"Broadway Melody of 1936." It marks the first conspicuous appearance in the movies of Jack Benny and is supposed to be the picture that will give a chance to lots of potential stars.
Our first vote goes to the Snore Professor who consistently left us weak and strangling. Jack Benny himself does well with few good lines, and June Knight, now of "Jubilee," is decorative when not called upon to act.
Personally we've always felt that musicals should not have plots. This one is mostly about Eleanor Powell and a producer, Robert Taylor. She went to school with him, but when she comes to New York for a job on the stage she forgets to give him the sign of the goat (waving of the fingers underneath the chin); so he doesn't recognize her. But does she finally get her big chance? In the last shot are they embracing behind a bush? She does. They are.
Meanwhile, however, Frances Langford has sung several, songs and lots of chorus girls have danced all over a roof-garden. Jack Benny has made nasty remarks in his newspaper column, and Buddy Ebsen has danced and clowned and been generally very pleasant.
The other movie on the bill is "Charlie Chan in Shanghai." This one is is Shanghai. Warner Oland is still the star and he still solves a murder. We like 'em.
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A PRESENT FOR HARVARD
