GARDEN OF THE MOON
(director: Busby Berkeley; screenwriters: Jerry Wald/Richard Macaulay/from the Saturday Evening Post story by John Barton Browne & H. Bedford Jones; cinematographer: Tony Gaudio; editor: George Amy; music: Heinz Roemheld; cast: Pat O’Brien (John Quinn), John Payne (Don Vincente), Margaret Lindsay (Toni Blake), Melville Cooper (Maurice), Dick Purcell (Rick Fulton), Johnny Davis (Slappy Harris), Isabel James (Mrs. Lomay), Jimmie Fidler (Self); Runtime: 94; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Louis F. Edelman; WB Archive Collection; 1938-B/W)
“The overlong, plodding and tedious story doesn’t work for the musical.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The screenplay is from a 1937 Saturday Evening Post story of the same title written by H. Bedford-Jones and John Barton Browne. The legendary choreographer Busby Berkeley (“Gold Diggers of 1935″/”42nd St.”) directs. It’s written by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay. The overlong, plodding and tedious story doesn’t work for the musical.
It is filmed in black and white.
Toni Blake (Margaret Lindsay) is the press agent for the Garden of the Moon nightclub (supposedly the Coconut Grove) who talks the club’s owner/manager, John Quinn (Pat O’Brien), into hiring a young and promising NYC band leader, Don Vincente (John Payne), to come to LA and replace Rudy Vallee when he can’t appear because of a car accident. But Don, whose swing music is a hit with the patrons, wavers when told he will work with a woman singer, because it has been his experience a woman singer causes a rift among musicians. But the boss forces him to accept the lead singer. They then clash over other issues.
The obnoxious nightclub owner and the equally obnoxious bandleader argue throughout the entire movie over many things, while Toni tries to smooth things over. The musician is fired for insubordination and hired back thanks to the peace making efforts of Toni.
The song “Love Is Where You Find It,” is not bad.
Gossip columnist and radio journalist Jimmie Fidler appeared as himself.
All I can say is I wish Rudy Vallee showed, it might have improved things.
REVIEWED ON 1/31/2023 GRADE: C-