The Loudspeaker

Ray Walker plays Joe Miller, the town wit of a small town. He's got ambition. He wants to be a radio star. When the girl he wants to marry gets together with another man, he heads off to New York, where he fast-talks his way into a rising career. The problem is he has a swelled head, so as he tries to help and pursue Julie Bishop (still credited as Jacqueline Wells), he alienates the people around him.

It's a common enough show-biz plot and Ray Walker and Miss Bishop try their hardest (with a nice small role for Charley Grapewin), but it's fairly thin. Walker's comedy is of the word-play and "Ain't I funny?" variety; while it's certainly better than the show it replaces, it's not particularly amusing .... although the competing shows he mentions are of exactly the same variety. A couple of songs by Harry Akst and Lew Brown enliven the proceedings, but this cheap Monogram programmer, while decent, doesn't particularly appeal, largely because of the unappealing way Walker's role is written and performed.

Joe Miller (Ray Walker) fancies himself a comedian and dreams of a life on the air in radio as a famous broadcaster, but he's actually just a railroad employee in the small town of Burlap, Pa. One night when he tries out his act on the president of the railroad who has stopped by for a surprise inspection Joe is fired and decides to try his luck in New York City. He finds a short-cut to success via his ingenuity and gets to headline a radio program for a pancake flour company. He also finds a girl he fell in love with at first sight back in Burlap when she was asleep on a train that was passing through. He pursues the girl but she turns out to be a hard nut to crack. Joe always had a swelled head, but now he's also turning to drink and partying. Will success abandon Joe Miller? Watch and find out.

I watched this because it was on a list of "Great B Movies" on a website that caters to old movie fans. Ironically, the creator of that list actually said - "Really good B comedies are fairly scarce because the most talented writers and directors of such fare were big-name, A-picture regulars. Ditto for musicals: the top songwriters and musical performers primarily worked in major-studio As." And yet this musical comedy was on his list! My assessment is that author should have followed his own advice and not put this on his list.

The jokes aren't funny and if there wasn't a radio audience there to laugh and cue the film audience, I'd have no idea what was and wasn't supposed to be a joke. Ray Walker, the leading man, rather reminded me of Jack Oakie, just better looking with a blander presentation style. Apparently, his heyday was over by the mid 1930s. The leading lady is Julie Bishop, who had a longer career and actually played opposite some pretty big stars at Warner Brothers for awhile, but she was not a singer. Thus it is pretty jarring when her voice is dubbed with an operatic singing voice that does not match her speaking voice at all as she breaks out in song.

Still, it's not boring and it is interesting if you want a look at what old time radio looked like. That's the only reason it cracks a 5/10 in my estimation.

This little screwball romantic comedy has a whole lot going for it. The lead character, Joe Miller, played by Ray Walker, is a very funny schtick comedian, and Julie Bishop (billed as Jacqueline Wells) plays his dream-girl most convincingly.

The rise-fall-redemption plot of Joe's self-confidence and pep, which take him into show biz, and his arrogance and drunkenness, which cause his on-air debacle, follows a predictable story-arc, but there are lots of very funny lines, delivered with genuine wit, and enough of a competition with another suitor to bring tension to the drama.

If "The Loudspeaker" had been made in the late 20th century, Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, or Jim Carey would have gotten the role of Joe Miller. What we have instead is a tightly constructed, fluffy pancake of a show, well worth watching in its own right. Character actor Charley Grapewin is charming as "Pops," and sweet Mary Carr does a walk-on as a star-struck land-lady.

Best of all, for those who follow old movies for other reasons than the story-line, it must be noted that we have some great 1934 vintage "stuff" on display here: live steam locomotive action filmed at a real railway depot; a Horn and Hardardt's automat set filled with vintage chrome goodness; a fabulous art deco penthouse that should rate a mention in any book on art deco set decoration; a lot of gorgeously chic gowns from an unexpectedly high-class wardrobe department, considering the film's probable budget; and an otherwise-unfilmed but very hot threesome of African American jazz and scat singers billed here as The Brownies Trio. (Sensitive viewers are advised to overlook the radio sponsor's logo of a smiling Black cook and the fact that The Brownies are dressed in silver-spangled Aunt Jemima outfits. Relax -- just enjoy the music!) I liked this one a lot -- unpretentious, well directed, a clean print (from Alpha Video), and lots of vitality make it a perfect little mid-1930s gem -- kinda like the very small diamond on the ring that Joe gives to his gal before he becomes a star.