At MGM Benny Rubin was a dialect comedian often featured mid cast but at Tiffany he was king and when he wasn't playing pals of the leading stars in films like "Love in the Rough" and "Lord Byron of Broadway" he was starring in Tiffany's "Sunny Skies", considered to be one of the worst of the rah-rah college musicals.
But even though he had top billing he was still playing the pal, this time of egotistical football star Rex Lease who had played almost the same role in "The College Hero" of 1927. They find love - Jim (Lease) with a very demure Mary (Marceline Day) and Benny (Rubin) with bubbly Doris ("Babe" Kane, a slimmer version of Helen) and she immediately bursts into "Wanna Find a Boy". She is the reason to watch this "seen it all before and done better" movie - before her arrival there are tired jokes about women's underwear ("under what"??) and who'll carry the ice!!! Jim sings "Must Be Love" and "You For Me" pleasantly enough and then, before you know it, they are at a school dance where Doris shows bumbling Benny how to put one foot in front of the other!!
Things turn dramatic with Jim becoming involved in a fight with his rival for Mary's affection and with the added indignity of flunking the squad he goes home. When he returns to college the next year he finds Benny has turned into a drunken, woman crazy fool and when he falls out of a window, Jim who has had to work his way back into everybody's good books, has to decide which is the most important - playing in the big game or giving a blood transfusion to his near death pal!!!
Marceline Day is very beautiful and is given lots of lingering close-ups but her acting seems to get more wooden as the film progresses, fortunately cute little "Babe" always seems to be on hand with a nifty song and dance. Unfortunately the best song (from the so-so bunch) is "Sunny Days" and it is sung as an ensemble - "Babe" doesn't get to put her unique stamp on it!!
Hard to believe that Norman Taurog, the director, became the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award just the next year for his direction of the gorgeous "Skippy" - he was at his best with child actors.
But even though he had top billing he was still playing the pal, this time of egotistical football star Rex Lease who had played almost the same role in "The College Hero" of 1927. They find love - Jim (Lease) with a very demure Mary (Marceline Day) and Benny (Rubin) with bubbly Doris ("Babe" Kane, a slimmer version of Helen) and she immediately bursts into "Wanna Find a Boy". She is the reason to watch this "seen it all before and done better" movie - before her arrival there are tired jokes about women's underwear ("under what"??) and who'll carry the ice!!! Jim sings "Must Be Love" and "You For Me" pleasantly enough and then, before you know it, they are at a school dance where Doris shows bumbling Benny how to put one foot in front of the other!!
Things turn dramatic with Jim becoming involved in a fight with his rival for Mary's affection and with the added indignity of flunking the squad he goes home. When he returns to college the next year he finds Benny has turned into a drunken, woman crazy fool and when he falls out of a window, Jim who has had to work his way back into everybody's good books, has to decide which is the most important - playing in the big game or giving a blood transfusion to his near death pal!!!
Marceline Day is very beautiful and is given lots of lingering close-ups but her acting seems to get more wooden as the film progresses, fortunately cute little "Babe" always seems to be on hand with a nifty song and dance. Unfortunately the best song (from the so-so bunch) is "Sunny Days" and it is sung as an ensemble - "Babe" doesn't get to put her unique stamp on it!!
Hard to believe that Norman Taurog, the director, became the youngest person ever to win an Academy Award just the next year for his direction of the gorgeous "Skippy" - he was at his best with child actors.