Something to Sing About (1937) - film review

Terry Rooney is the lead singer and dancer with a New York band.  When he is invited to make a film in Hollywood, he must leave behind his adoring fiancée Rita Wyatt.  After a thorough makeover, Terry is thrown into his first film, not knowing that the studio boss has put out an edict that no one must tell him how good he is, to prevent him from getting a swollen ego.  When a staged fight gets out of hand, Terry skips Hollywood and returns to his fiancée.  Convinced that his acting career is over, he marries his beloved Rita and sets out for San Francisco for an uneventful honeymoon.  In the meantime, Terry’s film is released to great acclaim and the former band leader becomes a national star.  The studio persuades Terry to sign a seven year contract, with the proviso that he remains single.  When Terry reveals that he has just married, there is only one solution: Rita must pretend to be his secretary.  Back in Hollywood, the studio fabricates a rumour that Terry is amorously interested in their leading starlet, Stephanie Hajos...

In this sardonic musical comedy, James Cagney makes a joyful return to his vaudeville past, in a role that makes good use of his talent as a singer, dancer and comedian.  Cagney is best known for his hardboiled gangster roles but, as this film demonstrates, he was equally capable as a comic performer, with dancing skills to rival those of Fred Astaire.  Something to Sing About was the second of two films which Cagney made for Grand National Pictures during his temporary rift with Warner Brothers (the first being Great Guy).  The film’s commercial failure resulted in the cancellation of Grand National Pictures’ next picture, Dynamite, and the closure of the company.

Whilst Something to Sing About is somewhat dated (thanks mainly to its shoddy production values), it is an effective satire that gives an insight into how Hollywood operated in the 1930s.  The film shows how actors were manipulated and exploited by unscrupulous studio executives, something that Cagney knew a great deal about through his fraught association with Warner Brothers.  The plot may be lacking in substance, but Cagney’s presence lifts the film above the merely bland and, with its uplifting musical numbers, frothy comedy and boxing cats (yes, boxing cats), it still stands as an entertaining piece of escapist fun.   Where else would you find James Cagney being trained to utter pear-shaped vowels?   It makes a change from grapefruit...

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