WALKING MY BABY BACK HOME
US, 1953, 95 minutes, Colour.
Donald O’ Connor, Janet Leigh, Buddy Hackett, Scatman Crothers.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.
This is a star vehicle for the two leads, at peak points in their careers. O’ Connor had just been a success at singing, dancing and clowning in Singin in the Rain. He was also very popular in the Francis series, Francis the talking mule. Janet Leigh was a key star at MGM but was being loaned out for such films as Houdini, the Black Shield of Falworth, Prince Valiant. She did not appear as a singing and dancing star in any MGM films but only for those on loan-out, Two Tickets to Broadway, and this film at Universal. Ten years later she would appear in Bye, Bye, Birdie. Buddy Hackett (who played Lou Costello in the telemovie, Lou) has a few comedy routines that don’t hit the funnybone these days.
The film was directed by the veteran of all kinds of genres at Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s, Lloyd Bacon.
The film has the slight plot of a group of soldiers and Army personnel with their band during the war. After the war, the girl singer leaves to go to join her uncle who has a minstrel show. The men try to keep the band going, playing for producers, but being told that their sound is not popular. They go on tour but fail. The hero, Clarence (Donald O’ Connor) is wealthy and is expected to train to have an opera concert and so gain money for the family, bequeathed to him for his operatic career. Needless to say, that is not what he wants but he has to finally prepare for the concert, some comic scenes with the prima donna teaching him, the performance and his losing his voice, everybody ready to perform a contemporary music concert, elaborate costumes and dance – at the last moment without any preparation or rehearsal! It is that type of Hollywood story.
In fact, most of the film is just a succession of songs and dancers by the star, some popular groups of the period, Scatman Crothers, the title song, the number of all favourites and Janet Leigh singing the Camptown races. The solution to the problem comes from Crothers who brings the old blues and jazz to new life.
The budget is small, the production modest in comparison with MGM musicals, but probably a very entertaining one in its time and in succeeding decades.
