ptb-8 This is seems to me to be a very true adaptation of a Broadway musical of the late 20s, filmed in quite a static way with the characters lined across the screen playing it exactly as if they were also across the stage bellowing lines into each other's faces so the back row could hear it. Given this performance is for a film it seems nobody thought to re direct it for a cinema audience who could hear every word courtesy of fantastic chunky Vitaphone gramophone sound. There is no doubt the dippy parents and flapper daughters play it well to the audience who even might have been expecting a play on film. SPRING IS HERE is quite funny, very stage bound and completely what we expect 80 years later: stodgy comedy, vaudeville mugging wonderful Rogers and Hart music all flattened into the technical aspects of the time. This film is a curiosity piece really, and would irritate your friends who do not understand that it is the restrictions of the medium of the time that makes a film like this attractive to those who love 1920s sound films. Beautiful clothes and sets add to the fun; but do not inflict this film on anyone not familiar with the time tone and tinniness. Maybe play the scenes of just the songs, as they are terrific. No wonder the talkies took off, but you can also see why depression audiences soon tired of songs being yelled at them.

sideways8 I was pleased that TCM had this on the other morning. Bernice Claire and Lawrence Gray sang beautifully. The old man got off a few great one liners, but the singers and especially the lyrics stole the show. Such beautiful sentiments. This show had the feel and atmosphere of one of my favorite movies, "Sally", so I looked it up in my 4/03 Now Playing and "Sally" was directed by John Fracis Dillon too. If they show this again, and they inevitably probably will, I will tape it to keep. Dillon was a master at these early 30s musicals. I've kept "Sally". TCM is to be thanked for putting this on. It is much appreciated. I never miss any pre-7/34 precode movies they show and they are the main reason that TCM is the greatest station showing.

fwmurnau Caught this today on TCM. It's one of those run-of-the-mill early sound-era musicals that soured the public on singing films until the exciting 42ND STREET and the early Busby Berkeley extravaganzas pumped juice back into the musical genre.Fazenda and her co-stars sing well in the operetta style that was still popular at this time, but their acting tends to be as stiff, stagy and clichéd as the story, dialog, and camera-work.It's interesting to see the kind of brainless and virtually heartless musical comedy that was current when SHOW BOAT debuted on Broadway and then on film, pointing the way toward more heartfelt, substantial musicals in the future. Tastes in comedy change, but I doubt anyone found this one very funny even when it first appeared. The humor is really forced and lame.The story is an ancestor of the teen comedies that would be popular decades later: a young jazz baby can't decide between two suitors, while her cranky, "old-fashioned" father and clueless mother provide comic relief.Hit with a bunch of stagy, static movies like this one, no wonder the public at the time got sick of musicals. The genre had to be reconceived a couple years later, turned into a faster, fresher, more kinetic entertainment that was truly cinematic.SPRING IS HERE is a typical plodding commercial product of its era. It's competent without being in any way outstanding. It will interest specialists as an example of writing and performing styles of the 1920s, but it won't win any new converts to early sound-era musicals. It's pretty bad ...

Christopher Craig SPRING IS HERE is a breezy, yet undistinguished early sound musical. A hit on Broadway, it suffers from the overproduction of musicals at the time (meaning it received no special consideration during its making) and from a director who brings no visual flair to the medium. What we're left with are pleasant performers and pleasant, if not memorable, tunes. The standout performance here is given by Louise Fazenda, a ubiquitous figure in these early sound musicals made at Warners. Her portrayal of a character who is simultaneously embarrassed and titillated at the innuendo surrounding her is delightful and captures the necessarily frivolous tone needed in such a piece. Incidentally, Fazenda was the first in the sound era to portray the dumb blonde, an archetype that still pleases to this day.