Musical Monday: Riding High (1943)

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It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
Riding High (1943) – Musical #830

Studio:
Paramount Pictures

Director:
George Marshall

Starring:
Dorothy Lamour, Dick Powell, Victor Moore, Gil Lamb, Cass Dailey, Bill Goodwin, Rod Cameron, Glenn Langan
Themselves: Milt Britton’s Band

Plot:
Ann Castle (Lamour) returns to her hometown and her father’s silver mine, Grenada Silver Mine. Steve Baird (Powell) is her father’s new business partner is trying to raise funds for the mine, while someone is also passing around counterfeit money. Ann is hired as an entertainer for a dude ranch and she and Steve fall in love.

Trivia:
• Working titles included: Calgary Stampede, Canadian Capers and Ready Money.
• The film was originally supposed to be set in Canada. However, transportation issues prohibited second unit director Hal Walker from filming in Calgary, so the the story’s setting was changed to Arizona.
• Scenes were filmed on location in Chatsworth, CA.
• “He Loved Me Till the All-Clear Came” was written for STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM
• The songs “You’re the Rainbow,” “Get Your Man” and “I’m the Secretary to the Sultan” were flagged for having too suggestive lyrics, and had to be rewritten.
• Loren Ryder was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Sound Recording
• Based on James Montgomery’s play, “Ready Money.”

Highlights:
• Technicolor cinematography

Notable Songs:
• “Whistling in the Light” performed Dorothy Lamour
• “You’re the Rainbow” preformed by Dick Powell
• “Get Your Man, Sister” performed Dorothy Lamour
• “He Loved Me Till the All-Clear Came” performed by Cass Dailey

My review:
Crooner Dick Powell was one of the top musical stars of the 1930s when he was under contract to Warner Bros. He sang his way into the hearts of audiences in films like 42ND STREET, FOOTLIGHT PARADE and the Gold Diggers films.

While Powell still performed in musicals in the 1940s, he was moving away from singing roles and started acting in film noirs. He had also left his home studio of Warner Bros. and was freelancing at studios like MGM and Paramount Pictures, where he made this week’s Musical Monday, RIDING HIGH (1943).

Powell co-stars with one of Paramount’s top stars, Dorothy Lamour in this ridiculous musical with a nonsense plot.

Ann Castle (Lamour) returns to her hometown and her father’s silver mine, Grenada Silver Mine. Steve Baird (Powell) is her father’s new business partner is trying to raise funds for the mine, while someone is also passing around counterfeit money. Ann is hired as an entertainer for a dude ranch and she and Steve fall in love.

While overall entertainment value, the film is fun, storywise it is a bit messy. When interview James Bawden said he had never seen RIDING HIGH, Dorothy Lamour said he was lucky and that he didn’t miss much.

“George Marshall directed it and it certainly moved. It was wartime and it certainly moved. It was wartime and it made a barrel of dough,” Lamour said in the interview. “It might have been Dick Powell’s last musical.* He was bitter about having to do it. We had fun making it but nobody ever asks me about it.”

What’s interesting is that the film doesn’t utilize Powell’s singing well, and he maybe sings one song throughout the musical. It’s Lamour and Cass Dailey who perform the bulk of the songs in this film.

It’s always a pleasure to see Lamour perform in a musical, but I do not care for Cass Dailey. She’s like a hillbilly version of Martha Raye and more annoying.

However, Dailey does get a great World War II novelty number, “He Loved Me Till the All Clear,” referencing blackouts.

There is one questionable number where Lamour and the dancers are dressed as Native Americans and then men at the top of a Totem poll sing. It’s not great.

I had to watch a shoddy copy of this film, but it was still nice to see the Technicolor of this Paramount films.

If I’m being honest, the plot is pretty dumb, but it’s a fairly pleasant watch.

*While this was one of Powell’s final musicals, MEET THE PEOPLE was his final musical.

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