21/9/2022 10:40 pm  #1


Anything Goes 1936

I dropped in to have a chat with David Currington yesterday who lives near me and we had a good catch-up and looked at some rare film clips he had. We got to talking about Anything Goes from 1936 and he mentioned he had a hi definition version of the original film with original title sequence which I had never seen. I had only ever seen and had in my possession the altered version retitled Tops is the Limit for tv release. Sure enough it was the film n pristine condition with the original title sequence intact. This morning I put together a comparison of the 2 and uploaded it to YouTube which you may find interesting. https://youtu.be/TGQIPpeLb3I
I checked Amazon and other US retailers but can’t see that it’s been released anywhere commercially so it’s a great find. 

 

22/9/2022 2:17 am  #2


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Amazing find!

 

01/10/2022 8:52 pm  #3


Re: Anything Goes 1936

This is wonderful. Such a lot of painstaking work must have gone into this. it really is a revelation compared from what I've previously seen. It reminds me of the restored titles that went into Bing's sometime golf and horse racing buddy's Oliver Hardy's films with comedy partner Stan Laurel when released on DVD. The wonderfully varied exposures and similar imagery from this period are a delight. Any plans for a full DVD release? 

 

02/10/2022 12:25 am  #4


Re: Anything Goes 1936

That would be super. Great idea, particularly as the DVD market doesn't seem as vibrant - but I must admit loving owning hard copy discs of these things. I need to hunt down a DVD copy of the 1956 remake, which our webmaster, David Lobosco has so nicely reviewed in the International Club Crosby's "Bing" magazine. 

 

02/10/2022 10:28 pm  #5


Re: Anything Goes 1936

I think both versions of Anything Goes - the 1936 and the 1956 versions suffer because the films deviated too much from the Broadway version. Hollywood got it's hands on both versions and turned it into two flms that should have been much better.

 

03/10/2022 8:25 am  #6


Re: Anything Goes 1936

The 1936 version of 'Anything Goes' has always been at the top of my list of Bing's movies that I would love to see in re-mastered HD versions rather than ropey old YouTube transfers, so it's amazing that David has managed to track down just a version! I know that a lot of the wonderful Cole Porter songs were ditched, but I love the on-screen chemistry between Bing and Ethel Merman.

 

13/10/2022 9:13 pm  #7


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Hi Ian and Jeremy (and others). I’d be more than happy to burn a DVD of the 1936 Anything Goes for you as long as you cover postage charges. The blank DVDs only cost me about 50 cents each and I’ve got heaps of them. Let me know. Cheers, Dave.  

     Thread Starter
 

14/10/2022 7:26 am  #8


Re: Anything Goes 1936

David, add me to the list please. Happy to pay postage.

 

14/10/2022 10:30 am  #9


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Me too please, David. Thanks very much indeed for the kind offer...
 

 

14/10/2022 7:08 pm  #10


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Me too please, David if you would be so kind. This is just marvellous of you. I'll send a private message if that is agreeable for us to arrange address and postage payment details?

 

15/10/2022 6:13 am  #11


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Hi all more than happy to do a DVD copy and post it or there’s the quicker and cheaper option - I could transfer the hi def file to you via a file transfer system then you can download it to your computer or USB thumb drive. Let me know which suits. My email address is dgmprod@icloud.com
Just send me your option and address details if required. 
 

     Thread Starter
 

16/10/2022 1:46 am  #12


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Very grateful to Archiefit for the link to 'The Star Maker' but - er - the thread concerns a hi-def copy of the 1936 'Anything Goes'..!

 

16/10/2022 10:54 am  #13


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Thank you very much for your kind offer! I've send an email.

 

21/10/2022 11:24 pm  #14


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Please add me to the list David. Cheers from Graham

 

22/10/2022 1:47 am  #15


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Archiefit wrote:

Oop, my kind hearted referral to a free website where you can see and download the film for free is gone.   A mysterious censor once struck here before maybe he's been back.  But if this was an official deletion, far be it from me to suggest an easy download.

The thread is about Anything Goes. Feel free to start a thread on The Star Maker. In the past many threads have been meandering and off topic. We're trying to keep it a message board and not just a free for all chatroom.
 

 

22/10/2022 4:44 am  #16


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Archiefit,

I've just been having  a yet another look at the beautiful restored title sequence of the 1936 version of "Anything Goes", with all its gorgeous black and white imaginative imagery (it's all I currently have in my pathetic life until my freshly ordered DVD copy from Dave (dmgprod) plops through my letterbox) and suddenly a new thought struck me.

Although the working titles of the original stage version of "Anything Goes" went through a couple of alternative names ("Crazy Week" and "Hard to Get"), I'm just wondering if it's possible that you ended up accidentally considering "Star Maker", with any of the various cinematic incarnations of "A Star is Born", whose first unofficial film version was the alternatively titled "What Price Hollywood?" in 1932? This was of course long before we eventually became spoilt for choice by the more known title versions starring Janet Gaynor, Bing's radio friend Judy Garland ("Country Girl" style, wouldn't Bing have made a great James Mason in the role of Judy's husband?), Barbra Streisand and Lady Gaga came along.

As I'm sure you'll be aware none of these versions, unlike "Anything Goes" was set on a ship. Although the sea and its shore, did of course suicidally (as readers of this must now surely feel) play a part in "A Star is Born" -  I just wondered if any of this was worth your consideration?

If not, I'll just have to crawl off, shamefacedly into a corner and comfort myself with a chorus of "Blow, Gabriel Blow" - and hoping that particular rousing song of the original show, made it into my as yet to be viewed DVD copy of the original, now restored film version. 
 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (22/10/2022 12:44 pm)

 

22/10/2022 1:12 pm  #17


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Archiefit wrote:

Wow, that was such an intelligent excuse for my boo-boo I wish I could say that it was so, maybe I'll just go with it and claim it is.  Better than the truth of me admitting to be an idiot.   The real lesson here is that I should check out the facts before I post.  I have since remembered that name of the re-titled version of Anything Goes is "Tops Is The Limit".   Well, on the plus side I was so anxious to help out here I just let everyone know about my exciting discovery.  For some reason I thought it was Anything Goes.  Not exactly the find of the day though.

Well it was a theory, anyway. In empathy, I remember once confusing "Anything Goes" with Gershwin's "Girl Crazy" - and that was over twenty-five years ago. It wasn't until ten minutes into the show and looking at my theatre programme that the penny dropped as to why there was no ship!

Is "Tops is the Limit" a renaming of the 1936 film version (maybe for European release) - or a completly different version of the musical?

I found it most interesting to read David's comments on here as to how both films were so different from the original show. I now realise I've only ever seen two or three short clips from the 1936 version. One of them being of Bing and Ethel singing "You're the Top" as part of a fairly brief but very good Cole Porter 1990 TV documentary of the same name (bet they were up all night thinking of that one). I wonder if either screen version is slightly nearer to the stage version - and if Cole Porter himself had any direct input with them? 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (22/10/2022 1:24 pm)

 

22/10/2022 5:19 pm  #18


Re: Anything Goes 1936

Oh I see!!!!!!
Thank you SO much for the explanation,  Archiefit.
You've really cleared that one up for me and I now fully understand.
Renaming films for clarity or familiarity is something I've come across before.

I think the first example I heard of in precisely the same spirit and same number of years between was when the Bob Hope and Shirley Ross (with whom he originally sang "Thanks for the Memory" the year before) comedy "Some Like it Hot" (1939) was renamed "Anything Goes" (only kidding)  - it was actually renamed "Rhythm Romance" for US television after the Billy Wilder/Marilyn Monroe film of the same appeared in 1959.

I believe in the UK for television purposes we may show duplicated titled films under their original names but I'm open to correction, here. I do know during Hollywood's "Golden Age", the UK would sometimes alter first run US cinema film titles to avoid confusion or for reasons of decorum. For example, the 1950 Judy Garland/Gene Kelly  musical "Summer Stock" had it's titled altered for its original UK theatrical release as "If You Feel Like Singing", simply because very few people in the UK would have heard of this concept.

Just a year later, the Astaire musical "Royal Wedding" had its UK cinema title changed to "Wedding Bells"  to show dereference and distinction that our then almost universally popular monarchy and new queen, at whose wedding the film was set four years before - would not be considered in the "same frame" as a "frothy" Hollywood musical. Both films are now shown on UK television under their original titles. How times change. 

Last edited by Ian Kerstein (22/10/2022 5:20 pm)

 

24/10/2022 11:49 pm  #19


Re: Anything Goes 1936

David,
I’ll be in that too.
I live in Bermagui and visited David a couple of weeks ago.
He is currently splashing his way north for a wedding.
You can get details from him - address etc.
Ron

 

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