Ann Ware must beware the march of Id (but whose?) as her beau Eric Lander tries to land on his feet and not the chair, as in electric, all the while not missing a note in their stage performance. Mitchell Leisen’s hyper direction allows Jack Oakie’s strident performance to push the story forward while scores of beautiful scantily clad extras swirl and twirl in the murderous tempest. DP Leo Tover uses Dutch angles and movement within the frame to create interesting compositions which keep this claustrophobic musical comedy mystery from feeling static and stage bound. The musical numbers are wonderfully photographed and, when watched in high definition on a large screen, surprisingly erotic even for a Pre-Code extravaganza!
We get Producer Jack Ellery (Jack Oakie) who is trying to delay a murder investigation because his show must go on, as Detective Murdock (Victor McLaglen) tries to pick up more women than murderers on this opening night! The stars of the show, Eric Lander (Carl Brisson) and Ann Ware (Kitty Carlisle) who just announced their wedding engagement, are both the targets and suspects of blackmail and homicide while Eric’s toxic ex-lover Rita Ross (Gertrude Michael) threatens to reveal Eric’s family secret. When Rita becomes the second corpse, Eric’s protective and motherly costume designer/seamstress Mrs. Smith (Jesse Ralph) also finds herself an unusual suspect.
I will reveal my bias at this point: I am not a fan of big band/stage music, from this or any era. I am a fan of how it’s photographed and presented on the screen, and here Leo Tover’s compositions are exceptional. Tover’s anti-Busby Berkeley compositions are designed within the framework of the film’s stage and often shot from an audience or performer perspective. We get a huge spinning stage, Duke Ellington and a bevy of desegregated black dancers, a faux (?) Tommy Gun massacre, a song and dance about wacky weed, and scores of women whose costumes barely cover their naughty bits! Oh, and two murders, one by hatpin and the other gunshot. We also get the always gorgeous Toby Wing and her beguiling giggle: I suppose if Ellery wasn’t so patronizing we wouldn’t have had a mystery!
Final Grade: (B)