College Holiday 
                                                  
Director: Frank Tuttle
Year: 1936
Rating: 5.5
There is a cornucopia of comedic talent in this lightweight frivolity from 1936. I mention the date because there are a few aspects of the film that some might feel are troublesome now. This was on TCM and I salute them for not being afraid of the hate mail that I am sure came their way. In 1936 this was considered harmless entertainment, and thankfully times have changed but I don't believe in banning films any more then books. This is our history pimples and all. Some people and states are trying to cover our history up and it is a bad sign of the times.



Ok, don't get the idea that this is shocking - just your basic blackface and eugenics - a few years before Adolf went down that road. It's a comedy! Really. I mean there is Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Martha Faye, Mary Boland and Ben Blue. Blue is all but forgotten but shows up in a number of films doing his dance, funny face, contortion act. The film is filled with music as well - not great tunes but serviceable. And the last 20- minutes is a minstrel show put on by the kids. And you know what comes with a minstrel show. So be prepared. "Big Mouth" Raye who had her debut in the same year sings two solid songs, Benny plays his violin to excruciating effect and the two love birds Marsha Hunt and Leif Erickson do a couple ballads that are as old-fashioned as a pin cushion. Among the uncredited dancers were Ellen Drew, Eddie Foye Jr, Marjorie Reynolds and Dorothy Lamour - all were stars within a few years.



The daughter (Hunt) of a hotel owner in California is called home from college because the hotel is about to go bankrupt. The co-owner is Jack Benny and she finds him hiding in a piano from the creditors with tea, crumpets and a dog to keep him company. The mortgage is owned by Mary Boland an eccentric wealthy woman whose latest fad is eugenics and she has found a proponent who wants to experiment in creating a "Super Race". Of white people clearly as there are no blacks in the film - just black face. Benny gets an idea to take advantage of this.



I will go across the country and get college students to participate in your experiment - and also to put on a show to save the hotel. The plan is that once the students are at the hotel the Eugenic man's daughter will use her intuition to match them up. The daughter is Gracie Allen who arrives on a chariot. You can imagine the chaos that follows.  George "Why didn't we take a taxi". Gracie "That's silly. How could we have fit four horses in a taxi". The first half is actually fairly amusing but it begins to run out of gas and good jokes and becomes a march to the end. At 90-minutes it was about 20 minutes too long.



Marsha Hunt by the way who is charming here was another victim of the blacklist because she joined the Committee for the First Amendment which was formed to support the Hollywood Ten.  Bogart, Bacall, Garland, Lucille Ball, Sinatra, Gene Kelly were also members, but they were stars and she was not. She said all of Hollywood turned their back on her.