Classic movie site with rare images, original ads, and behind-the-scenes photos, with informative and insightful commentary. We like to have fun with movies!
Archive and Links
grbrpix@aol.com
Search Index Here




Monday, November 01, 2021

Economy Size Crosby


 Mr. Music (1950) To Keep a Star Franchise Going


Paramount was economizing, and how. The war boom was past, and time had come to tighten belts. Para prexy Barney Balaban sent commandments from New York: $1.5 million the limit for feature budgets. 1948 initiated the policy, enforced by production head, and known penny-pincher, Henry Ginsberg. Notable directors Frank Capra, William Wyler, and Leo McCarey had lately signed on and were incensed. How could you make passable pics with so little money? Cecil B. DeMille was exempt for fronting his spectaculars over and above the $1.5 Paramount kicked in, loaning banks good for balance and assuring C.B.'s half-ownership of negatives. Samson and Delilah was done on these terms and stood out like a rose among release schedule thorns for a 1949-50 season.



Paramount hosted sales delegates at a 3/49 gather to cheerlead upcoming product, of which Mr. Music was inked for September start. Bing Crosby addressed the crowd via phone hookup from Frisco and made "an eloquent (twenty-minute) plea for all-out cooperation between studio workers, production execs, and sales representatives," most of whom were en masse to lend eye and ear. A studio party followed at the commissary to which 350 attended, including whatever Paramount stars were within town limits. Such conclaves were crucial and attendance was compulsory. It was understood that Crosby was Number One among Para personalities, but that wouldn't loosen the purse for Mr. Music, ultimately finished at negative cost of $1.7 million, an overage, but no worse than those for Copper Canyon ($1.7) and Let's Dance ($2.10 and being done concurrently). Balaban's $1.5 ceiling was more hope than realization, and would be raised in accordance with realities to $1.75 million by December 1949, optimism maintained thanks to lowering of studio overhead from 32% of a year before to 27% in 1949.




Mr. Music
had nearly a year's wait before release. In ahead for April 1950 was Riding High, starring Bing Crosby and directed by Frank Capra. Then there was a major reissue of Going My Way set for July 4 launch, with new advertising accessories and circulation through late summer and fall. Paramount had to guard against overexposure of Crosby just as later was case with Elvis Presley. Still, Bing's twentieth anniversary "as a star" was just ahead, said Variety, and toward celebration of that, Paramount teamed with CBS and Decca, "Crosby's home base network and waxery," with bally keyed to Mr. Music, the star's forty-second picture and set to open 12/20/49 in New York. "Bingsday" was recognized via radio specials, disc promotions, and covering of Mr. Music tunes by other artists including Frank Sinatra, Vic Damone, and Perry Como.



Variety
reviewed Mr. Music well ahead of release in August 1950. "Cliché elements" were noted, but might have been expected. It was the songs that drew closer evaluation, ones by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen getting an appreciative nod though lacking "at-first catchy quality." Crosby's relaxed style had over time cornered him into playing idlers, thus first halves spent just waking his characters up, in this case a songwriter who'd rather play golf than compose. There's edge to Crosby here when others get too close. Charles Coburn and love interest Nancy Olson try getting him off the duff to at-times hostile response, Bing's Broadwayite an almost forerunner to his Frank Elgin in The Country Girl. Mr. Music was reprise of Accent On Youth, which was May-December themed but now less an issue between Crosby and Nancy Olson. He was 46 to her 21 when Mr. Music was made, and maybe age difference registers not so much thanks to Olson seeming older than ingénues she'd play, thus congenial with comparative old-timers like Bing.

10 Comments:

Blogger John McElwee said...

Griff checks in with memories of MR. MUSIC:


Dear John:

I wish I had some interesting comment to make about MR. MUSIC. After all, it's one of several films based (however loosely) on Samson Raphaelson's play "Accent on Youth" (probably most famously adapted as BUT NOT FOR ME, with Gable, Lilli Palmer and Carroll Baker) and is one of three features directed by character actor/comic Richard Haydn.

But although I possess a copy of this Crosby musical, I have never actually watched the whole movie. I have, however, looked at the Groucho/Bing number, "Life is So Peculiar," many times.

Regards,
Griff

10:09 AM  
Blogger DBenson said...

Somehow I'm always surprised to see how many major films were shot in black and white, some with widescreen formats, and all the way into the 1960s. Was there a tipping point when color was nearly mandatory and B&W was mainly for arty fare and/or lowest-level cheapies? Certainly by the late 60s, when networks were mainly color and it meant a lot of money in the inevitable television sale.

When "A Hard Day's Night" debuted on NBC, they replaced the peacock with a modest animated penguin and an announcer telling us the movie was presented in "lively black and white".

Apropos of nothing, recalling that Dean Martin played a lazy writer in "Bells Are Ringing", taking over the role created by Charlie Chaplin's son Sydney on Broadway. It echoed some of his early films where he played a loafer or rat who needed Jerry Lewis to turn him around; here it was Judy Holliday.

5:01 PM  
Blogger Filmfanman said...

I wonder how close to reality this role came for Bing (I've not seen the movie, nor do I recognize any of the songs listed in the newspaper ad you've reprinted) as he was known to be an avid golfer.
In "The Country Girl", which I saw many years ago, he also takes a role which in some ways may reflect some aspects (as if in a distorted fun house mirror) of his own life; he was doing his "Road" movies with Bob Hope during the 1940s/1950s too, so Bing may have taken his solo projects as an opportunity to develop a less silly side of/for his public persona.
I sometimes wish that Hope had done something similar; I still think that Hope would have made a great Blofeld as a continuing character across the Bond series - after all, didn't the character of Blofeld actually became an object of comedy in his final appearance in that series with Roger Moore?

7:16 AM  
Blogger Kevin K. said...

Even without ever watching it, I always thought this movie gave off a low budget vibe just from the stills.

7:21 AM  
Blogger Scott MacGillivray said...

Thank you, Mr. Benson! I thought I was the only one who remembered The NBC Penguin introducing A HARD DAY'S NIGHT. I was very disappointed when NBC rebroadcast the film sometime later and didn't include the penguin.

2:08 PM  
Blogger Tbone Mankini said...

I had completely forgotten about the penguin on that broadcast.....of course, we still had a black-and-white set at that point but it was very amusing after all the "living colour" intros we had to sit through....by the time of the rebroadcast, we were all coloured-up,tech-wise, and someone in the room made some comment about the new set going wrong so soon....

10:00 AM  
Blogger Mark Mayerson said...

The NBC Penguin opening, in a not very good copy, can be seen here: https://youtu.be/eK75N-zS1JY.

5:08 PM  
Blogger James Abbott said...

I kinda like this picture.

I was a huge fan of Bing's since my earliest boyhood -- something slightly out of sync with my generation. The first concert I ever went to was when Bing played the Uris in New York in 1976. I was 14 and never forgot it.

I think of myself as fairly young ... but I realize that I'm one of a dwindling number of fans who can say they saw Crosby in person.

1:57 PM  
Blogger antoniod said...

MR MUSIC is interesting as Groucho's belated return to Paramount, though of course without his Brothers.

4:37 PM  
Blogger John McElwee said...

Craig Reardon checks in with reflections on Robert Stack:


I was privileged to see or meet or make up many of the people who populate your grand posts. I see Robert Stack pictured in another one here about Bing Crosby's unremembered (by me, anyway) "Mr. Music", for example. I met Stack on one of Merv Griffin's talk show tapings, MANY years back. What a gent, and what a pleasure to chat briefly with him. No airs! Just a truly nice guy. A striking contrast with his frequent poker faced seriousness in many roles, if not most of them.

1:09 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

grbrpix@aol.com
  • December 2005
  • January 2006
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • February 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • July 2007
  • August 2007
  • September 2007
  • October 2007
  • November 2007
  • December 2007
  • January 2008
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • September 2008
  • October 2008
  • November 2008
  • December 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • December 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • April 2010
  • May 2010
  • June 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • September 2010
  • October 2010
  • November 2010
  • December 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011
  • March 2011
  • April 2011
  • May 2011
  • June 2011
  • July 2011
  • August 2011
  • September 2011
  • October 2011
  • November 2011
  • December 2011
  • January 2012
  • February 2012
  • March 2012
  • April 2012
  • May 2012
  • June 2012
  • July 2012
  • August 2012
  • September 2012
  • October 2012
  • November 2012
  • December 2012
  • January 2013
  • February 2013
  • March 2013
  • April 2013
  • May 2013
  • June 2013
  • July 2013
  • August 2013
  • September 2013
  • October 2013
  • November 2013
  • December 2013
  • January 2014
  • February 2014
  • March 2014
  • April 2014
  • May 2014
  • June 2014
  • July 2014
  • August 2014
  • September 2014
  • October 2014
  • November 2014
  • December 2014
  • January 2015
  • February 2015
  • March 2015
  • April 2015
  • May 2015
  • June 2015
  • July 2015
  • August 2015
  • September 2015
  • October 2015
  • November 2015
  • December 2015
  • January 2016
  • February 2016
  • March 2016
  • April 2016
  • May 2016
  • June 2016
  • July 2016
  • August 2016
  • September 2016
  • October 2016
  • November 2016
  • December 2016
  • January 2017
  • February 2017
  • March 2017
  • April 2017
  • May 2017
  • June 2017
  • July 2017
  • August 2017
  • September 2017
  • October 2017
  • November 2017
  • December 2017
  • January 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2018
  • April 2018
  • May 2018
  • June 2018
  • July 2018
  • August 2018
  • September 2018
  • October 2018
  • November 2018
  • December 2018
  • January 2019
  • February 2019
  • March 2019
  • April 2019
  • May 2019
  • June 2019
  • July 2019
  • August 2019
  • September 2019
  • October 2019
  • November 2019
  • December 2019
  • January 2020
  • February 2020
  • March 2020
  • April 2020
  • May 2020
  • June 2020
  • July 2020
  • August 2020
  • September 2020
  • October 2020
  • November 2020
  • December 2020
  • January 2021
  • February 2021
  • March 2021
  • April 2021
  • May 2021
  • June 2021
  • July 2021
  • August 2021
  • September 2021
  • October 2021
  • November 2021
  • December 2021
  • January 2022
  • February 2022
  • March 2022
  • April 2022
  • May 2022
  • June 2022
  • July 2022
  • August 2022
  • September 2022
  • October 2022
  • November 2022
  • December 2022
  • January 2023
  • February 2023
  • March 2023
  • April 2023
  • May 2023
  • June 2023
  • July 2023
  • August 2023
  • September 2023
  • October 2023
  • November 2023
  • December 2023
  • January 2024
  • February 2024
  • March 2024