Themes: Musician's Life, Mothers and Daughters, Fathers and Daughters
Main Cast: Allan Jones, Fanny Brice, Judy Garland, Reginald Owen, Billie Burke
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 80 minutes
Plot
Everybody Sing is an uncertain blend of screwball comedy and standard MGM musical. Reginald Owen plays Hillary Bellaire, patriarch of a looney theatrical family, while Billie Burke co-stars as his overly dramatic actress wife Diana. What story there is gets under way when the Bellaire's daughters Judy (Judy Garland) and Sylvia (Lynne Carver) are expelled from school because Judy insists upon singing Mendelssohn to a "swing" beat. As it turns out, Judy is the most sensible member of the family! In one of her few film appearances, Fanny Brice is rather wasted as a Russian maidservant, though she does get to perform a musical number based on her "Baby Snooks" radio character. Far better served within the film's framework is MGM's resident tenor Allan Jones as the family's chauffeur and Reginald Gardiner as Diana Bellaire's long-suffering stage leading man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
A mediocre musical stew from MGM, Everybody Sing is primarily of interest as a chance to see Judy Garland while she (and MGM) was still trying to figure out just who Judy Garland was, and as a rare chance to see Fanny Brice, legendary stage and radio comedienne/singer known to modern audiences mostly through Barbra Streisand's not-accurate recreation of her in Funny Girl and Funny Lady. Garland is well worth watching. She's still raw and rough around the edges, pushing a little hard in places; but the voice is full of the Garland magic, a brass bell coated in cream and sugar. Even when saddled with mostly second-rate songs, as is the case here, Garland can find some emotional core in them that will resonate with listeners, and she's ebulliently larksome here. But be warned: this is one of those films in which Garland dons blackface for a number. Brice is another matter; while one can glimpse some of the genius that must have skyrocketed off the stage, on screen she comes across as too big, too artificial. Still, there are some wonderful moments, and those moments are worth catching. The rest of the cast is variable, with Allan Jones in fine voice but wooden form, Reginald Owen and Billie Burke pushing too hard, Reginald Gardiner quite good and Lynne Carver quite fetching. The screenplay is nonsensical and often annoying, the direction is busy but dull, and the songs undistinguished -- so this is one best reserved for the fans or for those with a high nostalgia fondness. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Young Judy Bellaire has trouble fitting in at school, causing trouble by introducing her jazzy style into music class and being expelled as a result. Returning home to her dysfunctional and financially challenged family, where her playwright father, actress mother, and beautiful elder sister compete for attention along with the funny Russian maid, Olga (played brilliantly by Fanny Brice) and the hunky cook, Ricky (played by Allan Jones), who is not-so-secretly in love with Judy's elder sister, Sylvia. Judy foils her father's attempt to ship her off to Europe by escaping from the ship and then trying out for a musical show as a blackface singer, taking advantage of her love of jazz to enchant the show's producer, who hires her and makes her a star of his new show. Meanwhile, Ricky cuts a personal album musically expressing his love for Sylvia. Nevertheless, Sylvia is forced into engagement with another man.
When the distraught parents discover their younger daughter is appearing in a musical show, Sylvia rejoins her love, who is also appearing in the show. Finally, all the cast members are reunited, including the Russian maid, who finds her lost love, Boris. The movie's happy ending includes an extragavant stage piece with gorgeously attired chorus girls, happily reunited parents and child, and the happy kiss between Sylvia and Ricky, who is now the producer of a successful musical show.
In this film Allan Jones introduces the pop standard "The One I Love", with lyrics by Gus Kahn and music by Bronisław Kaper and Walter Jurmann. The film includes three other songs from the same composing team: "(Down On) Melody Farm," "Swing Mr. Mendelssohn," and the "The Show Must Go On". The St. Brendan's Boys Choir provided the singing voices for the schoolgirl chorus that backs Judy on her numbers.
