Born to Dance **** (1936, Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, Virginia Bruce, Sid Silvers, Buddy Ebsen, Raymond Walburn, Una Merkel, Frances Langford) – Classic Movie Review 5,921

James Stewart, Sid Silvers, Buddy Ebsen and Raymond Walburn meet Eleanor Powell, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel and Frances Langford at the Lonely Hearts Club in New York, in MGM’s lovely 1936 musical film Born to Dance. James Stewart sings!

Three sailors (James Stewart, Sid Silvers, Buddy Ebsen) and captain Dingby (Raymond Walburn) meet four gals (Eleanor Powell, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel and Frances Langford) at the Lonely Hearts Club in New York, in director Roy Del Ruth’s lovely 1936 MGM musical film Born to Dance.

Cole Porter wrote the wonderful score, including ‘(You’d Be So) Easy to Love’ and the Oscar-nominated ‘I’ve Got You under my Skin’. Porter was Oscar nominated for Best Original Song and Dave Gould was Oscar nominated for Best Dance Direction for ‘Swingin’ the Jinx Away’.

Born to tap-dance Eleanor Powell is the show’s hit, particularly in the showstopping finale with a couple of hundred matelots. Alas, James Stewart sings on ‘Rolling Home’, ‘Hey, Babe, Hey’ and ‘Easy to Love’! Weirdly, Porter picked Stewart for his role, claiming he sang ‘Easy to Love’ as well as any professional singer.

The dubbing on ‘Easy to Love’ with baritone Jack Owens was not used in the film, but in That’s Entertainment! (1974), Stewart says: ‘The song had become a huge hit, even my singing wouldn’t hurt it.’

Powell’s vocals, however, are dubbed by Marjorie Lane.

Reginald Gardiner, Alan Dinehart, Juanita Quigley and Barnett Parker are also in the cast, with Georges and Jalna Toregas as themselves and J Marshall Smith, L Dwight Snyder, Ray Johnson, and Del Porter as The Foursome.

Covering all bases, MGM advertised: ‘Your Broadway Melody Girl in the Musical Successor to The Great Ziegfeld.

Years later, Stewart sings again in the 1957 Western Night Passage.

Years later, MGM built the whole Esther Williams 1953 film Easy to Love around what became its title track ‘(You’d Be So) Easy to Love’, sung by Tony Martin.

Cole Porter wrote the song ‘(You’d Be So) Easy to Love’ for William Gaxton to sing in the 1934 Broadway show Anything Goes, but it was cut when Gaxton was unhappy about its wide vocal range. Porter then re-wrote it for Born to Dance, where it is introduced by Eleanor Powell, James Stewart and Frances Langford as ‘Easy to Love’. Coming full circle, it was added to the 1987 and 2011 revivals of Anything Goes under the full title ‘(You’d Be So) Easy to Love’.

Judy Garland sang it in Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941) but it was cut from final film.

The cast are Eleanor Powell as Nora Paige, James Stewart as Ted Barker, Virginia Bruce as Lucy James, Una Merkel as Jenny Saks, Sid Silvers as Gunny Sacks, Frances Langford as Peppy Turner, Raymond Walburn as Captain Dingby, Alan Dinehart as McKay, Buddy Ebsen as Mush Tracy, Juanita Quigley as Sally Saks, Georges Toregas and Jalna Toregas as themselves, Reginald Gardiner as Conducting Central Park Policeman, Barnett Parker as Floorwalker, Marjorie Lane as the singing voice of Nora Paige, and J Marshall Smith, L Dwight Snyder, Ray Johnson, Del Porter as The Foursome.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,921

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