richspenc Review of Everybody Sing

Everybody Sing (1938)

Not quite as good as other Garland films but Judy is still great here

[7/10 · 8 January 2016]

Not quite as good as some Judy movies. Judy is wonderful here as always which saves the film from me giving it a lower number. That and a funny, wacky baby snooks routine with Fanny Brice. If a scene like that came in a more modern movie, I'd have found it stupid and annoying. But cause its 30s movie style, and I like Fanny Brice, the scene was actually pretty quirky and amusing. Old movies just knew how to do silly wacky comedy better than films today. Look at Larual and Hardy. Judy's sister Sylvia is on a date at a dinner theater club when Judy shows up on stage. "Hey, it's Judy" Sylvia exclaims. Yes, it was Judy. Judy's name in this film was Judy. I liked that. And Judy as always sang beautifully. Her song "Down on melody farm" she sings at the dinner theater club is great. So is her song "Swing Mr. Meddleson, swing" she sings at the beginning of the film at school right before being thrown out. The song Judy and the stage girls sing in the show after the baby snooks number is also very nice. So is the finale song. And I also liked Sylvia. Now for the couple of problems of the film. First, I really don't like the blackface routine. Like in "babes on Broadway", the director made Judy do a blackface routine in this film. I enjoy many things about old movies but not blackface routines. She sings " swing low, sweet chariot" while in blackface. Also, I did not care for the two parent characters in this film, Reginald Over and Billy Burke. They just yelled and whined too much and were just too worked up, in every scene they were in. Billy Burke had such a sweet, likable role the following year in 'Wizard of oz" as Glenda the good witch. But in this film, she was far less likable. And at one point, Billy Burke called Judy, her daughter "my ugly duckling". Not right. Especially since Judy Garland has never been ugly, and was called " ugly duckling" by Louis B. Mayer in real life. That poor girl didn't have to hear it as part of the script in a film too. Reginald and Billy were both nice in only the very last minute of the film when they got on stage and hugged their family for a job well done.