Juke Box Jenny (1942) User Reviews

One for the nostalgia brigade!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 4 June 2016]

This is another of those Universal musical comedies that made use of radio stars who are now somewhat forgotten. In this case, they are Ken Murray, Harriet Hilliard and Don Douglas. Fortunately, Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra are also featured, as are the King's Men, the Milt Herth Trio, plus Wingy Manone and His Orchestra.

Alas, another feature of these movies was the way they derided good music in favor of the then current popular taste – which, of course, is now itself outmoded! All the same, I must admit that the score is jazzy enough for those of us on a more nostalgic bent, and the comedy, based on a mildly promising premise, is competently enacted. Production values are fair, but definitely not what you would call grade "A".

Some Good Music Amidst The Wreckage

[boblipton · 5/10 · 22 June 2019]

Donald Douglas runs a losing classical music label that is subsidized by the mother of his fiancee, Harriet Hilliard. One evening his old fraternity brothers get him drunk and convince him he asked a bunch of jazz musicians and Iris Adrian to come up -- Miss Adrian tells him she and he are married. Before she can put the distracted guy out of his misery, he has Ken Murray making her a star of the juke boxes, while trying to cover up the situation like a cat on the tiles, by taking recordings of Miss Hilliard's voice singing old songs, backing them with swing music and putting them out under Miss Adrian's name.

It's a paper-thin nonsense plot that doesn't quite cover some good music, including Charlie Barnett and Wingy Manone. It's basically a series of musical sets with an annoying plot about snobby classical music lovers who don't think jazz is real. Surely by the 1940s, this was settled, and they could have trimmed that aspect of the plot to fit the times.

I wonder if she knew Kansas City Kitty.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 26 March 2019]

Another in the string of Universal B musicals that lasted just over an hour, this deals with the typical snobs doing all they can to keep their business "top drawer". Marjorie Gateson, a fixture of these Universal B musicals, is once again the snooty society matron who is delighted to find out that daughter Genevieve (Harriet Nelson) is attempting an opera career. Ken Murray plays the agent who persuades her to record a single. image after manipulating a recording she made, desperate for a distraction from the rather untalented and brassy Iris Adrian who claims that they are married. Obviously dubbed, Adrian thinks that Nelson's voice is hers, creating all sorts of confusion for the characters and the audience.

Adrian gets some amusing lines, particularly when she naively tells Gateson that she does her own hair, thus never having met the Barber of Seville. At just an hour long, it's a possible time filler with at least 25 minutes of music, 15 minutes of gags, and thus not much time for plot. Nelson doesn't exactly have a proper voice for swing, although some interesting special effects shows her face over the record playing. The specialties include repeated variations of "Sweet Genevieve" which Nelson sings and a few moments concerning a dueling piano and an organ.

The main plot concerns Adrian's battle to claim being Juke Box Jenny when she learns the truth, an idiotic concept for a B movie musical. Of course, there's the obligatory courtroom finale where both Nelson and Adrian get to song, neither of them memorable. As a result, this seems like an overlong short and even the great musical moments can't rises above being less than mediocre.