 1 from Warner Brothers with Lucille Ball has a book as inane as Varsity Show, but it has a great Rodgers and Hart score and a terrific Lucille Ball performance. BEST FOOT FORWARD (DVD MOVIE) has a fine Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane score, including that rouser, "Buckle Down, Winsocki," plus Ball again, and a great cast that includes June Allyson and Nancy Walker. Good News is a lot of fun, just as corny as the rest, but June Allyson is appealing, Peter Lawford avoids being appalling, and best of all there's Joan McCracken and Ray McDonald dancing. "Pass that Peace Pipe" is a showcase for both of them, especially McCracken. October 23, 2008

Ol' King Cole Had a Merry Old Soul

Winfield College is putting on their annual production, but this year their director is really bringing them down. Instead of a fun, modern show, he is forcing them to perform in a play with no laughs and outdated music. A group of kids decide to enlist the help of a former student who has made it big on the Great White Way. Chuck Daly (Dick Powell) has fallen on hard times, and his partner (Ted Healy) forces him to accept the $1000 offered him to fix the college musical. Once there, he realizes usurping the faculty will be much harder than he expected. But that suits him just fine; there is a pretty girl (Rosemary Lane) occupying his time.

Powell and Lane do not have great chemistry together so the love story is quite thin. The plot leaves something to be desired as well, but it isn't the story that makes this film enjoyable; it's the music. The romantic melody "You've Got Something There" is staged simply, but with the lovely lyrics, this is appropriate. "We're Working Our Way Through College" is done simply as well, although the moving camera makes it seem more complex than it actually is. The song is peppy and funny, the perfect college song. "Have You Got Any Castles, Baby" is a very dancable tune which was made into a Merry Melodies short included on this disk. The real showstopper of the film, though, is the grand finale which features several different school songs the formations of the college letters. This number is simultaneously impressive and timeless.

Unfortunately, this print is considerably shorter than the original film which runs for two hours. Perhaps this version of the film was too deteriorated to be considered appropriate for release. There are several spots in this film that appear to have been neglected, so the film quality is not entirely consistent. Still, it is in much better condition than some films of the early 30s, so perhaps it is best not to complain too much. After all, it could be worse; at least the film is available now for viewing. September 21, 2008

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