The MCA corporation today owns the rights for the films of two of the best popular singers of the early 1930's, Bing Crosby and Ross Colombo. While Crosby has become a legend, Colombo is all but forgotten, outside the scandal of his mysterious death that left behind a ton of unanswered questions. Like Crosby, he's a great crooner and very easy going in his on- screen manner. Unlike Crosby, he had the looks to be a matinée idol, making his sudden death in an alleged gun accident all the more tragic.
Universal studios was not the big A studio in the early-mid 1930's, with only its horror films and a few memorable action films and dramas to keep it afloat. Columbo represented the early days of the Universal musical that wouldn't be really successful until they signed up the young Deanna Durbin. This entry is an above average show business musical that isn't quite "Going Hollywood" or "42nd Street", but there is plenty to recommend it.
Columbo is paired up with the pretty June Knight, along with their outrageous agent Roger Pryor, determined to make it either on Broadway or in Hollywood, while hiding from the law which has been following them since an incident in Atlantic City. Along the way, they meet a plethora of delightful eccentrics, adding on Columbo's outrageous Italian guardian, the delightfully funny Henry Armetta. Andy Devine, Catherine Doucet and Winifred Shaw stand out among the supporting cast.
There's one standard that came out of the score, "Too Beautiful For Words", which I'm sure I've heard Crosby croon. Extremely fast moving and often outrageously funny, this could have been a star making vehicle for Columbo, but as fate had it, turned out to be his swan song. Knight would memorably introduce "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling" in MGM's "Broadway Melody of 1936", but quickly disappeared quickly as well. "Wake Up and Dream" may have been easily forgotten, but is definitely worth being discovered again, as well as the brief career of its short lived star.
Universal studios was not the big A studio in the early-mid 1930's, with only its horror films and a few memorable action films and dramas to keep it afloat. Columbo represented the early days of the Universal musical that wouldn't be really successful until they signed up the young Deanna Durbin. This entry is an above average show business musical that isn't quite "Going Hollywood" or "42nd Street", but there is plenty to recommend it.
Columbo is paired up with the pretty June Knight, along with their outrageous agent Roger Pryor, determined to make it either on Broadway or in Hollywood, while hiding from the law which has been following them since an incident in Atlantic City. Along the way, they meet a plethora of delightful eccentrics, adding on Columbo's outrageous Italian guardian, the delightfully funny Henry Armetta. Andy Devine, Catherine Doucet and Winifred Shaw stand out among the supporting cast.
There's one standard that came out of the score, "Too Beautiful For Words", which I'm sure I've heard Crosby croon. Extremely fast moving and often outrageously funny, this could have been a star making vehicle for Columbo, but as fate had it, turned out to be his swan song. Knight would memorably introduce "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling" in MGM's "Broadway Melody of 1936", but quickly disappeared quickly as well. "Wake Up and Dream" may have been easily forgotten, but is definitely worth being discovered again, as well as the brief career of its short lived star.