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After making a hit on the stage, and an even bigger splash on network radio, it was only a matter of time before Joe Penner
would be tapped for the movies. He didn't have to wait long.
His first feature film appearance was for Paramount Studios
in College Rhythm (1934), playing a role clearly created to capitalize on his nationwide radio popularity. The casting
call couldn’t have been very big for a part which included singing a love song…to a duck. His character was even
named Joe, sparing his co-stars any confusion by enabling them to address him with confidence whether the cameras were rolling
or not.
Of course, this was the early 1930s — less than seven years after the premier of The Jazz Singer — and
musical film plots didn’t need to make much sense, they just had to make noise: talking, singing, quacking. It didn’t
matter.
The film was directed by Norman Taurog, who was already well into a five decade career, one which began in the silent era
and culminated in his helming of five pictures for Martin & Lewis and eight for Elvis Presley. Also appearing were Lyda Roberti
(who made a name for herself as Paramount’s “Sweet and Hot” girl), the high-strung Franklin Pangborn and
perennial collegiate Jack Oakie. Academy Award winner Dean Jagger (Best Supporting Actor for Twelve O’Clock High)
also put in a few days work as Coach Robbins. Despite his Oscar, he is perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of Major
General Thomas Waverly, the "old man" in Paramount's White Christmas (1954).
Born Lewis Delaney Offield, Jack Oakie had also begun his career in the silent era. When the pictures began to speak, so did
he, often playing fast-talking, breezy characters. After years of playing a second banana and starring in a couple of “Annabel”
pictures with Lucille Ball, he earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Benzini Napaloni, the Dictator of Bacteria
in Charlie Chaplain’s The Great Dictator (1940).
Both Oakie and Pangborn (and, for that matter, Lucille Ball) would appear in future Penner vehicles.
Another leading
male in the cast making noise was “honeyed tenor” Lanny Ross, who sang “Stay as Sweet as You Are”,
the biggest hit from the film. Ross later served in the army — rising to the rank of Major — before returning
to the entertainment field on stage and in the early years of television as host of The Swift Show (AKA The Lanny
Ross Show). He also voiced the role of Prince David in Max Fleischer’s animated feature Gulliver’s Travels
(1939).
But despite the skill and star power of the other performers, the first name above the title on College Rhythm was
Joe Penner. And whether or not the film stands up more than seventy years later as a comic masterpiece (It’s certainly
no Duck Soup), it was a hit in it’s day, and accomplished the simple goal Paramount had established for it…namely,
to make money.
So, contrary to some accounts, Penner was not a failure as a film comedian. As a “zany” comic who drew laughs
by HOW he said things as much as by WHAT he said, he frequently had to win over critics predisposed to dislike his work. But
reading the accounts of the day (HIS day, that is), he clearly connected with his audience, and his initial feature appearance
drew fine notices from both Daily Variety and The New York Times. Film critic Frank Nugent, summing up the film
for the latter publication, expressed typical surprise in a November 24 review, stating:
“When the news
was first bulletined from the Western front that Joe Penner, radio’s duck salesman, was going to make a picture this
corner shuddered slightly and prepared itself for the worst. The Penner picture, “College Rhythm,” opened yesterday
at the Paramount and proves just how wrong one can be in pre-judging a film…(Penner) is an amiable and likeable comedian
on the screen. Yesterday’s audience seemed to be with him to a man.” It wasn’t reported how
many women there were in the audience, but they were probably watching Lanny Ross.
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| Lyda Roberti and Joe Penner (with "Goo-Goo") |
With Ross, Mack and Brian covering the romance angles, Roberti the crazy, “hot”
numbers, and Oakie handing out the vim, vigor and pep, Penner and his fowl friend were free to do what they did best. Once
again, the Times:
“The Penner duck is defty brought into
the script to provide many substantial laugh situations. Perhaps the duck farm bit will be the picture’s biggest howl.
The quacker also provides a reason for a comedy song by Penner, who sells it superbly. Number is called “Goo-Goo,”
a swell example of made-to-order special material to fit a character and situation.” Over
at Variety, their expert wasn’t any less pleased, comparing the movie favorably to Paramount’s “youth
pictures” of the “early talker days,” a description which seemed to presume many more than “five and
six years ago” had passed. Nevertheless, he felt that Jack Oakie and Mary Brian (who had been part of that early Paramount
stable of stars) were well abbetted by Penner, who:
“…probably (meant)
as much to the picture’s drawing potentialities as he does to it’s amusement quality, meaning plenty in both respects.
Penner makes good, the first strictly radio comedian to do so in pictures. He is made important to the story and carries most
of the comedy burden, yet isn’t on long or often enough to wear out the welcome. This favorable beginning should set
Penner for pictures.” Penner did get “set” in films following College
Rhythm, starring in nine more features for Paramount, RKO and Universal through 1940. The reviewer concluded the article
with another prescient pronouncement:
“As long as College Rhythm is
so pleasant, why not another youth movement at Paramount? Penner, Oakie, Ross, Brian, Mack and Roberti certainly provide an
excellent start.” Less than a year later, Oakie and Penner WOULD be back at college
for Paramount, but that’s another story for another page.
- Craig Hodgkins
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| Penner poses with a pair of Paramount cuties |
To the "Collegiate" page
Back to the "Joe Penner on Film" page
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