Artists & Models

Lots to enjoy here, especially if you're a fan of the "characters watching entertainment within the film plot" kind of film. This film has lots of evidence of what and how performances were staged. Wonderful performance of Connee Boswell of the Oscar-nominated song "Whispers in the Dark." The film is chock full of delightful vignettes as late-night entertainments captured as part of the setting of the film plot. One scene "Public Melody No. 1" is believed to be Vincente Minnelli's first film contribution, contributor of the concept if not the choreography. Martha Raye and Louis Armstrong appear in this scene. There is also a puppetry scene, and notable artists (including cartoonist Rube Goldberg) doing portraits are captured with their work in another scene.

"Artists and Models" is a a typical Hollywood product of the late 1930s whereby a series of often very good performers strut their stuff around a very thin plot. This one has a trite screenplay about a working model competing with a society deb for top spot in an advertising promotion. A very young Ida Lupino plays the model and her tense persona is not ideal for the trivial surroundings. Lupino knew it and balked at such dumb roles. Jack Benny has the lead as an advertising guru and the role calls for none of his special talents. He could never quite make it as a movie star and this film is one of a number which tried to do so and failed.The musical performances are really the only reason to view the film and there are some good ones such as Connie Boswell crooning "Whispers in the Dark" with some unexpected visuals including a short water ballet, Judy Canova and Ben Blue strutting to the catchy "Stop, Your'e breaking my Heart", a goofy but very infectious number, and Martha Raye, bizarre in black make up, but singing up a storm with Louis Armstrong for Public Melody No 1. The film looks good but the print has a number of splicing jumps and at least one scene when the actors speak but there is no sound.The film has been issued in the TCM Universal Vault series. There are some minor extras around advertising, on set photos etc which are trivial. The TCM essay on the film, which can be viewed on the TCM website, is included and is useful. There is no scene selection, which is a nuisance, and my copy of the DVD is faulty, skipping reels. In fact the DVD only played correctly on first viewing. On subsequent viewings, it has become unusable.

I saw pictures of the puppet sequence 65 years ago. I have been searching for it for the past 25 years. It wasn't worth the search. The quality of the DVD is much better than I anticipated it would be. To bad the content isn't better. I at lease have erased this from my 'bucket list."

Do not get ripped off as I did . This movie does NOT star Shirley Maclaine and Dean Martin and is NOT a colour Movie. It is a black and white OLD movie and star Jack Benny, Ida Lupino 1937. Very disappointing Uniqueplace for false representation.