Swing Time Again
TCM has shown Swing Time the last two nights. Just thought you might be interested in a PG Wodehouse connection to this film. Victor Moore - who plays Pops in the film - had a long film and stage career. Just before filming Swing Time, Moore had starred in Anything Goes with Ethel Merman. The New York Times raved over Moore's performance:
Do you remember a pathetic, unsteady little man who answers to the name of Alexander Throttlebottom? Masquerading in the program as Victor Moore, he is the first clown of this festival, and he is tremendously funny. For it has occurred to the wastrels who wrote the book to represent him as a gangster disguised as a parson and to place him on a liner bound for Europe. Among the other passengers are a night-club enchantress, who sings with the swaggering authority of Ethel Merman, and a roistering man about town who enjoys the infectious exuberance of William Gaxton.
And who wrote the book for Anything Goes? I'll let the Times answer that one:
By keeping their sense of humor uppermost, they have made a thundering good musical show out of "Anything Goes," which was put on at the Alvin last evening. They are Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, whose humor is completely unhackneyed; Cole Porter, who has written a dashing score with impish lyrics, and Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who have been revising the jokes in person. After all, these supermen must have had a good deal to do with the skylarking that makes "Anything Goes" such hilarious and dynamic entertainment. But when a show is off the top shelf of the pantry cupboard it is hard to remember that the comics have not written all those jokes and the singers have not composed all those exultant tunes.
By the way, Alexander Throttlebottom was the role played by Moore in the Gershwins' Of Thee I Sing. Throttlebottom was Vice President of the United States serving under President Wintergreen (played by William Gaxton). Earlier, Moore had appeared in the Gershwins' Oh Kay. In Anything Goes, he starred as Moonface Martin.
Do you remember a pathetic, unsteady little man who answers to the name of Alexander Throttlebottom? Masquerading in the program as Victor Moore, he is the first clown of this festival, and he is tremendously funny. For it has occurred to the wastrels who wrote the book to represent him as a gangster disguised as a parson and to place him on a liner bound for Europe. Among the other passengers are a night-club enchantress, who sings with the swaggering authority of Ethel Merman, and a roistering man about town who enjoys the infectious exuberance of William Gaxton.
And who wrote the book for Anything Goes? I'll let the Times answer that one:
By keeping their sense of humor uppermost, they have made a thundering good musical show out of "Anything Goes," which was put on at the Alvin last evening. They are Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, whose humor is completely unhackneyed; Cole Porter, who has written a dashing score with impish lyrics, and Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, who have been revising the jokes in person. After all, these supermen must have had a good deal to do with the skylarking that makes "Anything Goes" such hilarious and dynamic entertainment. But when a show is off the top shelf of the pantry cupboard it is hard to remember that the comics have not written all those jokes and the singers have not composed all those exultant tunes.
By the way, Alexander Throttlebottom was the role played by Moore in the Gershwins' Of Thee I Sing. Throttlebottom was Vice President of the United States serving under President Wintergreen (played by William Gaxton). Earlier, Moore had appeared in the Gershwins' Oh Kay. In Anything Goes, he starred as Moonface Martin.
posted by Whistling Dixie at 5:56 PM
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