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Lisa’s Home Bijou: Weekend in Havana musical romance

September 11, 2017 by Lisa Grable 1 Comment

Film Festival: The Islands and Tropicana

Weekend in Havana (1941) is a fun musical romantic comedy that takes place in pre-war Havana. Cuba was a land of nightclubs and exciting drinks, sugar cane fields, hibiscus, ginger, and anthurium flowers. Rom-coms always revolve around the “meet cute” of the couple destined for romance. This musical is no different, with Alice Faye and John Payne unable to get along over the grounding of a cruise ship on its way to Havana from New York.

Music of Weekend in Havana

I’ll introduce you to the musical numbers first. I’m sure they will get you interested in the crazy plot!

Carmen Miranda plays Rosita Rivas, a popular nightclub singer. She opens the movie singing How would you like to spend the weekend in Havana?
“Come on and run away over Sunday / To where the view and the music is tropical / You’ll hurry back to your office on Monday / But you won’t be the same anymore” –Carmen
At the Casino Madelino, we see a big floor show with dancing girls and band. Rosita sings Rebola a bola. (I think this is my favorite Carmen Miranda outfit!) Next she sings When I Love, I Love.
The band sings Luna Cubana. Nan sings it in English in the moonlight as Tropical Magic. Monte Blanca (Cesar Romero) is sitting in the shadows, listening to her lovely voice.
Monte takes Nan to a tea dance at the hotel. He is a great dancer! Nan sings Romance and Rhumba as they dance.
Outside El Arbolado supper club, a vendor sings The Man with the Lollypop song.
For the big closing production number, Rosita leads her floorshow singing The Ñango.

Weekend in Havana romantic comedy plot

Now for the plot. Weekend in Havana opens with travel agency and cruise posters showing the fun in Havana, Cuba.

In the office of McCracken Steam Ship Company, owner Walter McCracken finds out that the Cuban Queen is on the rocks 200 yards off shore of Florida. Jay Williams (John Payne) is in his office getting fitted for a tuxedo while Terry, his fiancée, watches. She’s the owner’s daughter. Mr. McCracken wants to send Jay to the ship to handle potential lawsuits. Terry is mad because Jay might not come back in time for their wedding.

” There weren’t any casualties, but there could be plenty of lawsuits! Now you’ve got to get ready and get down there and take care of things. – Oh no he doesn’t! Jay doesn’t leave this town. Have you forgotten we’re being married Saturday? –I had but it doesn’t make any difference. –Oh doesn’t it? –No. That ship’s worth five million. Your wedding is only costing three thousand.” –McCracken and Terry

Jay makes it to the Cuban Queen and gets waiver signatures from every passenger except Miss Nan Spencer. She has one of the smallest cabins on the ship and he seeks her out.

“But what about my vacation? What happens to me? –Well, after all, Miss Spencer, it couldn’t be helped. It was no one’s fault. –It was too somebody’s fault! –It was? Whose? –The captain’s. If he had been up on the bridge where he belonged instead of where he was there never would have been any accident.” –Miss Spencer and Jay

She is very angry at the captain for running ship aground. Jay offers her a replacement ticket for two weeks later on a new ship. She can’t take her vacation then and she doesn’t want to go back to working at Macy’s without her trip. He offers to fly her to Cuba but she wants a guarantee she will have a good time. She won’t sign the waiver unless she’s had a good time. McCracken orders Jay not to leave Miss Spencer’s side.

Next we see the Pan Am Clipper flying into Havana harbor. We are treated to beautiful Technicolor images of the city including the casino, the racetrack, and Sloppy Joe’s bar.

In her beautiful luxury hotel suite, Nan discusses the romance of Havana with the bellman. She asks him about the best nightclubs. She takes Jay on a tour of her suite. He tries to get her to sign the waiver again, and she refuses. She doesn’t trust the McCracken company.

Jay starts her tour with a drive out to the sugar cane fields. She is not satisfied and not having a good time. She wants to do what she imagines Arnold Spreckels, the sugar magnate, would do with her.

She wants to go to Casino Madelino. Jay takes her to the Casino to see Rosita’s floor show. Nan leaves Jay, hoping to find some romance. She wanders out to the courtyard where she meets Monte Blanca (Cesar Romero) in the moonlight.

“I have seen hundreds of women standing there and I have kept right on smoking. But you, señorita! Are you alone? –Well no. I mean I came with a man but I’m going home alone. –Well one of two things happened, señorita. You were insulted or you were not insulted. And beyond that you are not going home alone. –Nan and Monty

Monty sees her home to the hotel and asks her out for the following night. He plans to take her to the gambling tables in the casino. Monty meets with the bellman who has tipped him off to the fabulously wealthy Miss Spencer.

Next night at the casino Monty and Nan go to the roulette table. Jay follows them. Monte goes to the casino owner’s office to talk about his debts. Monte assures the owner that his date owns half of America. Meanwhile, Nan is winning hugely at the table, which will not help Monte’s debt. After losing $3000, Nan reveals to Monte that she is a shop girl at Macy’s. Now Monte is in fear of his life. When he returns to the casino owner’s office, Jay is on the spot offering to pay for Nan’s losses. He offers Monte a deal to keep Nan happy.

“You Cubans are supposed to be experts at romance. –Oh no, I am not a Cuban. I was born in Brooklyn as a child. But I have a feel for romance.” –Jay and Monte

Rosita accosts Monte as he’s waiting for Nan. She wants Monte to pay her back for money he has lost gambling.

Terry sends Jay a cable telling him how angry she is about postponing their wedding. Rosita looks for Jay to discuss “the blonde.” Jay tries to get her to forget about Nan. Jay agrees to meet Rosita at El Arbolado at 10 o’clock. The owner tells Jay that the house was a hangout of the pirate Henry Morgan. Jay tells Rosita that he is going to be Rosita’s new manager, replacing Monte.

When Jay tries to order dinner, he sees Monte and Nan arriving. He desperately tries to keep Rosita away from Nan while trying to avoid love-making with Rosita. Rosita finds Nan and Monte on the next balcony and Monte reveals everything.

Nan runs away in a huff. Jay chases her in a car. His car crashes when he doesn’t set the brake. They try to hike the 17 miles back to town. They end up making out while they wait to be rescued. They sing Tropical Magic as they ride home lying in a sugar cane cart.

Jay and Nan share breakfast. Nan is giddy with love. She has signed her own version of the waiver. Suddenly, Terry arrives. Nan tears up the waiver. A series of events happen with a check from Terry to Nan which ends up getting Monte out of trouble and Jay questioning a marriage to Terry. It’s a romantic comedy! Everyone is happy in the end.

Alice Faye is a cute, lovely girl. She acts with her beautiful blue eyes even while she’s singing. She was a fixture of Fox musicals before Betty Grable. I will watch any Carmen Miranda movie – she is a ball of energy and such a talented singer! If you want to relax with some light hearted fun in the atmosphere of old time Havana, try out Weekend in Havana.

Resource links for Weekend in Havana

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034379/?ref_=ttsnd_snd_tt
- Week-End in Havana (1941) from IMDb
http://www.alicefaye.com
- Official Alice Faye website
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1yyqn7SvT0
- Youtube video of Havana in the 1940s
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/04/22/401467980/of-fruit-hats-and-happy-tropics-a-renaissance-for-carmen-miranda
- Carmen Miranda from NPR
http://americansongwriter.com/2009/10/american-icons-harry-warren/
- Harry Warren from American Songwriter

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Lisa’s Home Bijou: Song of the Islands musical film

August 14, 2017 by Lisa Grable 4 Comments

Film Festival: The Islands and Tropicana

Song of the Islands (1942) shows the influence of cowboys on the Hawaiian cattle ranches. Ranches in Hawai’i brought an interesting mix of people to the islands. The Hawaiian culture has a strong expression in music and dance, both showcased in this film, with Betty Grable adding extra glamour to the mix.

George Vancouver introduced cattle to Hawaii in the late 1700s. In the 1830s, vaqueros from California and Mexico were hired and began the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) traditions.

Song of the Islands takes place on Ahmi-Oni Isle, a tiny island (near Lanai) in the middle of the Hawaiian islands. Ahmi-Oni has a split personality — one side of it is owned by Dennis O’Brien (Thomas Mitchell), the other by Harper (George Barbier.) O’Brien loves the native lifestyle. He has lived it himself, has raised his daughter amidst it, and wants to preserve his land for the island people. Harper is a no-nonsense absentee landowner. There are no women on his Circle H ranch and he wants his half of the island to be an efficient, profit-making cattle ranch.

“Bring me the fragrance of ginger / Strum your guitars while I dream away / Sing me a song of the islands / Aloha wau ia ‘oe”

Eileen O’Brien (Betty Grable) arrives back on the Isle in an outrigger canoe, singing “Sing Me a Song of the Islands.” She’s been at school on the mainland for three years. The O’Brien side of the Isle puts on a sumptuous homecoming party for Eileen, with guitars, singing, banana-leaf-covered pigs roasting in imu (cooking pit), hula dancers, and trays of fruits. They sing the Hawaiian War Chant (also known as the romantic song Kāua I Ka Huahua’i).

Eileen is very happy to be back home, but she learned to like one special convenience on the mainland and brought it back with her — a modern bathtub for their home.

The party cranks up when Eileen dresses in a grass skirt and flowers and performs a swing-hula with 20 local girls to “Down on Ami Ami Oni Oni Isle.” Her childhood nurse, Palola (Hilo Hattie), adds to the festivities by singing a comic version.

A sailboat suddenly beaches with two young men asleep in the cabin. They are cattle ranchers: Mr. Harper’s son and his Texas ranch manager, headed to the Circle H Ranch for a visit. Jeff Harper (Victor Mature) has been sent to make a deal with O’Brien to make his land part of the Circle H.

“Oh why did I ever leave Texas? –To show me how the little calves on dad’s ranches grow into nice big juicy steaks. –Say what do they feed them in a place like this? –Bananas and poi.” –Rusty and Jeff

Rusty Smith (Jack Oakie) is checking out the Hawaiian cattle operation. He finds the Hawaiian cowboy songs strange (Maika’i Ka Makani O Kohala), so he teaches them “Home on the Range.” The paniolo (cowhands) make it their own, changing it into a hapa haole song, half Hawaiian, half English.

Jeff and Eileen feel an attraction and start going out for moonlight sails and sunbathing on the black sand together.

“Say do you mind if I move the bouquet over so I can move in myself? –Ah ah, musn’t touch. –Why? –Well when a girl has a flower over her left ear it means…never mind. –What? Tell me! –It means she’s nobody’s sweetheart, she’s looking. –And over the right ear? –That means hands-off, she’s taken.” Jeff and Eileen (Actually, left ear means taken!)

Meanwhile, Palola has chosen Rusty for a husband-to-be, although he’s far more interested in her young cousin (Lillian Porter). Rusty meets Palola’s papa (Billy Gilbert), a very scary man reputed to be descended from cannibals (seriously?). Rusty survives a meal at Palola’s home that includes poi, coconut sauce, and octopus.

Jeff’s father flies in from Chicago on the Honolulu Clipper. He’s very upset that Jeff is not acquiring the O’Brien land and might actually marry the O’Brien daughter. Jeff wants his dad to calm down and relax. He brings him to a party at O’Brien’s where everyone sings Maluna Malolo Mawaena.

“Jeff, I’m not well, I’ve got a bad stomach. I want to retire. –You’re right, Dad, you’ve been working too hard. What you need is to get chummy with O’Brien. Learn how to enjoy life. –O’Brien! He’s been trying to pick my pocket for years. And that’s why his daughter is after you!” –Mr. Harper and Jeff

Harper and O’Brien discuss the use of O’Brien’s harbor for the Harper cattle operation. The talks break down when Harper won’t accept a friendly arrangement. Just when the Harper contingent is about to march off in a huff, a huge storm comes up and washes out the bridge between the two properties. Harper dad and son and Rusty have to spend the night with the O’Briens.

The two dads get friendly again while drinking a fermented papaya fruit concoction as a tonic. The senior Harper becomes convinced that he needs to spend more time on the Isle and get away from his hectic life in Chicago. Now the problem is to convince the angry Eileen to accept Jeff.

“You know, O’Brien, you’ve got a funny philosophy. Content to hibernate here on this island and even satisfied with the news you get from a 6-months-old newspaper! –What do you get from a fresh one? Nothing but news of troubles and taxes! Things you’d be happier knowing nothing about. They only keep you from enjoying the good things that were placed on this earth for all of us.” –Harper and O’Brien

Palola organizes a spectacular St. Patrick’s Day luau. Eileen wears a beautiful white evening-dress version of a hula outfit, covered with long white silk fringe. The local young men do a Samoan style dance, Palola sings the comic “Cockeyed Mayor of Kaunakakai,” Eileen leads the group in “O’Brien Has Gone Hawaiian” and an Irish-hula-jig. There’s so much going on, you’ll have to watch closely to see if Jeff “captures” Eileen and if Rusty ends up with the lovely cousin or with Palola.

Mack Gordon and Harry Owens provide the lively music for this tropical celebration. Other song and dance numbers in the film include “Blue Shadows and White Gardenias”, “What’s Buzzin’ Cousin,” and Na Lei O Hawai’i.

Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiians were the principal entertainment at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and provide a great soundtrack for the action. He wrote the hit song Sweet Leilani and wrote or transcribed many more Hawaiian songs. Clara Inter was the beloved Hawaiian entertainer Hilo Hattie. This was her first film.

Song of the Islands is a thoroughly entertaining journey to a Hollywood version of a Hawaiian island. Betty Grable looks wonderful in the tropical outfits and Victor Mature gets plenty of screen time to show off his physique. The Hawaiian foods, dances, and mode of dress are shown in rich Technicolor. Thomas Mitchell does his usual entertaining blustery Irish father role (check him out in “Gone with the Wind”). Fix yourself a tall coconut drink with a paper umbrella and sit back to be carried away for a rollicking good time.

Resource links for Song of the Islands (1942)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035361/
- Song of the Islands (1942) from IMDb
https://archive.org/details/HarryOwensAndHisRoyalHawaiians22songs
- Songs from Harry Owens and His Royal Hawaiians from the Internet Archive
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/74705%7C20405/Betty-Grable/biography.html
- Betty Grable at Turner Classic Movies
http://www.squareone.org/Hapa/clara.html
- Hilo Hattie’s biography from Hapa Haole Songs
https://www.biography.com/people/victor-mature-195786
- Victor Mature from Biography
http://www.territorialairwaves.com/
- Territorial Airwaves online radio show featuring vintage Hawaiian music

Let’s talk story

I’ve tried to document the actual Hawaiian songs in Song of the Islands and Honolulu. They are not listed on the soundtrack, nor are many of the performers listed in the credits. I don’t speak Hawaiian so it takes me awhile, but I think it’s important to get the songs added to the documentation on the Internet.

I love any movie with Betty Grable. I love Hawaii. But with modern eyes, it’s a little hard to watch this kind of Hollywood story. It makes me happy to see Hilo Hattie and Harry Owens, famous Hawaiian entertainers. I always wish that filmmakers would make more use of the beautiful heritage of true Hawaiian music and songs.

This is an update of a review that appeared originally in RETRO magazine, Nancy Eaton, editor.

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Lisa’s Home Bijou: Springtime in the Rockies

May 5, 2017 by Lisa Grable 3 Comments

Film Festival: Latin Flavor

Carmen Miranda’s vivaciousness and unique style are showcased in the 1942 film, Springtime in the Rockies. Portuguese by birth, Carmen Miranda emigrated to Brazil with her family as a youngster. As a teen she began working as a milliner and sang a bit on the radio. Although Carmen never grew past 5 feet tall, she became a Brazilian national treasure and an extremely popular bandleader and entertainer in the United States.

Springtime in the Rockies (1942) is a tale of two bickering lovers who are also Broadway stars. It’s the story of how they find happiness, along with all their friends, by the shores of Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies.

When we first see Dan Christy (John Payne) and Vicky Lane (Betty Grable) they are starring in “Stars in Your Eyes” on 42nd Street in New York. Dan is late for his duet with Vicky, who is worried. She talks things over with her friend Phoebe (Charlotte Greenwood).

“…He had a surprise for me. –Sounds like the old run-around. –Sounds more like an engagement ring to me. What else would a surprise be? –Well, I don’t know. Men have given me lots of surprises, they were never rings!”—Vicky and Phoebe

While they wait for Dan in the dressing room, Victor Prince (Cesar Romero) knocks at the door. Victor is Vicky’s old dancing partner and he wants her to join him again for a national tour. She nervously brushes him off because her heart belongs to Dan.

New York to Lake Louise, Banff, Canada

Dan finally arrives at the theater, so late that Vicky figures he must have been with another woman. He smells of expensive debutante perfume. After they sing and dance in a special-effects rainstorm on stage to “Run Little Raindrop, Run,” Dan tells her that he was late because he was buying a ring for her at Cartier’s. She cries tears of joy, but when he hands her a handkerchief, she sees that it is embroidered with the debutante’s initials. Victor’s offer of partnership suddenly looks much better to Vicky, so she takes him up on it.

Vicky and Victor do very well in their tour of nightclubs and hotel lounges. Meanwhile, Dan is jobless and spends his free time drinking. He meets a friendly bartender, MacTavish (Edward Everett Horton). While in the bar he finds out that the producers Bickell and Brown want to put up $60,000 for Dan’s new show, but the string attached is Vicky — they insist that she co-stars in the show. Dan’s agent, the Commissioner (Jackie Gleason), pays MacTavish to get the very drunk Dan on a plane to Lake Louise, where Vicky and Victor are enjoying a very successful gig at the Chateau.

An engagement and new employees

Dan wakes up in a hotel bed, very angry about the trumpet music that has awakened him. Outside, Harry James is entertaining the Chateau guests with “I Had the Craziest Dream” and “You Made Me Love You.” When MacTavish hands Dan a Bromo to relieve him, Dan can’t remember that he hired him as his a valet. MacTavish tells Dan a story:

“You see, when my Aunt Stephanie died I was a freshman at Harvard and in her will she stipulated that I was to receive an allowance of $10,000 a year as long as I remained in college. … Yes, sir, yes, sir, I’ve been going to school now for 20 years. I graduated last month. –20 years at one college? –No sir, no sir, I have diplomas from five!” –MacTavish and Dan

Dan intends to bring Vicky an engagement ring he purchased in Chicago, but once at Lake Louise, he finds that Vicky and Victor are already engaged. He returns to his hotel room to discover that while drunk in Detroit, he had hired a secretary, Rosita Murphy (Carmen Miranda). Dan can’t handle the pressure of everything he did while drunk or of Vicky’s apparent disinterest. He wants to return all his new employees to their points of origin and go back to New York. But MacTavish and Rosita want to stay in Canada. They convince Dan that Vicky has become jealous of the relationship she assumes exists between Dan and Rosita, so he decides to stay in Canada as well.

“Well, here I am, ready to go to work. –Murphy, take a letter. –Good neighbors! Is that what a secretary wears in Brazil? –Why, you don’t like my outfits? I think it’s a knock down. –Well, what good is it if there’s not a Mardi Gras in town?” –Rosita and Dan

Song and dance numbers

Vicky now needs to decide between Victor and Dan and now MacTavish looks like a good catch to Phoebe and Rosita. Rosita and Victor dance extremely well together. Bickell and Brown and the Commissioner all want Vicky. The song and dance numbers help move all this convoluted story line along:

Rosita has brought her six brothers (Banda da Lua) with her from Detroit. She brings them along with her to take dictation from Dan. Rosita is dressed in a red and yellow midriff-baring outfit and a turban covered with fruit. She convinces Dan to watch her family’s act and they do a Brazilian version of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”
Vicky and Victor dance a passionate floorshow based on the tango accompanied by Harry James’ music. In this number, Vicky wears a black illusion halter dress covered with sequins and a deep ruffle flounce. The dress shows off her beautiful back to its best advantage.
Rosita prepares for a date with Dan by dressing in a white satin sarong outfit and a white turban adorned with tulle ruffles. She’s afraid it’s too plain and tells MacTavish, “It needs some beads, some flowers, fruits, bubbles, knacks, knicks.” She borrows $10 from him and doctors her dress up with scarves, fringe, conchas, and Indian beadwork. Once at the supper club, she and her brothers take the floor to sing about her heart, “Tic Tac Do Meu Coracao.”
Phoebe performs a “Strange Interlude” to the tune of “I had a dream last night” in an orange pleated gown. Charlotte Greenwood throws in her famous high kicks.
“Pan American Jubilee” brings all the gang together to dance a combination of jitterbug and samba. Vicky begins the number in a white satin sweetheart neckline dress with bead gardenias in her hair. She changes to a blue and silver glittery strapless dress with the skirt composed entirely of long fringe.

Glamorous happy ending

Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda look marvelous in Technicolor. Carmen is a real part of the action of Springtime in the Rockies, not just here for musical insert. Her patter-style of singing and her comedic talent are shown off very well.

Harry James and Betty Grable do not share much screen time, although in real life, they married and raised a family in Las Vegas. Charlotte Greenwood (see her in Oklahoma and Moon Over Miami) and Edward Everett Horton (see him in Top Hat, among others) lend their usual top-notch support to the film. Springtime in the Rockies is a fun-filled look at wartime show business, resort life, and the Latin pizazz of Carmen Miranda.