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Frankie And Johnny

1936, Movie, NR, 66 mins

Frankie And Johnny: Review

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A mess from beginning to end, this was one of the first pictures to be based on a song. Chester Morris is dull as Johnny, a country bumpkin who wanders into a St. Louis sporting house (brothel) where Helen Morgan is Frankie, the in-house vocalist. They marry, and he begins cheating on her with Lilyan Tashman, who plays Nellie Bly. (Tashman died before the picture was released, two years after it was made--there were lots of hassles with the Hays Office over the depiction of the bordello. Dying was taken as a personal affront by the studio bosses of the 1930s; as was usually the case with deceased cast or crew members, Tashman was unbilled in the screen credits on the picture's release.) Morgan is about to shoot Morris for his transgressions when the deed is done for her by an angry gambler. With a screenplay by Moss Hart, more wit would have been expected, but he was busy that year working with George S. Kaufman on what was to be "You Can't Take It with You" for Broadway. Dumb dialog, bad direction, jerky editing; even the songs don't work. Morgan thrushes "Give Me a Heart to Sing to," "Get Rhythm in Your Feet," "If You Want My Heart," and, of course, "Frankie and Johnny." leave a comment
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