Swing Your Lady Reviews

Humphrey Bogart approached his role in this silly musical comedy with all the enthusiasm of a mass murderer being dragged down the hall to the gas chamber. The straight Broadway play had been a fair success in New York, but the movie fared far less well. Bogart plays Ed Hatch, a wrestling promoter traveling in Kentucky with his one asset, numbskull wrestler Joe "The Wrestling Hercules" Skopapoulous (Nat Pendleton), an obvious parody of "The Weeping Greek from Cripple Creek," George Zaharias. Also in the entourage are Joe's trainer, Popeye Bronson (Frank McHugh), Ed's assistant, Shiner (Allen Jenkins), and Ed's girl friend, Cookie (Penny Singleton). They are just about out of money and have no ideas for making more, because this hinterlands tour has been a bust, and, when their car is stuck in a morass of mud and slime, they figure this is the end of the line. Enter Sadie Horn (Louise Fazenda), a muscular Amazon who lifts the car with ease, and a light bulb flashes over Ed's head: What about a match between Sadie and "The Wrestling Hercules?" In a bit part as a sports reporter is Ronald Reagan, a former announcer in real life for the Chicago Cubs. The tunes by Jack Scholl and M.K. Jerome include: "Mountain Swingeroo" (sung by the Weavers and Singleton, with a brief dance sequence by Singleton and White), "The Old Apple Tree" (Singleton, the Weavers), "Hillbilly from Tenth Avenue" (Singleton), "Dig Me a Grave in Old Missouri" and "Swing Your Lady" (Weavers). It was this film that led to the Weavers getting a film series of their own as they starred in eleven features from 1938 to 1942.