Warners On The Up-Beat

WB and Berkeley Strike Up Cinderella Jones (1946)

William Prince takes soap for cheese and eats a sandwich of it. If that's any idea of funny, then Cinderella Jones may be your dish in addition to mine, dumber than dumb Warner comedies from the 40's always a Greenbriar pleasure so long as they're brassy and reflect how others were engaged while Flynn, Bogart, and Davis were doing shows we remember better. There's indication that Cinderella Jones was shot earlier with release delayed, a likelihood given cars stamped with ration stickers and background folk in uniform. The title song is catchy, but I found no recordings of it beyond what's in the movie (Petula Clark did a "Cinderella Jones" recording in 1960, but that's a different tune). Interest might attach for Busby Berkeley directing, his last at Warners, but swooping cameras and chorus patterns aren't in evidence. Why spend when Joan Leslie and largely untried Robert Alda are your headliners? Second-tier WB people get a look in, so there's welcome Julie Bishop, nee Jacqueline Wells --- she jitterbugs --- and William Prince is auditioned for romantic work to come (reward: his lead opposite Ida Lupino in not dissimilar Pillow To Post). "Cuddles" Sakall is called Cuddles by a second half, as if cast members gave up trying to recall his character's name. WB comedies like Cinderella Jones are window to years they were made, and that makes all worth treasuring.