Playmates

Agents Patsy Kelly (as Lulu Monahan) and Peter Lind Hayes (as Peter Lindsay) decide to get their famous clients - legendary actor John Barrymore (as John Barrymore) and popular band-leader Kay Kyser (as Kay Kyser) together for a profitable publicity stunt. The plan is to have Mr. Barrymore teach Mr. Kyser to perform Shakespeare on stage. At first, both resist. But, Kyser relents and Barrymore needs money. This film features Kyser's very popular band members, sweet singers Harry Babbitt and Ginny Simms along with Beatle-Ish Kabibble, guest star Lupe Velez, Sully Mason, and others...

More importantly, this was Barrymore's last film appearance; he died shortly after its release, and "Playmates" is considered evidence of the once highly-respected actor's sad decline. This is true, for the most part, but you've got to love Barrymore's reciting of Hamlet's "To Be or Not to Be" speech. The Great Profile's reaction after saying "there's the rub" for Kyser in "Playmates" is a must for Barrymore followers. His performance of "Hamlet" on stage was considered one of Barrymore's greatest roles, but there was, sadly, no filmed version; note, a tantalizing "Hamlet" color screen test scene is available on popular video sites.

***** Playmates (12/26/41) David Butler ~ John Barrymore, Kay Kyser, Patsy Kelly, Peter Lind Hayes

This appears to have been the last movie of the great John Barrymore. (The filmography listed here must be wrong in following it with a movie in 1966. I've seen that movie and it is an old one.) As such, it has historical importance.

John Barrymore will always be remembered as one of the great men of American theater as well as a fine movie actor. He looks puffy and tired here, but boy! Does he give it his best shot.

The on screen credits have him as a supporting player, with Kay Keyser -- a tiny fleck on the radar screen of movie history -- before the title. However, I'd guess that Barrymore has at least as many lines as Keyser.

As to the quality of the lines: That is another story. In the movie, the always funny Patsy Kelly plays his agent. In real life, it's hard to imagine that any agent would have allowed him to play in such a startlingly vulgar movie. Maybe bills just needed to be paid.

This movie is so vulgar, it is entertaining, though our hearts break for Barrymore being paraded around in such sorry physical shape (and ending the movie in some sort of bizarre drag, hardly flattering to his corpulent figure. It is supposed to be Shakespearean garb but I've never seen a play by the immortal Bard that had its lead got up like that.) (Of course, I have never seen one with a male Portia, either, though Keyser is shown practicing her lines from "The Merchant Of Venice.") Lupe Velez is also served very badly here. She has a small role and is, as she generally was, a caricature. She is overly made up and is made to seem thoroughly unappealing in character as well.

May Robson is always good. I have never seen a bad performance from her. Here she is in the small role of Keyser's mother and does fine with what she has. It is scarcely one of the highlights of her career, though.

Ish Kabibble is a very odd presence. He seems to have the haircut on which the Beatles (whom I love; please understand) based theirs. He is harmless, as is Keyser, as is Ginny Simms. I don't care for that style of music, but obviously many did.

Having John Barrynore laugh at, or even be on the same sound stage with, Ish's corny jokes is really sad, though. The whole thing is sad. But it isn't dull.

If Barrymore were alive today, one has the feeling from his presence here, he might be doing guest bits on reality TV shows -- letting it all hang out but making enough to pay the bills and to keep his name in the public eye.

Count me in with the group who enjoyed this film thoroughly. As a Kay Kyser vehicle it wasn't meant to be high art, it was a lowbrow comedy and in that it succeeds wonderfully. I laughed continually throughout the picture.

And NO, John Barrymore was not "sad", he was *hilarious* in his portrayal of a self-absorbed ham who would rather be boiled in oil than appear onstage with a bandleader. Unfortunately a rather large and unexpected bill from the IRS leaves him little choice, and a much-needed radio endorsement deal is contingent upon his appearing with Kyser in a Shakespearean production...much to his chagrin. Barrymore's over-the-top, pompous delivery was pure gold, and he played it to the hilt with gusto. He rolled every "R" three times as long, and his use of "me" rather than "my" in all his musings was quite humorous..."I have played 'Hamlet' before Kings and Queens! Had them groveling at me feet in abject worship! And you sacrilegiously affiliate me magic name with a barefoot bumpkin, a bifocal billy goat, from the hills of North Carolina! Where to this day, civilization has not yet penetrated!" Wonderfully delivered...anyone who finds this "sad" obviously doesn't get it.

This film is in the exact same vein as the Eddie Cantor vehicle "Thank Your Lucky Stars", which ragged Cantor mercilessly from start to finish as a celebrity with an ego the size of a bus. Barrymore - like Cantor - shows he was a good sport overall for being the recipient of an endless string of insults that were obviously delivered in good fun. The fact that several reviewers here find it pathetic...well, I couldn't disagree more. From what I saw Barrymore had a lot of fun himself making light of his well known reputation.

Throw in a little spice with Lupe Velez, and the formula is complete.

The music is great, and Ginny Simms is absolutely gorgeous. Ish Kabibble is 100% corn as always, those who are familiar with his routine expect nothing less. And no matter what anyone says about Kay Kyser's "acting" (which was also cut to shreds without mercy in this picture)...when he's in front of an audience doing his thing with the band, his stage presence cannot be touched. His style was completely unique and was extremely popular, with good reason. Kay Kyser was the MAN.

Painful self humiliation from a fallen star. Barrymore here plays himself as a has been Shakespearean star so desperate for a Radio contract that he agrees to appear opposite Kay Kyser and band in a festival of the bard's plays.

John was on his last legs when he made this, as testified by a bloated and sometimes drunken appearance and he's treated badly by the script and cast (all his tax and drinking problems are trotted out as "humour" and in a dream scene Barrymore is even shown as a bull defeated by toreador Kyser). Yet this film does have a certain weird amusement value if you catch it in the right mood and if you can forget it's his final film..

Barrymore works very hard to make the most of this script, bellowing and posturing his way through the proceedings. It's a million miles from subtle but with his snorts and grunts and bulging eyes he certainly holds the attention and even generates the odd laugh. Occasionally there's a flash of his old talent. At one point he delivers part of Hamlet's To Be Or Not To Be soliquey in an attempt to demonstrate how Shakespeare should be performed. The film and the scene to this point lead us to expect that Barrymore will send the speech up.

Instead in the midst of the frantic mugging Barrymore gives a heart felt and totally straight reading of the scene. It lasts a minute and is intensely moving. There's genuine rawness here and John himself seems quite overcome. (It's extraordinary they kept this in) For a few scenes after this we get to hear his voice giving further beautifully modulated readings from Romeo and Juliet before the movie goes back to it's demeaning purpose.

Patsy Kelly is one of the other talents who help save this farrago from complete disaster.

I would have had a much more positive view of this movie if I didn't know and admire John Barrymore.

On the surface of it, this is as good as any of the rest of Kay Kyser's ouevre. If you like him (he is, admittedly, an acquired taste), you will probably like this movie. Lupe Velez and Patsy Kelly add their talents to the usual mix of corn and Swing supplied by Kay, Harry Babbitt, and Ish Kabibble (the true inventor of the Beatle haircut).

What keeps me from truly enjoying this film is the presence of the great John Barrymore in a role more suited to Edgar Kennedy. In his last screen appearance, Barrymore grimaces and cavorts like a Stooge and is obviously reading his lines from cards because he can't remember them anymore. Whether or not the tears in his eyes and on his cheeks are real as he mumbles through Hamlet's soliloquy one last time, mine were real enough.

If you don't reverence Barrymore, and you are a student of the Kollege of Musical Knowledge, this will be your cup of tea. If either of the above isn't true, give it a miss.