Everybody Sing (1938)

Wonderful character development!

Just perfect...

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Love may have found Andy Hardy, but for teenager Judy Bellaire (Judy Garland), it's a thin line between love and hate for her selfish family. Expelled from private boarding school (for turning her music class into a swing session), Judy comes home to find her family uninterested in her problems. Fluttery mom Billie Burke is too busy in hamming it up with the reading of a play with Reginald Gardiner; Papa Reginald Owen, not quite the Wizard of Wall Street, is barking at everybody after bad business deals which left them broke, and sister Lynne Carver is in love with the singing cook (Allan Jones). Garland only wants to help the family and a singing gig at the nightclub where Jones performs on the side leads her to want to pursue a career in the musical theater. She fools her family into thinking she's going to Europe on a school trip and gets into a Broadway show produced by Jones' employer (Henry Armetta), determined to be "Little Miss Fix It" to save a family others would be dying to get out of.Even with Jones and Fanny Brice (as the wise-cracking maid) top-billed, it's Garland's show all the way, swingin' out five songs and stealing her way into your heart, even if the movie surrounding her isn't one of her earlier best. Some of Brice's material comes off dated and does not reflect what Streisand would do as her in "Funny Girl" and "Funny Lady". Garland does a cute but semi-tacky black face number (to "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" no less) and plays Little Lord Fauntleroy to Brice's Baby Snooks in the cute "Why? Because?" musical skit that is one of the highlights of the film. Poor Garland couldn't escape from MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer's description of her as his "little hunchback", being referred to by her character's mother Burke as "my poor ugly duckling".A nice surprise is the appearance of Monty Woolley literally playing "The Man Who Came to Dinner", actually the producer of a play that Burke longs to star in that gets a dinner invitation to share a squab which never arrives. As a result of all the noise, an irresponsible set of parents and a plot best described as not of this Broadway world, this film is only average, filled with some great moments, but an over-stuffed finale where an already wacky family goes even more batty.

"Everybody Sing" is a delightful 1938 film filled with music but, as these things go, not much plot. That's okay. Judy plays Judy Bellaire, whose mother (Billie Burke) is a busy actress, and her father (Reginald Owen) is a producer. When Judy gets kicked out of school for turning her classical music into jazz, no one will listen to the reason she's home - they're all too busy. Mom is in rehearsal with her leading man (Reginald Owen), her sister Sylvia (Lynne Carter) is taking a voice lesson, and her father is frantically running around. Judy's only pals in the house are the chef, Ricky Saboni (Allan Jones), who is in love with Sylvia, and the maid (Fanny Brice), an ex-Russian performer.Eventually Judy, though underage, gets into a show put on by Ricky, who sings at night in a club. The singing is glorious, Judy singing "Swing Mr. Mendolssohn," "Down to Melody Farm," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and "Ever Since the World Began." Brice does a specialty number, and Jones, in his beautiful tenor, sings "The Show Must Go On," "Cosi-Cosa," and "First Thing in the Morning." Pre-Wizard of Oz, and pretty Judy sings with an incredible maturity of tone.Fun, upbeat movie.

I agree with most of the other comments: dull songs and a somewhat boring movie. I loved Fanny Brice as the Russian maid though: after watching her first scene I wondered "Who is that?" and looked it up. I had only heard of her through the movie "Funny Girl" (which I didn't like and couldn't sit through). The Baby Snooks number was awful, a total embarrassment: imagine a 46 year old woman dressed up like a toddler and speaking baby-talk! I'm surprised no one else has mentioned the jaw-dropping scene where Judy appears in black-face, her hair sticking up in cornrows all over her head, and sings a bouncy down-South number with all the usual racist stereotypical mannerisms of the time. Quite startling to see!

I've never really gotten Judy Garland. Maybe because I wasn't raised with a TV and annual "Wizard of Oz" showing. (Yes, I do love "Meet Me In St. Louis.)Enough about me, though. The point is, I watched this only for the delightful Fannie Brice. She is funny and charming as the family maid, Olga. Maybe her personality is a little too large to work in a movie. The plot is overly familiar. Allan Jones is as annoying as always. Billie Burke and some of the players in smaller roles are fun but forgettable. But Her every line and facial gesture made me laugh. Would that she'd done more movies!