Go West, Young Lady (1941)

the audience applauded

Sick Product of a Sick System

Admirable film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Delightful slice of western slapstick from Columbia Studios. The humor is pretty broad, the musical numbers frequent, and the cast especially appealing. It's a really young Glenn Ford showing why a big, versatile career lay ahead; a tomboyish Penny Singleton showing why she was more than just Blondie; and bad girl Ann Miller (!) still tap dancing her way into our hearts. And mustn't overlook an outstanding supporting cast, e.g. Ruggles, Jenkins, Waffles. I especially like that Miller-Jenkins tap dancing number with her in cowboy boots and him tripping the light fantastic. Oh yeah, the plot's something about a masked bad guy terrorizing the town. Turns out it's a town bigwig, just like in a kid's western. But who cares since that's just a way of stringing together the other, better elements. I'm not sure who the intended audience was since the result is neither a kid's matinée nor an A-production (the guys ride around greater LA). I doubt that the audience was ever found since the release date was right before Pearl Harbor! Anyway, for me the 70-minutes came as a pleasant surprise, though that opening stagecoach chase seems an unnecessary body-count. Nonetheless, the music's delightful and the acting appealing, so there's a lot to like in this unheralded Columbia production.

Columbia's western comedy Go West Young Lady owes the fact that it was made to Harry Cohn seeing how successful Destry Rides Again was over at Universal for Carl Laemmle. The resemblance of Glenn Ford's character to lean and lanky Jimmy Stewart is unmistakable.Ford and Penny Singleton arrive on the same stage to this frontier town where Penny is visiting her uncle Charlie Ruggles who owns the saloon and Ford has been appointed the new sheriff. Like the town of Bottleneck in Destry Rides Again the job of sheriff gives the owner a limited life expectancy.Specifically Ford is sent there to get a Mexican bandit, Killer Pete, who's been terrorizing the territory and he's got an alliance with the local Indians, a deadly combination if ever I saw one in a western. This bandit is one clever dude, he seems to just disappear with no trail after every job.Singleton is a western girl who can shoot like Annie Oakley, but she has a horrible sense of timing and hurts more than she helps poor Ford. Still it looks like love.Providing the saloon entertainment is Ann Miller, The Foursome, and Bob Wills Texas Playboys Band. There are quite a few musical numbers in this more than in Destry and Go West Young Lady is a shorter running time. There's a really cute one with Ann Miller and Allen Jenkins where Jenkins laments he doesn't have the voice to be a singing cowboy.And there's the obligatory chick fight between Singleton and Miller, not as good as the one involving Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel, but it certainly can hold its own.Taking time off from the Blondie series for Penny Singleton definitely proved worthwhile. The film is a pleasant diversion and gave Glenn Ford the first opportunity on screen to show his comic talents. He takes a pie in the face as good as any Keystone Cop.

This Columbia B puts a ballsier (at least gun totin') Blondie Dagwood out west being woo'ed by a really young Glenn Ford, already into his 11th picture here. This is part-melodrama, part musical (complete with an anachronistic swing number in the dance hall), part comedy. It's got Ann Miller as the bad guy's dancin' moll, Lola (this isn't a spoiler!)--- all wrapped up into a weird western with Charlie Ruggles doing a Foghorn Leghorn-meets-Colonel Sanders schtick. Very, very weird, but well produced. And you should see Allen Jenkins dance. He's no Fred Astaire, but he can cut a rug better than anyone might expect. Glenn Ford had to be disappointed in the direction of his career at this point, but to be fair there's worse ways to waste time than watching Go West, Young Lady (try watching a Bob Custer talkie and see what I mean).

'Go West, Young Lady' is a surprisingly delightful little film that easily straddles at least three different genres: it's a comedy western with a couple of full-fledged musical numbers, but which never quite becomes a full-scale musical. This film features the only good comedy performance I've ever seen by Glenn Ford, who is usually a dead loss in comedies. (He ruined 'Pocketful of Miracles'.) I actively dislike Penny Singleton, partly because she's so annoying onscreen and largely because (in real life), as the inept president of Agva, she nearly drove that union into bankruptcy. But Singleton gives an enjoyable performance in this film. Even Ann Miller (whom I usually dislike) gives a fine performance as Lola, the dance-hall girl in the local saloon.Allen Jenkins, one of my favourite character actors, is hilarious (as usual) as sheriff Ford's deputy. A high point of this film is the 'Yip-Ay-Yay' number performed by Ann Miller and Jenkins. For possibly the only time in his prolific career, Jenkins sings onscreen! His gravelly voice (with his prole New York accent) is completely unsuited to carrying a tune, but Jenkins sings gamely (in both senses of the term) while Miller does a couple of simple tap steps (less elaborate than usual for her) alongside him.SLIGHT SPOILER. There's a very funny running gag, well executed. Ford keeps getting into brawls with various tough guys who are bigger and stronger than him. Each time this happens, Penny Singleton tries to help him by coshing the other man ... but she always misses him and beans Ford instead. The payoff comes when she tries this one more time. As Ford looks up in horror to see Singleton bearing down on him with a bottle, he shouts: 'Don't hit him! It'll be me!' Very funny indeed, and several other scenes in this movie are funny too. I'll rate this charming low-budget gem 9 points out of 10.