Wonderland Burlesque's
Down The Rabbit Hole:
All American Co-ed
Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.
Today, we take a look at one of the quirkiest films ever made, All American Co-ed.
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From Wikipedia and other sources:
All American Co-ed
(1941)
Nominated for two 1942 Academy Awards; for Best Music, Original Song Out of the Silence, and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture for Edward Ward.
You can watch this film in its entirety for free on YouTube.
Those are the facts about All-American Co-ed.
Here is the reality of All-American Co-ed: it is one strange, trippy drag queen dream which must be seen to be believed.
The picture opens with an all-male review featuring male student dressed as glamorous females. It's a big production number, unlike any ever performed by any actual all-male school ever, with an elaborate set, full orchestra and high production values. Johnny Downs takes the lead vocals and has no problem walking/dancing in heels. Turns out it's part of some annual Zeta alumni gathering for the all-male school Johnny attends.
Meanwhile the headmistress of at Mar Brynn, wonderfully played by Esther Dale, is fretting that they will have to close the doors of the all-female horticulture school she runs due to a lack of students. She's in her office with with her nephew(?), who is in charge of the school's financials or maybe a local newspaper man (I couldn't tell), and one of the girls at the school, played by Frances Langford. They decide to get a bit of media attention by writing a story ridiculing the drag review at the local all-male school. Then the three hatch a plan to lure girls to Mar Brynn by offering full scholarships to beauty contest winners.
The boys at the all-male school are really cheesed off when they read the article. They don't like being made laughingstocks - because, apparently, they take their drag review very seriously. A surreal scene follows, as they try to choose who should go undercover in order to bring similar embarrassment to Mar Brynn. It comes down to Johnny Downs and Kent Rogers. Rogers (the future voice of Woody Woodpecker), inexplicably, goes on for quite some time doing impersonations of Gary Cooper and the like before Downs is chosen for the job. Downs quickly transforms himself into Bobbie DeWolfe, Queen of the Flowers. In addition, we also get to see Joe Brown's son, Joe Brown, Jr. as the class idiot - there are a lot of second generation actors in this film.
And, sure enough, Johnny Downs is one of the dozen horticulture-themed beauty queens to be given a free ride at Mar Brynn. There's an odd train ride in which Langford, as hostess, escorts all the beauty queens to the school. This, of course, means time for a musical number with The Tanner Sisters (on hand for some reason), the beauty queens, and the black train porter. Once at the school, Downs settles in, accidentally drops his suit in the laundry shoot (resulting in a questionable scene with the school laundress - who is black, believes in ghosts and quits on the spot) and, of course, another musical number in the quad. Downs is in and out of drag, and even ingratiates himself (sans drag) into the creation of the musical review Langford is staging for the school.
But then a measles outbreak occurs, thanks to the sparkling Marjorie Woodworth (who really should have been given a lot more to do, as she clearly possesses the star power Langford lacks) throwing a wrench into things - which grow even dicer once the Zeta boys get wind that Downs is in love. To ensure that Downs goes through with their plan (which I guess is to be exposed as a man going to a women's school?), two thugs appear in the form of Noah Berry, Jr. (another star off-spring), and Alan Hale, Jr. (whose dad was also a famous actor). Question: Are they Zeta boys or hired thugs? I think the latter because they develop a thing for Down in drag, meaning they don't have a clue who he/she is.
Noah Berry, Jr. and Johnny Downs
Once the show gets going, there's a slap stick chase during an over-the-top musical salute to horticulture which is taking place throughout the campus. Inexplicably, and I use that word yet again, for it would seem 'inexplicable' is the perfect way to describe this film, there is a group of chorus girls who dance on a rather small stage with the view obscured by scrims and sheets of fabric as each of the horticulture beauty queens get a chance to spotlight their outrageously awkward costumes.
Of course there's a happy ending, although I'm not sure what or why.
Bottom line, there was a lot of potential here and certainly a fair amount of cash thrown at it, given the musical production number values, but the script is full of holes (literally, you have to jump to several conclusions for the thing to make any sense), motivations are sorely lacking, and it was edited with a meat cleaver. That said? It's fun to watch and a bit of a gas - so I highly recommend it. It's a short film (les than 50 minutes) but worth your time, plus - you've been forewarned. Enjoy!
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Marie Windsor and company
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(1941)
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