HALLELUJAH, I'M A BUM (77)

Directed by: Lewis Milestone (1933)

Starring: Al Jolson, Harry Langdon, Frank Morgan, Madge Evans

The Pitch: A community of happy New York tramps is shaken up when its leader falls in love and - gasp! - gets a job.

Theo Sez: It takes about a reel to get used to this one - not just its Rene Clair-like mix of dialogue and song but also (and especially) its whimsical worldview, happy hoboes living carefree in Central Park and palling around with Hizzoner the Mayor ; then gradually its blithe, ambling unforcedness starts to take effect - and you sink into it gratefully, as into a warm bath. Which is not to say it's mindless, least of all cinematically - camera moves are fluid, sound recording (especially in the travelling recitative numbers) highly sophisticated, and there's a montage to the strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that's as unexpected as it's unforgettable ; rather, it seems to stand for a deliberately laid-back, proto-hippy approach to life, treating politics with amused contempt (both capitalism and Communism are lampooned, each as bad as the other) and really only caring about one thing - the casual, unhurried elegance that makes 30s films so magical, and seems so alien to today's movies (except for pastiches like EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU) : it's little things, the sinuous form of a girl in a satin dress standing on a bridge in moonlight, or the drop in octave - the "change from major to minor" - as Jolson croons the title of "You Are Too Beautiful". All in all, a marvellous film, though it is rather aimless : comparing its happy-go-lucky, insubstantial pacifism with the robust Fascist certainties of, say, GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (released the same year), it's not hard to see why a world looking for solutions - as opposed to charming bagatelles - ended up turning to the latter.