It's the Talking That's the Real Problem Here
This weekend's review: Can't Help Singing.
I don’t remember what drew me to Can’t Help Singing, though the fact that it was a musical was probably one of the factors. This meant that I went into the movie pretty much blind, which does allow me to view the movie on its own terms but also means I run the risk of being unpleasantly surprised. It fortunately didn’t go that far with Can’t Help Singing, though I will say it had elements I didn’t expect that didn’t quite work for me.
Set during the days of the California gold rush (so presumably about 1848), the movie centers around Caroline Frost (Deanna Durbin), the daughter of a senator (Ray Collins). She’s in love with a soldier named Latham (David Bruce), but her father can tell he’s the opportunistic sort, so he schemes to get them separated, getting Latham to be part of a contingent that will be guarding the gold mining operation. He completely underestimated Caroline’s tenacity, though, because she packs a trunk of her dresses and sets out West to meet up with Latham. This eventually leads to her having to join a wagon train, and thanks to some shenanigans with a conman, she’s joined on the ride by two Russian drifters/grifters (Akim Tamiroff and Leonid Kinskey) who think her trunk is full of gold and keep trying to steal it, and by a card sharp named Johnny Lawlor (Robert Paige) who has been tricked by Caroline into thinking he’s going to get a big payday for getting her to California. You can probably hazard a guess as to how things play out from there…
While the movie is mildly amusing, it ultimately fell flat for me. This is primarily due to the characters, though not necessarily the actors. Caroline isn’t actively unpleasant, but she does have a bad combination of being oblivious and self-centered that makes it hard to fully sympathize with her. Lawlor isn’t much better, and I fail to see how being a card sharp is a better choice than a social-climbing soldier. Also, Durbin and Paige don’t have much chemistry, so it makes the match even more unlikely in my eyes. The two Russians are kind of amusing, especially during a brief period where Caroline has to pretend to be married to one of them for the sake of propriety, which confuses the Russians to no end, but even they don’t fully work. One of them mainly seems to be there to be the butt of the joke, and since their main purpose in the plot is to keep trying and failing to steal Caroline’s trunk (which got me oddly stressed out), they aren’t exactly sympathetic either. In the end, I can’t say I particularly like any of the characters, though I don’t hate them either. That’s never a good thing for a movie, although at least it wasn’t too much of a detriment in this particular case.
So what does work about the movie? Well, Durbin almost always looks great and her costumes are very pretty, though I feel like the script could have gotten more mileage out of her being too well-dressed for the California trail. I also like the recurring gag of the conman (sadly, I can’t figure out which actor played him) selling items that aren’t his, culminating in a particularly ridiculous sale. The songs aren’t particularly memorable, but one of them has a pretty canyon as a backdrop and another (praising the virtues of California) is noteworthy for the absurdly huge and fake fruit props used in the song. And there’s a small joke at the beginning of the movie that’s both obvious and clever at the same time. While arguing about Caroline’s relationship with Latham, the senator keeps passing people he knows, so he has to pause and tip his hat to them. At one point, a man offscreen greets him by name, and the senator tips his hat and says “Abe”. Then, if you look closely, you can see a man in a stovepipe hat walking away in the background. This has to be a reference to Abraham Lincoln, and while it’s hardly subtle, I thought it was a nice touch. Or maybe I just like historical references mixed in with a bit of humor.
While the movie’s pretty inoffensive, it overall doesn’t have enough substance that I can recommend seeing it. There are better musicals and better wagon train movies, and better comedies that have at least one of those two elements. Though I will admit that it’s unlikely that any of those movies have quite as many giant pieces of fruit.
I don’t remember what drew me to Can’t Help Singing, though the fact that it was a musical was probably one of the factors. This meant that I went into the movie pretty much blind, which does allow me to view the movie on its own terms but also means I run the risk of being unpleasantly surprised. It fortunately didn’t go that far with Can’t Help Singing, though I will say it had elements I didn’t expect that didn’t quite work for me.
Set during the days of the California gold rush (so presumably about 1848), the movie centers around Caroline Frost (Deanna Durbin), the daughter of a senator (Ray Collins). She’s in love with a soldier named Latham (David Bruce), but her father can tell he’s the opportunistic sort, so he schemes to get them separated, getting Latham to be part of a contingent that will be guarding the gold mining operation. He completely underestimated Caroline’s tenacity, though, because she packs a trunk of her dresses and sets out West to meet up with Latham. This eventually leads to her having to join a wagon train, and thanks to some shenanigans with a conman, she’s joined on the ride by two Russian drifters/grifters (Akim Tamiroff and Leonid Kinskey) who think her trunk is full of gold and keep trying to steal it, and by a card sharp named Johnny Lawlor (Robert Paige) who has been tricked by Caroline into thinking he’s going to get a big payday for getting her to California. You can probably hazard a guess as to how things play out from there…
While the movie is mildly amusing, it ultimately fell flat for me. This is primarily due to the characters, though not necessarily the actors. Caroline isn’t actively unpleasant, but she does have a bad combination of being oblivious and self-centered that makes it hard to fully sympathize with her. Lawlor isn’t much better, and I fail to see how being a card sharp is a better choice than a social-climbing soldier. Also, Durbin and Paige don’t have much chemistry, so it makes the match even more unlikely in my eyes. The two Russians are kind of amusing, especially during a brief period where Caroline has to pretend to be married to one of them for the sake of propriety, which confuses the Russians to no end, but even they don’t fully work. One of them mainly seems to be there to be the butt of the joke, and since their main purpose in the plot is to keep trying and failing to steal Caroline’s trunk (which got me oddly stressed out), they aren’t exactly sympathetic either. In the end, I can’t say I particularly like any of the characters, though I don’t hate them either. That’s never a good thing for a movie, although at least it wasn’t too much of a detriment in this particular case.
So what does work about the movie? Well, Durbin almost always looks great and her costumes are very pretty, though I feel like the script could have gotten more mileage out of her being too well-dressed for the California trail. I also like the recurring gag of the conman (sadly, I can’t figure out which actor played him) selling items that aren’t his, culminating in a particularly ridiculous sale. The songs aren’t particularly memorable, but one of them has a pretty canyon as a backdrop and another (praising the virtues of California) is noteworthy for the absurdly huge and fake fruit props used in the song. And there’s a small joke at the beginning of the movie that’s both obvious and clever at the same time. While arguing about Caroline’s relationship with Latham, the senator keeps passing people he knows, so he has to pause and tip his hat to them. At one point, a man offscreen greets him by name, and the senator tips his hat and says “Abe”. Then, if you look closely, you can see a man in a stovepipe hat walking away in the background. This has to be a reference to Abraham Lincoln, and while it’s hardly subtle, I thought it was a nice touch. Or maybe I just like historical references mixed in with a bit of humor.
While the movie’s pretty inoffensive, it overall doesn’t have enough substance that I can recommend seeing it. There are better musicals and better wagon train movies, and better comedies that have at least one of those two elements. Though I will admit that it’s unlikely that any of those movies have quite as many giant pieces of fruit.