Good News

GOOD NEWS is an MGM musical based on the smash 1927 Broadway musical that ran for 16 months and starred Mary Lawlor and Inez Courtney as Connie and Babe, and Gus Shy as Bobbie.

In the film version, Lawlor and Shy repeat their stage roles, but Bessie Love takes over as Babe. While many fans of musicals are familiar with the 1947 version (starring June Allyson), the original film version sticks close to its theatrical roots. This is both good and bad. While this version has a ton of pep and some imaginative staging and choreography, the acting is mostly wooden, and the dialog and slang were already creaky in 1930. The sound recording is surprisingly bad in many spots.

What this film has going for it is a terrific central performance by Bessie Love as the zippy co-ed who gleefully chases after her man (Shy). While Love's musicals numbers have been largely lost on other MGM films like CHASING RAINBOWS, here she gets to sing a little and dance a little. She also gets to throw herself into the physical comedy, like the scene where she's hiding (along side a cake) under a bed from her old boyfriend, Beef (played by future writer/director Delmer Daves). Before he leaves he sits on the bed, shoving Bessie's face into the cake. She's terrific.

Also great are MGM stalwart Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) as Pooch and Penny Singleton (billed as Dorothy McNulty) as Flo. Singleton is pretty amazing as lead dancer in the "Varsity Drag" and "Good News" numbers. Stanley Smith is OK as Tommy but sings well. Lola Lane is thrown away as Pat. Gus Shy (who looks about 40) is way too stagy to be effective.

MGM scuttled a few of the songs as the craze for musicals died while they were filming this one. Pity. The songs are really good and very representative of the era. Still, GOOD NEWS was a hit at the box office, probably due to the popularity of Bessie Love.

The best number is the lively "Varsity Drag." As the prof leaves the classroom and admonishes the students to use the free minutes to study, they instead push back the chairs and launch into a torrid version of the famous dance. Singleton sings and dances here and the number becomes truly cinematic when, in a great shot, the camera zeroes in on the blackboard where chalk figure of Roman generals start doing the drag. The bottom of the screen shows only the heads of the dancers who are in front of the blackboard. Later the camera zooms in on the dancers' shoes, which are smoking from the workout. It's great stuff.

Singleton again leads the dancers in the "Good News" number, which also features famed rubber-legged dancer Al Norman. Also in the cast are Ann Dvorak (chorus) Vera Marshe (the pretty blonde), Billy Taft, Thomas Jackson (the coach), Buster Crabbe (football player), Frank McGlynn (Kenyon), and for no reason at all Harry Earles.

GOOD NEWS was Love's last Hollywood musical and Lawlor's last film. The 2-strip Technicolor wedding finale is now sadly lost.

Unlike the 1947 version of this musical comedy, the two leads here are rather stiff, are not given too terribly much to do, and lack any perceivable chemistry. Top billed Mary Lawlor and Stanley Smith as Connie Lane and Tom Marlowe, respectively, play an unlikely collegiate couple. Tom is the star player on the football team at mythical Tait College. He has to pass a make-up exam in astronomy or he won't be able to play in Saturday's big game. Tom goes to his steady girlfriend, Pat, for help with studying. She says that astronomy is really the field of her friend Connie. Connie is a rather homely looking girl when the audience and Tom first see her, and Tom begrudgingly relents but is not looking forward to their study sessions. Connie's friends do a makeover on her before her first study date with Tom and - voilà - suddenly Tom is in love, even proposing almost from his first encounter. I know this is a musical comedy, but, really! Suppose the girl has annoying bad habits, insanity in her family, or layabout relatives or something. Someone should tell Tom that rushing is good in football, not in life. However, he learns this soon enough. You see, before Tom has had a chance to say anything to Pat about his newfound feelings for Connie, Pat announces their wedding plans. It seems Tom forgot that pesky marriage proposal he made to Pat, but Pat didn't.

That's the overriding story that gives us an excuse to see the really entertaining parts of the film which amount to a bunch of mini comedy sketches and musical numbers by the supporting players that I thoroughly enjoyed. Although I have to admit that Cliff Edwards appears to be the world's oldest underclassman, he is so entertaining with a remark here and a song there, in particular the catchy "I'm pessimistic", that I'll forget all of that. Penny Singleton - who isn't even billed in the top ten here - gives the blow-out musical performances of this film with "Varsity Drag" and her rendition of the title song "Good News". Bessie Love may be a musical talent in a musical film, but her contribution here is mainly as comedienne as the spritely mischievous coed Babe. The bad tempered and aptly named Beef thinks he has romantic claims on her but she has eyes for Bobbie, a less talented player on the team, and he has eyes for her. However, Bobbie would like to keep those eyes along with his teeth and nose, and if Beef finds out the chances of him keeping these things seem unlikely as Beef is very jealous of Babe.

Do note that the finale of this film is lost, but TCM has inserted publicity stills and title cards indicating what happens in this final scene.

Although made in 1930, this film is based on a 1927 hit play, thus it is very much steeped in the Jazz Age, with even a mentioning of raccoon coats in the prologue. If you like early talking films I do recommend this one.

There is a college football game coming up at Tait college and the team captain and star player Stanley Smith (Tom) has dunced out in his exams which means he needs to take a re-test and pass Astronomy or he won't get to play and the college will undoubtedly lose the match. His girlfriend Lola Lane (Pat) fixes it so that her cousin Mary Lawlor (Connie) studies with him to ensure that he passes. Big mistake.

It's a college-based musical with some amusing sequences coming courtesy of students Bessie Love (Babe) and Gus Shy (Bobbie) who also dance and sing. The musical dance numbers are entertaining, and they include 2 chorus numbers led by student Penny Singleton (Flo). Unfortunately, the final dance sequence is missing but we are provided with title cards explaining what happens at the film's end. I quite like this as it gives the film a mysterious quality. I wonder what that musical finale was like?

The best in the cast are Bessie Love who is very funny - her dialogue delivery is hilarious, and she works well with Gus Shy, who also gets to deliver some entertaining dialogue. Cliff Edwards also shows up with his ukulele and Al Norman crops up in a dance sequence where he gets to show off his rubber legs and comic dance moves.

The music in this is so delightful!!

If the sound quality and print were restored to "Wizard of Oz" (1939) level of pristine quality, this would be known as one of the best films of the decade! But even in the warn state that it's in now, it is fantastic!

It's a lot of fun to compare this to the 1947 June Allyson remake too, and see what was changed vs. What stayed the same. I am once again coming away with the opinion that remakes are good things, a) because it adds to the appreciation of the original, and b) because everything in the world is inspired by something! There are no truly original ideas, because nothing exists alone- and that's not a bad thing! It's good to draw a line from one thing to the other, learning of its origins. Again, it just adds to the lore and enjoyment of it all!

This was a joy and so was the remake! But this one felt more natural in a way, whereas I felt June Allyson didn't really fit her role in the remake, I had no such qualms with this one. But watching them both in close succession is like a hearty meal, followed by a surprise dessert! Except instead of food, the dessert is bonus music!

There are a few different songs in each, and even those that are the same are performed differently. So it's a real treat that never gets boring!

In terms of musicals, this stands out from many of the earliest Old Hollywood films of the genre, for the way that the songs help drive the story, as opposed to being just confined to a stage. Interestingly though, this musical did originate on the Broadway stage, so the cast and crew did a fine job transforming it to the screen.

Highly recommended- for so many reasons!

Watching Penny Singleton in this movie was a revelation, and for those who think of her only as the staid title character of the "Blondie" series should catch this movie if only to see her. She's billed 11th (as Dorothy McNulty) but is the centerpiece of two of the big production numbers involving singing and dancing: "The Varsity Drag" and the title song "Good News." Her immense talent is evident as she does her high kicks, somersaults, cartwheels and splits and delivers the rapid-fire lyrics with uninhibited abandon. She was an absolute joy to behold! In addition, Gus Shy, the Danny Thomas look- talk- and act-alike, provides some good comedy that is complemented by that of Bessie Love and Cliff Edwards, while Lola Lane, Mary Lawlor and Stanley Smith provide the love interest. With 11 or so songs, including the ever-popular "The Best Things in Life Are Free," this movie is definitely worth seeing and compares favorably with the 1947 remake. My one complaint was the lack of closeups, although there was a good full-head closeup of Singleton singing "The Varsity Drag." It was very effective.

Before the movie was shown on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) channel, some titles informed us that the last half of the final reel was filmed in an experimental color process and is now lost. But the ever-resourceful station put together some stills at the end with subtitles to describe the outcome. The movie ran 84 minutes instead of the original 90 minutes.