| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| King Kelly of the U.S.A. (1934) | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 15 2014, 08:18 PM (251 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Mar 15 2014, 08:18 PM Post #1 |
|
Look for In The Balcony on Facebook!
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Say, who WAS Guy Robertson, anyway? He didn't have a film career (one doesn't count one starring role in one Monogram as a "film career"; one often doesn't count a dozen starring roles in a dozen Monogram pictures as a "film career" either) but he sure is the star of this musical-comedy, which turned out to be suitably wacky and goofy, sort of Monogram's attempt to make a Paramount picture. Sort of. For the first time, I'm kind of embarrassed to even attempt to describe the plot, but I'll give it a whirl. Guy and sidekick Edgar Kennedy are a theatrical producer and his sidekick; they're sailing to Europe with their all-girl show, but when they lose their backing (via telegram) they trade the show to prissy fellow traveler Franklin Pangborn (as "J. Ashton Brockton"), an "efficiency expert" off to help a tiny country get out of debt, only Pangborn's lost HIS contract, so what Guy 'n' Edgar have is worthless, too. Still, Guy has met the Princess of the country (a country famous for its sole export, mops) and fallen in love (via musical cartoon, the worst-drawn thing I've ever seen) and so really, really wants to pull the country out of the red. The king is a silly little short man who rides a bicycle, and there's some mistaken identity, exploding cigars, musical numbers, an effort to turn the palace into an amusement park for tourists (they get to slide down the bannisters), and lots of mops. Oh, and the Prince next door is invading to marry the Princess before Guy can get to her, so there's some dramatic tension going on, naturally. I detected no appeal whatsoever emanating from Mr. Robertson, but c'mon, Edgar and Franklin are always fun. Irene Ware is the Princess, but she's far overshadowed by lovely but dopey Joyce Compton, playing her usual blonde, lovely, dopey part. The songs? Uh, pretty much stink. Guy gets the stateroom next door to the Princess so he can sing/bellow "I'm Right Next Door to Love" at her through the wall. During the animated musical sequence (drawn by somebody's feet), various parts of the two cartoon lovers, um, "throb". Weird. WEIRD. If you haven't seen this movie, search it out. If you're reading the junk I write on this website, I can pretty much assure you you'd enjoy this picture, which was written and directed by... uh... Leonard Fields, the "Guy Robertson" of writer/directors. |
| "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 | |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Monogram Week · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)



6:30 AM Jul 11