This is one of those College musicals of the 1930's where there's lots of stars, and a silly plot to connect up the songs. It also spans 200 years from 1738 to 1938. That is double how old George Burns would live too. Only in this Gracie is already cracking jokes in 1738. Kind of a joke on how things turned out.
Believe it or not Gracie is single here (for years after the Burns were married she would play a single woman in their act) and believe it or not she strikes up a romance with Edward Everett Horton (Bullwinkle) who in real life was born 10 years before George. Yes, Gracie likes older men, and she baffles all of them here.
Gracie looks good and young here and presents here triple threat- jokes, singing and dancing. She never gets enough credit for that. While Bob Hope does not get a huge role here, he does have several sequences with Gracie. No romance, just larceny in mind for Hope who rehearses here for being The Lemon Drop Kid later in his career in the harmless confidence game for money of trying to help Gracie take over Alden College.
Martha Raye sings and dances her way into this one and being young and well endowed does not hurt her image either. She does add some humor but it is later in her career when she becomes more comic. Right now, she looks too good. It is a different way to Raye.
Raoul Walsh is a top notch director, and when the last song is over, the entire cast does a group walk towards the camera waving as they come. It is much like a scene the Marx Brothers do at the end of A Day At The Races. Yes, these films were both done in this era - Races was 1937. So I guess they just decided to redo that. I love Walsh's direction in a lot of films but here he is just doing a musical. Raoul does manage comedy well, and even mixes it into a western in 1940 I highly recommend which like this is an actual B feature with a big name cast. The Western is Dark Command and in that one he manages to direct John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, Gabby Hayes, and Marjorie Main and actually that film is vastly under rated. It's the movie Wayne and Claire Tevor did after Stage Coach.
Burns and Allen get scarce few scenes here, but then they do not really let George sing. I guess that's why he sang so much after Gracie left, to make up for this one, and others back then. He does get a bit of a chance to do his straight man routine with Gracie. He proved he could do comedy on TV and after Gracie was gone in the movies. He is one of the better straight men in the business too.
The music has aged since this was made, but it is worth looking at and marveling, wow what a cast. Found it on you tube.
Believe it or not Gracie is single here (for years after the Burns were married she would play a single woman in their act) and believe it or not she strikes up a romance with Edward Everett Horton (Bullwinkle) who in real life was born 10 years before George. Yes, Gracie likes older men, and she baffles all of them here.
Gracie looks good and young here and presents here triple threat- jokes, singing and dancing. She never gets enough credit for that. While Bob Hope does not get a huge role here, he does have several sequences with Gracie. No romance, just larceny in mind for Hope who rehearses here for being The Lemon Drop Kid later in his career in the harmless confidence game for money of trying to help Gracie take over Alden College.
Martha Raye sings and dances her way into this one and being young and well endowed does not hurt her image either. She does add some humor but it is later in her career when she becomes more comic. Right now, she looks too good. It is a different way to Raye.
Raoul Walsh is a top notch director, and when the last song is over, the entire cast does a group walk towards the camera waving as they come. It is much like a scene the Marx Brothers do at the end of A Day At The Races. Yes, these films were both done in this era - Races was 1937. So I guess they just decided to redo that. I love Walsh's direction in a lot of films but here he is just doing a musical. Raoul does manage comedy well, and even mixes it into a western in 1940 I highly recommend which like this is an actual B feature with a big name cast. The Western is Dark Command and in that one he manages to direct John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Walter Pidgeon, Gabby Hayes, and Marjorie Main and actually that film is vastly under rated. It's the movie Wayne and Claire Tevor did after Stage Coach.
Burns and Allen get scarce few scenes here, but then they do not really let George sing. I guess that's why he sang so much after Gracie left, to make up for this one, and others back then. He does get a bit of a chance to do his straight man routine with Gracie. He proved he could do comedy on TV and after Gracie was gone in the movies. He is one of the better straight men in the business too.
The music has aged since this was made, but it is worth looking at and marveling, wow what a cast. Found it on you tube.