Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Unlike many other films reviewed and reviewed by me due to the fact that James Stewart participated in them, the musical comedy Without Hats has nothing to do with the filmography of this actor as such. However, a curious case, thanks to which I accidentally got acquainted with this film, oddly enough, was associated with Stuart - however, about him a little later.
Plot: For the 100th anniversary of the formation of the state of Texas is preparing a grand fair, and two firms from the cities of Bradfield and Hempstead compete with each other in which of them will present a grander program of events in honor of the event. Press agent firm from Bradfield Joe Allen (May Clark) decides to find out what came up with competitors. To do this, she, under the guise of a newly arrived schoolteacher, rubs into the trust of Jimmy Maxwell (John Payne), a press agent of the company from Hempstead.
In general, the “history” promised in the first paragraph of is quite short, and it began with the English section of Wikipedia. More precisely, in an article devoted to the filmography of James Stewart, at one time very actively attributed to the actor the main role in "Without hats" (actually performed by John Payne). In the end, after several unsuccessful attempts, I still managed to remove this error from the article "with the root", after which I, out of purely "cinema" interest, decided to watch this film.
And, having watched it, I will say one thing: whatever principles are guided by those who attributed Stuart participation in this musical, their persistence in this matter causes nothing but laughter. And all because "Without hats", in fact, turns out to be the most, whatever it is, a real "hat", justly forgotten in our days. True, some "conditionally" remarkable moments (concerning the members of the film crew) still exist in it.
For starters, one of the authors of the script for "Hats Off" was Samuel Fuller (known, in the future, the director - aesthetics and intellectuals this name, I think, should be familiar!). Although, in this case, his being among the screenwriters (co-authored with some Edmund Joseph and Tiele Lawrence) should not be considered for "quality mark" exactly - the script "... hats" the efforts of this trio came out, to put it mildly, terrible.
The two storylines available here are hastily written and somehow reduced to one story, but at the same time – absolutely not interesting. If the competition between two companies turned out to be "just" boring, then the romantic line between the heroes of May Clark and John Paine, in addition to boredom, is also saddened by the complete absence of this very romance in it.
Judge for yourself: a couple of inconspicuous hints, several languid glances, one "bad kiss" and a song in the middle of the film (the night scene where the main characters are sitting in the car and, looking at the moon and the stars, singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", for all its banality, turned out to be the best in this musical!) - this is all the love offered by the script
In the rest, "complete zero" : no interesting characters, no bright dialogues, no surprises on the part of the plot - in short, absolutely nothing! And OK, if this is the drawbacks of the picture ended (weak plots in musicals are, in principle, familiar) - but by other indicators, "... hats" also can not be called successful. The producer and director of the film was a certain Boris Petrov, who debuted this picture in Hollywood, but never achieved, in the future, particularly notable success in cinema.
And I personally is not surprised that the film career of a native of Saratov in Hollywood was not set. When viewing "Hats Off" it seems that all the work of Petrov on these shootings was reduced to only two sets of commands: the first - Lights! Camera! Action! Start! and the second one is Stop! Cut! Everything else, obviously, was left to itself. Or do you need talent to make a movie that lasts only 61 minutes?
Badly everything in the production of Petrov and in terms of musical numbers - with the exception of the aforementioned "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", nothing more vivid and memorable here could not be found (although it would seem that the theme proposed by the script "fair" was more than a fertile background for this). True, for example, "brain-bearing" a song episode during a boxing match, where everything that happens during the fight "singing" standing at the microphones (on both sides of the ring) commentators, do not even want to remember!
Well, and finally - about the cast, which in "... hats" as disappointing as everything else. In the role of a false teacher/press agent, May Clark deserves praise only because of her good vocal abilities, but nothing more – otherwise, Clark can not cope, playing too monotonously and keeping as tight in the frame as if this is her first film. Approximately, the same can be said about John Payne, who can partly be justified by the fact that here he played his first major role in Hollywood - but only partially.
The actor sings well (which will provide him with roles in a number of musicals in the late 1930s and in the first half of the 1940s), but his acting inexperience in the frame is difficult to miss even the blind. Yes, and on James Stewart (with whom, as already mentioned above, managed to confuse him in the English Wikipedia ), his manner of play and appearance, Paine, in fact, is not at all similar (well, maybe quite a bit!). Needless to say, "romance" in the relationship of their characters, Clark and Paine failed to display.
As for the supporting actors, then, frankly, I did not remember any of them after watching the word "totally". It was already mentioned above that bright secondary roles were not offered in the script itself - but the actors also failed to pull the plot out. Instead, some strangers flashed in the frame, uttered some indistinct dialogues, sang something there and at times crooked - but absolutely none of them was marked with anything "special".
In conclusion, it remains to state that "Without hats", accidentally discovered by me "thanks to James Stewart", clearly can not be called a valuable find. Perhaps for the desperate fans of Samuel Fuller and John Paine (if there are any) and those who are even more desperate for musicals, this copy will be of some interest. However, this is hardly enough to recommend the musical Boris Petrov for viewing.
1 out of 10