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Swing Parade of 1946
Topic Started: Dec 15 2011, 03:43 PM (1,385 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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Can drama specialists Nicholas Ray (writer) and Phil Karlson (director) make good, not on a film noir or angst-filled drama, but a frothy musical?

No.

No, they can't.

Gale Storm's a broke singer pounding the pavement for a job; she finds one at Phil Regan's new nightclub. She finds romance with Mr. Regan, too, kind of a surprise since she's young (23 at time of filming) and beautiful and Mr. Regan is old (40) and gross, oily, and as about as charming as the Three Stooges, and since they're in the film, it's easy to compare them, believe you me. Yep, the Three Stooges are here! The real ones! They're dishwashers in the film, they reprise a couple of their routines (to no good effect). Oddly, the plumbing routine (the one where Curly ends up trapped inside a maze of pipes) is here, but only the very beginning and very ending of it. Word on the street is that Curly was terrible (this was right before the stroke that ended his career) and so the scene was heavily truncated. They should've left that in and truncated Phil Regan if you want my opinion, which you probably don't.

Louis Jordan is wonderful doing a couple of numbers, Connee Boswell does a terrible version of "Stormy Weather", and the "beautiful chorus girls" are not too beautiful at all; I assume they all finished fifth in a "Win a trip to Hollywood to appear in a movie" contest, and this was the prize for the fifth-place winners. Sixth place, maybe.

Sample song: Gale sings "Oh, Brother" and no doubt means it.
Comedy highlight: Edward Brophy tells plumber Curly, "Get a wrench. Monkey." Curly retorts, "Don't get poisonal!"

Okay, I kinda laughed at that, but not much.

Swing Parade of 1946 is available from the Warner Archive.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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I guess I'll get it for the Jordan numbers. It'll be my first and I hope last Stooges movie.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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mort bakaprevski
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The shoulda used their big guns: Freddie Stewart & June Preisser.
"Nov Shmoz Ka Pop."
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outerlimit
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I seem to recall that Legend Films put out a colorised/restored B/W disc of this.Although I usually go for their stuff,the poor reviews this movie always got put me off getting it for my collection....
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Inspector Carr
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The Louis Jordan footage is worth the view......Then again I have always had a soft spot for Ed Brophy...
"Life is a Crapshoot however you need a pair of dice to participate"
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panzer the great & terrible
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Now there's a scary thought. What spot would that be?
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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AndyFish
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As a Stooge fan I steer clear from anything the boys did outside of the Columbia shorts from 1934-1955 nothing else Stooges exists as far as my little heart is concerned.
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Laughing Gravy
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Watched this again for FNF, part of our chronological viewings of Gale Storm slapstick comedies.

Hey, I noticed that there's a new title card tacked on that just says "Swing Parade" (no "of 1946"). Apparently, a reissue print. Yep. They re-issued Swing Parade of 1946 for a whole new generation to enjoy.

In one scene, Jordan's orchestra performs in the dark with neon musical instruments, including neon drumsticks. VERY cool.

Yeah, I don't really see a third viewing of this coming up anytime in my lifetime.

Our shorts were the Merry Melodies "The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon", a gem from 1933 featuring "Am I Blue?" and lotsa songs from 42nd Street, and episode 9 of Gang Busters.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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