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Monday, February 7, 2011

Ginger Rogers Film Review #2: Queen High

"Queen High"
(August 23, 1930 - Paramount)


Run Time (approximate): 88 minutes.

Directed by: Fred Newmeyer.

Produced by: Lawrence Schwab and Frank Mandel.

Screenplay by: Frank Mandel.

Based on the play: "A Pair of Sixes" (1914) by Edward H. Peple; Adapted from the (1926) musical comedy by Lawrence Schwab, Lewis Gensler and B.G. DeSylva.

Also Starring: Charles Ruggles (as T. Boggs Johns), Frank Morgan (as Mr. Nettleton), Stanley Smith (as Dick Johns), Helen Carrington (as Mrs. Nettleton), Rudy Cameron (as Cyrus Vanderholt), Betty Garde (as Florence Cole), Theresa Maxwell Conover (as Mrs. Rockwell), Nina Olivette (as 'Coddles'), Tom Brown (as Jimmy), Edith Sheldon (as dancer), Elenor Powell (uncredited dancer), Theresa Klee, and Dorothy Walters.

Ginger's Character: "Polly Rockwell"

Ginger 'Screen Time': approx. 25 min, 50 sec. (29.3% of the film)

Ginger Tunes: "Everything Will Happen For the Best", "Brother, Just Laugh It Off", "I'm Afraid of You", "It Seems To Me"

Gingery Goodness Factor (1-10): (8.0) - First role that really is a 'pure Gingery' one, albeit a VERY young Ginger... it's cool to watch where the mannerisms we all know and love from Ginger (Gingerisms?) start to already show up in her second film...along with the 'easygoing confidence' she typically exudes. The singing numbers are cute, but not much different than in YMOM... this one DOES have Ginger doing a wee bit of dancing, so it's the first 'recorded' dancing for Ginger in a 'full' feature...

GingerFilm Ranking: #1 of (2) Reviewed

Film Quality (1-10): (7.5) - Video not too bad for the age...a few 'skips' - the audio/video 'sync' is pretty much in order. My copy is from the Library of Congress - there are quite a few GingerFilms in the LofC.

Available From: eBay, YouTube

Huey's Review for Gingerology: The story is quite straightforward, if a bit weird; business partners T. Boggs Johns (Charles Ruggles)(referenced as 'TBJ' henceforth) and Mr. Nettleton (Frank Morgan)(referenced as 'Mr. N' henceforth) are caught in the typical bickering which a lot of 'partnerships' see... but has now escalated to the point of 'breaking' the firm up; the 'firm', by the way, is a 'garter' R&D firm... which gives us plenty of...well, 'garter models' prancing about...(BTW, is this 'garter research and design' occupation still around? hmmm.... I'll check on it...) - and of course, both dudes stay in hot water with their ladyfriends as a result of all their strenuous research.
TBJ has his nephew Dick (Stanley Smith) (referenced as 'DJ' henceforth) on the payroll, and is trying to work up a 'hostile takeover' of the firm; however, Mr. N brings in his niece, Polly Rockwell (Ginger) to 'even things up', if you will.
Well, wouldn't ya know it, on the way to her first day in the office, Polly runs into DJ on the way over, and of course, a spark is mutually created... When she arrives at the office, and eventually learns that DJ is the dude her uncle has blasted for weeks, and of course she is the lass that TBJ has been trashing as well, well... that falls by the wayside.
So, what do we have? Well, more or less a 'Romeo and Juliet' type affair, only without all the blood letting...instead, we are given a 'watershed moment' from the two 'camps', via a lawyer overseeing the loggerheads...TBJ and Mr. N are coerced into playing one hand of poker, and the loser not only drops to 'lesser partner', but also has to be the other one's butler for a year (...wasn't that Jerry and George's concept of their ill-fated pilot episode on 'Seinfeld'?) So, Mr. N pulls 'Queen High', and TBJ dons the monkey suit... and the feather duster.
Meanwhile, Polly and DJ (who was axed by Mr. N) are doing their best to circumvent the feud between the two partners and hook up... and that's really about the gist of things... I won't tell ya what happens, but the end result is predictably a bit more cheery than the fate of the Capulet and Montague siblings...
The musical numbers concerning Ginger are pretty cute, the apex being 'Brother, Just Laugh It Off', where she cuts a BIT of a rug before yielding to a few other hoofers present...one of which is purported to be Miss Eleanor Powell, which is pretty dang cool... The only other tune which is of note, albeit for its quite 'disturbing' tone (yes, 'tongue-in-cheek', I suppose... but still weird), is Ruggles' "I Love the Girls in My Own Peculiar Way"... if you are a dude, don't go around singing this tune, unless you want to be subsequently bound, gagged, and mentally evaluated...
Overall, a neat movie, with a substantially larger role for Ginger, even though the role is a typical 'love interest'; she does get to branch out a bit... and begins to develop the Gingery Goodness we are all in love with!

KIG, Y'all!
VKMfanHuey
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Favorite Ginger Line(s) / Moment(s): The favorite scene is the 'Brother, Just Laugh It Off' number... she is really cute singing this, and when she steps up in the second stanza and does a bit of hopping around, it's pretty neat...future Gingerness is really all over that little sequence.



...Another cool 'sequence' is when Polly steps into the middle of the conversation her relatives are having about her... facial expressions again foreshadow future Ginger...

...soon thereafter, Polly hits up her fat cat uncle for a position at his office... no problem there, of course...

Polly's first encounter with Dick Johns, courtesy of the NYC Department of subterranean transportation...

Dude sings quite a bit for Miss Polly... can't really blame him there... although here he kinda looks like he is trying to give her an 'Indian Burn' on her arm (sorry for the incorrectness - if you've got a better name for it, let's have it...)

...Later on, whilst Poor Richard is hang out in the local elm tree, Polly is 'pining' for him... (only women can do that, y'all...) hmmm, maybe he should be in a 'pine' tree instead...oof. I kinda thought this 'cap' was pretty cool... somewhat reminiscent of the photo shoot she did sometime later, with the 'shadeless lamp' (see the header of "Well Behaved Lightbulb")...

Another cool 'cap', after she determines the elm tree has dispatched dude to terra firma in a most uncourteous manner...

Polly warning dude about his precarious tree-climbing habits... well, actually, no...this pic is really from the middle of the film, but thought it would be a nice 'closer'...

Other Reviews: "Ginger Rogers, who has obvious intelligence, though she is not always exactly cast, lends spirited aid in this melange of music, her first endeavour being when she bursts into rhythmic melody in the office of Nettleton and Johns to the terpsichorean accompaniment of the very scantily robed mannequins of the garter department." -Today's Cinema

"...Miss Rogers does nicely by her role and Stanley Smith serves his part satisfactorily. The singing of these two is a good deal better than that in the average musical film." -The New York Times

From Ginger: My Story: "Top Speed closed in March 1930, and in April I began another movie, called Queen High, directed by Fred Newmeyer. I played the love interest of Stanley Smith, with whom I sang two songs. Frank Morgan, known later as the Wizard of Oz, and I also sang two songs. My friend from 'Young Man', Charlie Ruggles, was in the cast too, and we continued our fun."

Miscellaneous Stuff:
--- Most 'GingerFilm lists, including TCM and Ginger's bio, list this movie as her second film; IMDB, however, gives that position to 'The Sap from Syracuse', and moves this film to her third... the release date favors IMDb, but the other lists may go with 'finished production' dates...
--- The dance scene in Mr. Nettleton's office featured performers from the Broadway musical "Follow Thru", including a very young Eleanor Powell.
--- Director Fred Newmeyer previously directed some of silent slapstick great Harold Lloyd's films.

So, now that more than one GingerFilm has been reviewed, here are the 'current rankings':
#1: Queen High;
#2: Young Man of Manhattan.

...remember, this is based SOLELY on the "Gingery Goodness Factor", and to a lesser extent the "Ginger Screen Time" and the "GingerTunes"...it's pretty 'subjective', but by no means all that scientific...

KIG!!!
VKMfanHuey
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10 comments:

  1. Another one of her early ones I have yet to see. Great review and film shots!

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  2. YouTube:

    "A Different Ginger #1"
    "A Different Ginger # 2 with Crazy Charlie"

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  3. This is great work Huey and I must praise you for quoting those original newspapers.

    I think we could have that film in decent quality. The copies are just lousy, that's all. But I saw 1930 films in really good picture quality.

    The more people get interested in old films, the more the market for those movies will grow, and the more will be re-released by companies. You sure make a few people interested in Ginger's films. So it's a pity,this wonderful article isn't very well to find via search engines, because people mostly search "Ginger Rogers". If they search "Ginger", they get results of thousands of girls named Ginger, and gingerbread, ginger ale and ginger ice cream products &ct. If your headline would be: "Ginger Rogers — Film #2: __________ (film title)", much more people would find this great stuff.

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  4. Yes! I love this film. My copy doesn't have any skips or bumps (I don't think...)

    Now I want to watch some of the older movies so I can look at the fashion again. I love all these dresses!

    As a side note, you probably DON'T want to advertise torrent availability on your blog, since, you know, it's illegal. That's just a suggestion though, cause no one wants to pay a fine for it!

    I love those bow blouses! I forget how easy it is to transform a plain top to have a bow on it. I should do that on one of my dresses. :)

    Lauren

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  5. She's so cute! Her dresses are adorable too.

    I haven't really seen any of her early films. The Thirteenth Guest may be the oldest I have watched. Do you have these recorded, or can you find/get them somewhere?

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  6. Never mind I just saw that you said it was available on eBay. Oops!

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  7. Betsy: Thanks for the kind words! Hope you get to see these soon... hopefully the YouTube versions are ok... as noted, sometimes eBay has copies for sale, for a nominal fee, of course... I wish TCM would air some of these...

    CS: You are correct in that there needs to be a 'push' for more restoration... not sure if it is a 'money' issue or what, but it seems like they could restore movies constantly, and then distribute them... WB has done well putting some out, but few are actually restored...
    and you are correct once again that I probably need to 'tweak' the titles for these posts to pull in the 'Ginger Rogers' Google searches... Thanks, CS!!!

    Lauren - Hiya!!! Good to hear from ya... well, I think we have the same version, and it is a pretty fair copy...the 'skips' are actually the 'between scenes' parts, which seem to be kinda 'clunky'...but that may just be the 'original film' editing...
    AND, point well taken regarding sources...it has been rectified. Although, as we have discussed before, these are SO old, that I would be shocked if they aren't deemed 'public domain', anyway...
    But it's been cool to go back and watch these again...really haven't in awhile, and it's cool to 're-discover' Young Ginger cutting her teeth...

    Pinkie: She was so different in the first few years of films, but at the same time, the Gingeryness is already apparent, and it's neat to witness... yes, eBay may be the best bet, but of course that is a 'hit and miss' preposition, as you may know... YouTube has some as well, but they are chopped into 10 minute bits... I am hoping the respective studios release more 'archive' titles... WB has done great, and now some of the others - Sony/Columbia, and Fox, are releasing 'archive' titles...
    And, if you are interested, I can 'burn' ya some... if so, I'll jump over to 'ClassicGal' for contact info...e-mail addresses... only if you are interested, tho... just holler at me, PG!!!

    KIG, y'all!

    VKMfanHuey
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  8. I guess there are people working at Warner Bros. who are classic movie lovers themselves. But in order to go on working, they have to think of making profits too. So they really depend on demands. Actually it should be a Government Issue, but there the money is rare as well.

    I saw a lot of new Jean Arthur films on YouTube, I didn't know before. And I'm gonna give them a double boost, on both channels (Blogspot and WordPress). Who knows how charming those films are? So I gotta communicate it. Hope it helps a little, to make people curious. Upcoming Sunday it will start already...

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  9. Looks like something worth checking out, not only for Ginger but for the presence of the always engaging Frank Morgan. (That year, he also appeared in "Fast And Loose," the lone film he made with Carole Lombard, in which Preston Sturges provided dialogue.)

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  10. CS: correct in that the 'support' for cranking out the archives must be there, or else the studios won't continue...that's why I always buy the WB Archive version of any new Ginger films they offer, even if I already ahve a copy... As for YouTube, I really need to go do a 'general search' on Ginger...there's so much cool stuff on there... glad to know there is Jean stuff there as well...Saw where 'Mr. Smith' was on tonight - TCM is cranking out the 'best of 1939' films... Oz at 7, and GWTW after that... pretty dang strong scheduling... even tho I don't really care for OZ, it's so insanely 'iconic', ya can't help but 'respect' it, no matter what...

    VP: It's a 'cute' film, without any real 'adversity' involved... and the cast blends quite well, indeed.
    BTW, I need to 'catch up' on watching Carole movies... haven't seen one in quite a bit...
    Thanks for all the info on your awesome blog!!!

    KIG, y'all!
    VKMfanHuey
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