Movie Details
| Title: | Swing Your Lady | |
| Director: | Ray Enright | |
| Year: | 1938 | |
| Genre: | Comedy | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 01.03.09 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 01.03.09 | DVR | Oh man... this was another Bogart film I recorded from TCM. Google reveals that (a) it has never been released on home video, and (b) that Bogart described it (and most critics agree) as being his worst film ever. Which I am dumbfounded about. This is an early entry into my top-ten-vintage discoveries of 2009. Bogart is a boxing promoter passing through a small hillbilly town. He and two friends are managing a loveable lummox named Joe Skopapolous (Nat Pendleton). They decide to book Joe against a female blacksmith (Louise Fazenda). Except Joe has girl-fever, and Bogart's on-again-off-again girlfriend (Penny Singleton) has just come back into the picture. Plus there are musical numbers featuring the hillbilly Weaver family and their home-grown instruments and a fantastic country stomp-dance number with Singleton and someone I can't find the name of yet. I truly can't understand the uniform hatred/dismissal of this movie. Surely people can't be closeminded enough to hate any non-crime-related Bogart film, right? Because he's very funny here, delivering the rapid-fire dialogue (the movie was apparently based on a play) with ease and perfect timing. The musical bits are glorious, and there were several moments where I actually laughed outloud. Which rarely happens when I'm watching a movie by myself. I have a strong desire to own this movie, so unless I can find a copy online, I'm going to have to rip a copy from my DVR. This is highly recommended. |