So Long Letty

You may know Charlotte Greenwood from her Aunt Eller in "Oklahoma!", or from one of the many Fox musicals where she was featured. Hardly leading lady material, with a six-foot frame, endless high-kicking legs, and a face that worked only in character parts, she nevertheless possessed star quality in abundance, and Warners top-billed her in this adaptation of her stage success. It's a flimsy comedy with songs about two dissatisfied couples who try wife-swapping, but it's hardly "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice," and the setup exists mainly to keep Charlotte singing, high-kicking, and clowning. All these she does with ebullience and a marvelous singing voice, and she plays well opposite both hubby Bert Roach and other-man Grant Withers, who's a hot young lad with a wicked disposition. The songs are pretty good, Lloyd Bacon's direction has pace, and Claude Gillingwater, as an annoying old man, is an annoying old man. Hampered as it is by early-talkie arthritic camera movement and uncertain sound recording, it's a valuable archive of a beloved theater performer who worked steadily in film, but seldom got to strut her stuff as she does here.