MAKE MINE LAUGHS

US, 1949, 63 minutes, Black and white.
Gill Lamb, Leon Errol, archival footage: Joan Davis, Ray Bolger, Dennis Day, Ann Shirley, Frances Langford, Jack Haley.
Directed by Richard O. Fleischer and Hal Yates.

This is a film of historical interest – or even antiquarian interest.

While it has some original footage, especially with master of ceremonies, Gil Lamb, who makes a great deal of indicating the opening credits as well as introducing the different acts, and with Leon Errol in an extended comic piece with him as a philanderer deceiving his wife, carrying on with a girl, and her husband turning up.

Otherwise, in tribute to the days of vaudeville, already by 1949 something of the past, there are comic sketches by Joan Davis and Jack Haley, a song by Frances Langford, dancing sequence from Ray Bolger, a number of song and dance routines as well as some bands.

Interesting to see Ray Bolger and Jack Haley 10 years after The Wizard of Oz, popular singers Denis Day and Frances Langford and the comic versatility, including sound impressions, by Joan Davis.