This is an enjoyable,unpretentious Pre-Code Musical,made on a limited budget,yet as fun and entertaining as some of the Warner Bros. movies it sought to imitate!
Sincere parody of the big dance musical which made a comeback in 1933, this actually is one of the best of them. Sometimes parodies are made to make fun, but this takes the best elements of all the movie musicals made during the production of this, making me wonder how the production team at Universal studios knew what was going on at the major studios.
'Moonlight and Pretzels' is the barely relevant title of this Depression-era musical. Made by low-budget Universal Pictures (though not filmed on the Universal lot), it somehow feels as if it were made by one of the more prestigious studios.
MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS was a somewhat tacky attempt by Universal Pictures to cash in on the Busby Berkeley craze that was making mountains of money for Warners in 1933. The backstage plot flagrantly imitates the Warners formula: songwriters and performers desperately want to put on their show but are having trouble raising the money; they hook up with an eccentric investor, go through dramatic ups and downs and eventually pull off the production with flying colors.
Shot in just eighteen days at the old Astoria studio in New York, the title remains familiar today from Karl Freund's brief run of 30's directorial credits bookended by 'The Mummy' in 1932 and 'Mad Love' in 1935, and from Roger Pryor's entry in Halliwell and Katz. But the film itself remains absent from Maltin.
After watching "Moonlight and Pretzels" you'll probably understand why Universal was known for its horror films and not its musicals in the 1930's.
This ghastly Universal musical released in August 1933 is their answer to Warner's Busby Berkeley blockbusters. Consider this release pattern; from WB: Jan '33 42nd St; May 33 Gold Diggers '33; in August comes this: Universal's copy: MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS then Sept 33 WB's FOOTLIGHT PARADE.
"42nd Street" had just come out, and Universal attempted its own version of a backstage musical a la Busby Berkeley with this oddly titled curiosity. It was made in New York for $100,000, which even then was ridiculously cheap, and the corner-cutting is visible in the sets, costumes, and substandard hoofing of the chorus girls, who nevertheless are advertised as "150 of Broadway's loveliest beauties," or somesuch.
When the film begins, George (Roger Pryor) is working on a song and when he finally gets it right, he dedicates it to nice-girl Sally (Mary Brian). Soon he's off to the big city to try to make it big and promises to come back for Sally...
