Wednesday, November 13 @ 7:30 PM / NEIU — The Auditorium at NEIU — 3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Tickets: $10 at the door
Directed by Karl Freund • 1933
All the studios were trying to duplicate Busby Berkeley’s musical extravaganzas in 1933, but Universal’s attempt, Moonlight and Pretzels, stands out for its sincerity and its shamelessness: the climactic “Dusty Shoes” number is an undisguised rip-off of “Remember My Forgotten Man,” likely conceived and choreographed in an afternoon shortly after Gold Diggers of 1933 opened. (The score is predominantly the work of Jay Gorney and future Wizard of Oz lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, best known at that time as the writers of Depression anthem “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”) The show starts with washed-up singer George (Roger Pryor) flirting with small-town record store operator Sally (Mary Brian). One thing leads to another, and his love song to her becomes a great success; his Broadway follow-up, Moonlight and Pretzels, promises a characteristic mix of romantic ambition and a disarmingly common touch. (What other musical, even in the ultra-topical ‘30s, boasts a song as straightforwardly proletarian as “I’ve Gotta Get Up and Go to Work”?) Directed with considerable panache by Karl Freund in between his twin landmarks of the ’30s horror cycle (The Mummy and Mad Love), Moonlight and Pretzels emerges as the fullest expression of a particular kind of low-budget, high-energy musical prior to Corn’s-A-Poppin‘. Also featuring top-billed Leo Carillo as bumbling impresario Nick Pappacropolis, beer garden hijinks, scads of scenes shot in New York’s Casino Theatre, and sustained fun. (KW)
80 min • Universal • 35mm from Universal
Preceded by: “Jammin’ the Blues” (Gjon Mili, 1944) – 10 min – 35mm
We first screened Moonlight and Pretzels in November of 2011! You can see the archive of that season here.
NEXT UP: All That Heaven Allows on Wednesday, November 20 at NEIU
