Banjo on My Knee

Not a remarkable movie, but it's filled with down to earth human parts as the river people enter New Orleans. Walter Brennan is the real life of this film with his 'musical contraption'. The movie is most about waiting with singing and dancing for Joel McCrea to pop in once in a while as he's mostly out on his wild adventures. So we follow Barbara Stanwyck as she waits for her love and feeling down. There is something John Ford-ian about the pacing of this movie.

So much silliness--much of it embarrassing--and more Mississippi River cornpone humor than you can shake a damn stick at. This stuff really wasn't Stanwyck's thing, and she doesn't look too comfortable. Almost worth sitting through to hear the Hall Johnson Choir, though--just fabulous--or skip ahead to around minute 54. Buddy Ebsen's dancing tips the balance to "watch", I guess--I had forgotten how great he was--and Stanwyck (vainly) trying to keep up with him is the only time she seems happy.