Frank S. Nugent wrote:
THE SCREEN; At the Paramount

Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray skip through the formular devices of “Swing High, Swing Low” (née “Burlesque”) with their usual ease at the Paramount, raising a routine story to a routine-plus picture. The plus is extremely small, sometimes being almost invisible. We recall being impressed by the photography of the Panama locks, by a shot of Mr. MacMurray with a beard, by Charles Butterworth’s tropical wardrobe of overcoat and muffler. The rest is so much surplusage: a thin excuse for a film that requires an hour and thirty-five minutes to trace the rise, the fall and the potential ascendancy of a trumpet king.

Mr. MacMurray is the trumpet king. When Miss Lombard finds him he is just an ex-soldier in the Canal Zone. She leads him to Murphy’s café, gets him a chance to express himself, marries him and induces him to accept an offer to appear in New York’s Club El Greco. Does Mr. MacMurray let success go to his head? Does he forget the little woman, hit the skids, wind up with an impressive growth of whisker and the shakes on the night when an important radio sponsor is listening in? Does Miss Lombard steady his tremolo, nestle under his shaking arm and sing “When the trumpet blows, it thrills me, to the marrow of my bones it chills me?”

Your questions embarrass me, and they should embarrass the script writers. “Burlesque” was old hat when George M. Watters and Arthur Hopkins gave it to Broadway ten years ago and when the cinema restated it under another title several seasons back. Camouflaging its hero under a beard and a muted trumpet (which may have been played by Mr. MacMurray but sounds more like Louis Armstrong) does not effectively disguise its antiquity. “Swing High, Swing Low,” like most Ferris wheels, doesn’t go anywhere—at least, nowhere that you have not been. Its players really are worthy of better treatment.
At the ParamountSWING HIGH, SWING LOW, an adaptation of the George M. Watters-Arthur Hopkins play “Burlesque”; screen play by Virginia Van Upp and Oscar Hammerstein 2d; music and lyrics by Sam Coslow and Al Siegel, Ralph Freed and Charley Kisco, Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger, Mr. Freed and Burton Lane; directed by Mitchell Leisen; produced for Paramount by Arthur Hornblow. At the Paramount.

Maggie King . . . . . Carole Lombard
Skid Johnson . . . . . Fred MacMurray
Harry . . . . . Charles Butterworth
Eila . . . . . Jean Dixon
Anita Alvarez . . . . . Dorothy Lamour
Harvey Howell . . . . . Harvey Stephens
Tony . . . . . Charles Judles
Murphy . . . . . Cecil Cunningham
Georgie . . . . . Charles Arnt
Henri . . . . . Franklyn Pangborn

	
Swing.High.Swing.Low.1937.480p.Amazon.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.x264-Antifa.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 36 min
Size: 	1.29 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	640x480 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	1 688 kb/s
BPP: 	0.229
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch E-AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/238BEC2086E2D56/Swing.High.Swing.Low.1937.480p.Amazon.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.x264-Antifa.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/B92BA3BDEE1665B/Swing.High.Swing.Low.1937.480p.Amazon.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.x264-Antifa_(1).srt

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Mitchell Leisen – Swing High, Swing Low (1937) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
By now, Myrna Loy’s enduring portrayal of Nora Charles in the Thin Man series has pushed the fact that she was hardly an overnight success into the recesses of movie history. Loy served one of the lengthier movie star apprenticeships, appearing in over 70 films before she caught on with the public (for a more recent example of eventual-star stamina, check out Jack Nicholson’s pre-Easy Rider [1969] resume.) Given Loy’s immense gifts as a comic actress, and her obvious sex appeal, it’s surprising it took her so long. However, until she appeared in the mob comedy-melodrama, Penthouse (1933), she was typecast either as a “bad girl” or as a multi-cultural exotic with a non-specific accent. Some producers even tried to pass her off as Asian!

Penthouse is one of those Depression-era pieces of fluff that deflates the rich while glorifying salt-of-the-earth types. In other words, it was exactly what audiences wanted to see at the time. Warner Baxter stars as Jackson Durant, a wealthy lawyer who gets a kick out of defending gangsters and lowlifes. Unfortunately, Jackson’s snooty fiancée (Mae Clarke), isn’t particularly taken with his clientele, so she leaves him for a man of a higher social standing (Phillip Holmes). When she winds up murdered, Jackson pursues the killer, and meets Gertie Waxted (Loy), a no-nonsense call girl who’s truer to Jackson than the murdered woman ever was. Guess which two characters fall in love?

[ZK note: the above paragraph isn’t accurate. Jackson Durant’s snooty fiancée, Sue Leonard (Martha Sleeper), isn’t murdered. She leaves him for his friend,Tom Siddall (Phillip Holmes). It is Siddall’s mistress, Mimi Montagne (Mae Clarke), a night club hostess, who is murdered. Then Sue Leonard comes to Durant for help. Did the reviewer actually watch this film?!]

Penthouse is a spiffy, thoroughly enjoyable time-killer. More importantly, though, it served as the first teaming of Loy and director W.S. Van Dyke, who would mastermind the majority of her Thin Man pictures. In fact, Van Dyke was as responsible as anybody for getting Loy out of character actress hell. After directing Penthouse, Van Dyke personally approached Louis B. Mayer and stated that Loy would become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood if the studio would just keep giving her ‘American girl’ roles.

According to Loy, who was always nonplussed by her stardom and unlikely to invent such a story, Van Dyke passed through the MGM commissary shouting, “This girl’s going to be a big star! Next year she’ll be a star!” Shortly thereafter, Mayer assigned Van Dyke the task of directing a boxing picture starring heavyweight champion Max Baer. Van Dyke immediately recruited Loy to play the female lead (in The Prizefighter and the Lady, 1933), and they were officially a team.

Then, less than a year later, Van Dyke (who made a little over three films a year for 25 years) cast Loy opposite Clark Gable in a gangster picture called Manhattan Melodrama (1934). It says a lot about Loy’s then-growing popularity that gangster John Dillinger, who said Myrna was his favorite actress, attended a Chicago screening of Manhattan Melodrama, even though he was the most wanted man in America. While exiting the theater, Dillinger was shot dead by the F.B.I. (No word on whether he gave the picture a thumbs-up.)

The first Thin Man movie followed in short order, and Loy became “a big star.” Her effortless grace as a light comedienne is a testament not only to her talents, but to Van Dyke’s ability to see what so many other people had missed.

1.57GB | 1h 28m | 700×478 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/096CD6072B6D33E/Penthouse.1933.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:None

The post W.S. Van Dyke – Penthouse (1933) first appeared on Cinema of the World.