I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Director: LLOYD BACON. Screenplay: Earl Baldwin. Based on the 1929 German play by Geza Herczeg and Karl Farkas, as adapted by Irving Caesar and Aben Kandel, with music by Robert Katscher. Photographed in glistening black-and-white by Sol Polito. Film editor: George Amy. Art director: Jack Okey. Costumes: Orry-Kelly. Associate producer: Robert Lord. Producer: Charles Einfeldt.Musical numbers created and directed by BUSBY BERKELEY. Songs: "I'm Going to Heaven on a Mule" (Jolson), "Don't Say Good Night" (Powell), "Vive la France" (Jolson), "Tango del Rio" (danced by Del Rio and Cortez), "Why Do I Dream Those Dreams?" (Powell), "At the Wonder Bar", "Dark Eyes", "Fairer on the Riviera" all by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). Music director: Leo F. Forbstein. Copyright 23 February 1934 by First National Pictures, Inc. Released through Warner Bros Pictures. New York opening at the Strand: 28 February 1934. U.S. release; 26 November 1933. Australian release: 12 December 1934. 84 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Al Wonder (Al Jolson) is the egocentric owner of the Wonder Bar, a super-popular nightclub for the well-to-do. The Bar's number two draw-card (Al himself, of course, is number one), is a hot Latin dance team (Dolores del Rio and Ricardo Cortez). NOTES: Number 9 at domestic ticket-windows. Film debut of Hal LeRoy.COMMENT: "Wonder Bar" is a must-see, not only because of its fabulous cast, but because the musical interludes were created and directed by Busby Berkeley. In fact, they are probably Buzz's most famous sequences. Seemingly utilizing thousands of dancing extras in dazzling formations, the songs are imaginatively shot (often, as we might expect, from overhead), incorporating some of the most dazzling special effects. The rest of the film is handled by Lloyd Bacon in an extremely competent style. Bacon draws some great performances from the more animated-than-usual Jolson and absolutely terrific Del Rio. It is the beautiful Kay Francis who disappoints. She looks great, but her performance seems a little too pat, too well rehearsed to be really convincing. But surrounded by players at the top of their game, like Cortez, Powell, Kibbee and Donnelly, who cares? AVAILABLE on a superb Warner DVD.

Entertaining musical all taking place on one evening at the swanky Paris nightclub "Wonder Bar", the film following the stories of several different characters including headline dancers Inez and Harry (aka "the gigolo"), a well-to-do woman (Kay Francis) who has paid for "dance lessons" from Harry with a diamond necklace (now being investigated by her husband and the insurance company), orchestra leader/singer Tommy (Dick Powell) who is in love with Inez, a man who spends the evening giving away all his possessions before his planned suicide of driving over a cliff, two drunken American businessmen (in "Nuts and Bolts") on vacation with their wives, a Russian Count, and at the helm of it all - Al Wonder (Al Jolson), club owner who likes to deliver rather silly one-liners as he oversees and sings sometimes too.Al loves Inez, Inez loves Harry, the two businessmen are busy chasing after two hostesses/gold-diggers, and their wives are happily pursued by another young nightclub gigolo. All of this is inter-mixed with a selection of musical numbers including a very entertaining dance number in which Harry and Inez dance surrounded by a bevy of platinum blondes and masked men, all dressed in black and white as they flow around the mirrored art deco set and dance floor, and are shown dancing in overhead, Busby Berkley-directed style kaleidoscope effect - cool! Other numbers include "The Gaucho Dance" (reminiscent of Valentino), and the big finale which is possibly the most politically incorrect, jaw-dropping musical number ever filmed featuring Al Jolson in blackface who heads to heaven complete with an entire entourage of dancing angels in blackface, "Pork Chop Orchard" where pork chops grow on trees, "Watermelon Palace" with watermelons free for the taking, "Uncle Tom To-Nite" sign, craps dice, and tap-dancing number in front of waving watermelon slices.All in all though, this film is quite enjoyable, light fare with enough stories to hold your interest, and the glitz and glamour of what appears to be a very fun-to-go-to hot spot full of well-heeled patrons in gorgeous gowns and tuxedos. I always enjoy the performances of Kay Francis and she is just fine in this, although she's not really given very much to do - same with Dick Powell, who has a small, rather bland role in this film. Guy Kibbee as one of the American businessmen and sidekick Hugh Herbert, as well as Ruth Donnelly and Louise Fazenda as the wife who likes the attentions of a younger man add quite a bit of humor to all this. Definitely worth a look.

'Wonder Bar' stars Al Jolson in a film with more plot than usual, and it's one of his best efforts. Jolson's films are notoriously tainted by racist blackface routines: in 'Wonder Bar', this material is completely avoided until the very end of the film, when we get a long blackface number called "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule". If you fast-forward through this to get to the last few minutes of the film (tying up some loose ends in the plot), you'll be better off.Several Warner Brothers movies of this period ('Two Seconds', 'Central Park') featured a 'book-ends' structure in which the film's opening shot and closing shot are the same camera set-up. We get a variation on that structure here. The first couple of reels of 'Wonder Bar' set up the conflicts between the characters. Then, about a third of the way into the film, we get the first 'book-end' as Jolson's nightclub (the Wonder Bar) opens for the evening: a liveried doorman unrolls a red carpet and salutes us. At the very end of the film, after the Wonder Bar has closed for the night, the doorman rolls up the carpet and salutes us again.I'm a long-time fan of Dolores del Rio, an immensely talented actress who was also exceedingly sexy. Here, she gives the best (and sexiest) performance I've ever seen from her, as a cabaret dancer who is bullied and exploited by her dance partner (the very hissable Ricardo Cortez). Jolson is in love with del Rio (this is cleverly depicted with an unusual visual device), but she doesn't return his love.Dick Powell is less annoying and less obtrusive than usual. Ditto the raccoon-eyed Kay Francis, whom I always dislike. SPOILERS COMING. There's an amusing subplot with four Warners stalwarts (Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda and the splendid Ruth Donnelly) as two stodgy married couples on holiday. The husbands conspire to sneak out for a night on the tiles while the wives are asleep; the wives plot to sneak out while the husbands are asleep. Unfortunately, after setting up this very funny situation, there's no pay-off for it.Veteran character actor Robert Barrat plays a role well outside his usual range, with only partial success. Somewhat implausibly, Jolson allows Barrat to commit suicide because this will help Jolson conceal a murder committed by del Rio. We're meant to admire Jolson for this.I shan't comment on the protracted blackface routine late in the film, except to say that it's a *dull* number apart from its offensiveness. The effeminate tap-dancer Hal LeRoy performs, nearly naked, in blackface and full body make-up. Instead of painting a white man to look like a black man, couldn't Warners have hired a black tap-dancer instead? Plenty of black men were much better dancers than Hal LeRoy.Much earlier in the film, there's one very surprising gag involving Jolson and two gay men. During his long career as a stage performer, Jolson frequently worked 'lavender' material into his act. Like the British comedian Max Miller, Jolson was a heterosexual performer who deliberately led audiences to suspect he might be homosexual. (Apparently the rumours were good for the box office.) Jolson employed 'camp' humour and gay jokes frequently onstage, but so far as I know 'Wonder Bar' is the only time he ever did this in a film. I'll rate 'Wonder Bar' 8 points out of 10. I was tempted to knock off several points for the blackface routine, but I put them back on again for Dolores del Rio's very erotic performance.

**Contains spoilers, below** Very strange movie. The "Wonder Bar" song (Al Jolson's first piece in this movie) was so clearly copied for "Cabaret" -- as well as much of the rest of that scene (men dancing with each other, extreme sexuality (so much for homosexuality being hidden and unmentionable before the 1970s!), smoking and drinking, etc.) -- that my estimation of "Cabaret" has dropped significantly.Al Jolson is, as usual, awkward as an actor but delightful as an entertainer. He gives the impression of a radio star caught on film by accident. One nice episode comes when he puts on a Russian accent for a conversation with a Count.Dolores del Rio is really stunning, however, and Dick Powell shines as a young singer hopelessly in love with her. Kay Francis does a grand job as well, as the longsuffering wife of a boring banker trying to spice her life up a bit.***SPOILER***The strange part comes when people start dying, a comically suicidal captain runs off to kill himself, an interlude occurs with a blackface song in praise of Lincoln and emancipation (as were many of the blackface or truly black numbers in films of this time) and including a blackface St. Peter and heavenly Hebrew newspapers, the aged American tourists attempt to find French dates for themselves, and, quite suddenly, it ends. ***END OF SPOILER***