Everybody Sing (1938) Reviews

Everybody Sing is an uncertain blend of screwball comedy and standard MGM musical. Reginald Owen plays Hillary Bellaire, patriarch of a looney theatrical family, while Billie Burke co-stars as his overly dramatic actress wife Diana. What story there is gets under way when the Bellaire's daughters Judy (Judy Garland) and Sylvia (Lynne Carver) are expelled from school because Judy insists upon singing Mendelssohn to a "swing" beat. As it turns out, Judy is the most sensible member of the family! In one of her few film appearances, Fanny Brice is rather wasted as a Russian maidservant, though she does get to perform a musical number based on her "Baby Snooks" radio character. Far better served within the film's framework is MGM's resident tenor Allan Jones as the family's chauffeur and Reginald Gardiner as Diana Bellaire's long-suffering stage leading man. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi