Never a consistent director, Raoul Walsh permits this collection of set pieces to proceed in a disjointed manner as a means of showcasing Paramount contract players. The scenario is inordinately silly but provides substantial roles for Gracie Allen, Bob Hope, Martha Raye, Edward Everett Horton, John Payne, and Betty Grable. Hope's performance in BIG BROADCAST OF 1938 was reviewed very favorably by Damon Runyon, a friend of producer Lewis Gensler, who remembered the comedian from Broadway and vaudeville, and who is responsible for significantly enhancing Hope's part in COLLEGE SWING. Allen's ability for making communicable to audiences her giddy semantic high jinks is in full array, with her partner and husband George Burns serving, as is usual, as her straight man, as does Horton, but the talented comedienne nearly steals the film with her performance of an Irish jig, danced for no apparent reason at all. The 21-year-old Betty Grable, already a veteran of more than 30 films thanks to the studio contract system, performs with unalloyed enthusiasm and has an opportunity to display her hoofing, sometimes partnered by her first husband, Jackie Coogan. Lovely lyric soprano Florence George, well-known in opera and on radio, makes her cinematic debut, romantically paired with success opposite John Payne, and although her film career was very brief and not promoted, that could not have been due to her showing here. The committee responsible for this effort wisely decides to unbridle zany Martha Raye, as she irrepressibly dominates those scenes in which she appears and sings very well, indeed. Despite its low budget, the work benefits from excellent art direction, and plaudits must be handed to the outstanding costume design by Edith Head. In sum, COLLEGE SWING is only a minor attempt, but is laden with a cast of diverse abilities, which acts with carefree enthusiasm.
Review of College Swing
