Universal Does More Boogie-Woogie Bugling

What's Cookin' (1942) Is A Juke Jamboree

Typical Combo Placement

I call these Universal musicals a lost chapter of filmdom past. None are seen anywhere but booted discs or You Tube clips. They were teen fests when that age group was offspring of vaudeville, where kids aspired to jalopies, jazz, or show biz. If Mickey and Judy could breech walls at Metro, so too could the Jivin' Jacks and Jills at Universal, to be enjoyed then, if forgot and invisible since. Reunions of the JJ&J's was annual Hollywood event for over twenty years, from 70's into 90's, until most danced no more, but what opportunity this was for attendees to mingle among names mostly off Uni payroll of the Classic Era. Swirling amongst rug-cutters in modest musicals like What's Cookin' were singers, bands, comics and character folk we recall better, too many to enumerate if you're talking all the series, of which I'm unsure how many there actually were (lots ... and all B's by definition, though many ran top-of-bills at high-seating urban palaces). Best, then, to address but one and avoid confusion, to-wit What's Cookin', a firecracker exploding with talent, even as budget confines all to handful of sets and what amounts to expansion of a band short from two reels to seven.

It's as easy to confuse U songbooks as westerns that came off assembly with titles nearly identical. So what is difference between What's Cookin' and What's Buzzin', Cousin? My head gets to buzzin' trying to keep these obscurities apart (for the record, What's Buzzin', Cousin? was made by Columbia, came out a year later, and has Ann Miller). B musicals were a most needed commodity in wartime, as swing was at apogee and everyone could use a happy pill. Cousins to this were juke boxes and bands that fed them, so what better than to revolve most around juke joints and feature lead groups of the day, in this instance Woody Herman and ensemble, them realizing all the more live dates for appearing in this and whatever other pics could use swing hypo. Small musicals were also tied closely to radio. What's Cookin' has teens crowded into a broadcast for Herman, all chewing gum in unison (movies kidded the kid army, but never ridiculed them). Studio ushers have to calm exuberance, as who can help dancing in aisles when Woody cuts loose? (theatres had given up on crowd control where bands played live).

In terms of Universal talent, What's Cookin' is strictly All-Star, at least on that company's terms. Gloria Jean and Donald O'Connor are here, along with Peggy Ryan (soon to be an O'Connor teammate in a series of films), plus the white-hot Andrews Sisters, who virtually scored WWII popular culture with their innumerable hits. First-billed here, the sisters were grown-up lure on marquees otherwise dominated by youth, though for comedy, there'd be faces around since dawn of sound --- Charles Butterworth, Billie Burke, Franklin Pangborn, Leo Carrillo, a happily prominent Charles Lane. The kids appear to more or less live together, at first skipping a board house rather than pay rent by lowering grips out a window. We're given to understand this was common practice among vaude vagabonds, so now I know why innkeepers refused "actors and dogs." What's Cookin' is non-pause in tune terms; when there's not that, we get silly on terms sure to have rocked auditoria that seated thousands (C. Butterworth about to cleave Charles Lane in half with what looks/sounds like a real buzz saw). We won't see likes of What's Cookin' again --- in fact, it's doubtful we'll see What's Cookin' again, as in ever, so long as Universal maintains lockdown of such obscure inventory.