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Swing Your Lady

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Swing Your Lady
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRay Enright
Screenplay byJoseph Schrank
Maurice Leo
Based onSwing Your Lady
1936 play
by Kenyon Nicholson
Charles Robinson
Produced bySamuel Bischoff
StarringHumphrey Bogart
Frank McHugh
Louise Fazenda
Nat Pendleton
Penny Singleton
Allen Jenkins
Ronald Reagan
CinematographyArthur Edeson
Edited byJack Killifer
Music byAdolph Deutsch
Production
company
Release date
  • January 8, 1938 (1938-01-08)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Swing Your Lady is a 1938 American country musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright, starring Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, and Louise Fazenda. Ronald Reagan is also in the cast in one of his early roles. Brunette singer Penny Singleton who was also cast was about to turn blonde and embark on a long, hugely successful career playing the iconic comic strip character Blondie in a series of 28 films and a popular radio show.

Swing Your Lady features the first film performance by the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, a comedy troupe better known as The Arkansas Travelers[1] during their many years in vaudeville and on the Grand Ole Opry radio show.[2] Following this performance, the trio was picked up by Republic Pictures for Down in Arkansas, the first in what was to be a series of 11 comedy films for the studio.[3][2]

Plot

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Promoter Ed Hatch comes to the Ozarks with his slow-witted wrestler Joe Skopapoulos whom he pits against a hillbilly Amazon blacksmith, Sadie Horn. Joe falls in love with her and won't fight, at least not until Sadie's beau, Noah, shows up. Love triumphs, despite Ed's machinations, and after defeating Noah, Joe passes on a bout at Madison Square Garden to marry Sadie and take over the blacksmith's shop, while Noah rides away with Ed and his crew.

Cast

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Actor/Actress Role
Humphrey Bogart Ed Hatch
Frank McHugh Popeye Bronson
Louise Fazenda Sadie Horn
Nat Pendleton Joe Skopapolous
Penny Singleton Cookie Shannon
Allen Jenkins Shiner Ward
Leon Weaver Waldo Davis
Frank Weaver Ollie Davis
June Weaver Mrs. Davis (as Elviry Weaver)
Ronald Reagan Jack Miller
Daniel Boone Savage Noah Webster
Hugh O'Connell Smith
Tommy Bupp Rufe Horn
Sonny Bupp Len Horn (as Sunny Bupp)
Joan Howard Mattie Horn
Sue Moore Mabel
Olin Howland Hotel Proprietor
Sammy White Specialty Dancer

Production

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The film featured Daniel Boone Savage, a professional wrestler, making his film debut and Nat Pendleton, a former Olympic and professional wrestler.[4]

Reception

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Bogart was apparently becoming very disenchanted with the film roles that Warner Bros. was offering him at this stage of his career; the following year he appeared in his only horror/sci-fi film, The Return of Doctor X, and these were two roles he never liked talking about when he became a major film star several years later; he considered his performance in Swing Your Lady the worst of his career.[5][6]

Swing Your Lady is listed in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.

References

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  1. ^ Not to be confused with Bob Burns' Arkansas Traveler
  2. ^ a b "Down in "Arkansaw"". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  3. ^ Austin, Wade (1981). "The Real Beverly Hillbillies". The South and Film. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 86–87. ISBN 0-87805-148-1. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Swing Your Lady". www.tcm.com. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  5. ^ Shipman, David (1989). The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years (3rd ed.). London: Macdonald. p. 68.
  6. ^ Audio commentary by Eric Lax for Disc One of the 2006 three-disc DVD special edition of The Maltese Falcon.
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