Watch Mister Big For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Thankfully, now viewable at You Tube, along with most of Don O'Connor's early Universal films. Many consider this the most entertaining of his wartime musical series, nearly all of which included Peggy Ryan as his slapstick and dancing partner. At age 18, Don was certainly in top form as comedian and singer. I'm also partial to the previous "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Mr. Big is, of course, a nickname for Don O'Connor's character. Don, along with costars Peggy Ryan and Gloria Jean(Patricia), are students at the Davis School of Theater, owned by conservative old Mrs. Davis(Florence Bates):Patricia's aunt. Old Jeremy Taswell(Samuel Hinds) is the Principal. His daughter, Alice, and her boyfriend Johnny are featured teachers. Don earns his nickname by trying to run things at this school, in Mickey Rooney-mimicry, and by being popular with the girls. In the opening scene, Gloria is singing, while Don and Peggy are in the Orchestra in Johnny's classical music class. When Johnny has to step out for a while, Don takes over the Orchestra, and switches to swing music, his favorite. Johnny makes a show of being mad at Don, but isn't really, as he has secretly composed some boogie-woogie music. After an energetic jive dance scene at a local teen hangout, Don proposes a musical comedy he has written for the class yearly play. Johnny is receptive, but Mrs. Davis wants a classic play that will showcase Gloria's operatic voice. Behind her back, Johnny agrees to try out Don's play, with Gloria's OK, not telling Mrs. Davis. Some Broadway producers show up for the show and are very impressed, causing Mrs. Davis to change her attitude from shock to pleased. Of course, Don and Peggy are the centerpiece of the abundant musical and comedic action throughout the film. My guess is that many people will object to the inclusion of a prominent blackface minstrel show. If so, I don't think this is fair, as this was still considered an acceptable form of entertainment, even at this rather late date in the blackface era. I know of 3 other films starring Don, which included him in a blackface number, one as late as '53. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney also did an extensive blackface show in one of their contemporary films. Bing Crosby did a blackface number in the '42 "Holiday Inn", along with introducing "White Christmas", and again in the '44 "Here Comes the WAVES". I thought the blackface show in this film was done in good taste. It was even followed by Ben Carter's choir of real African Americans, who had no relation to the rest of the story. Later, an African American spiritual was featured without blackface, as part of the play. I haven't heard 'whities' complaining about all the circus clowns who have donned 'whiteface' disguises! This was Gloria Jean's last film costarring with Don and Peggy, and many consider it their most entertaining. In future Don + Peggy films, usually Suzanna Foster or Ann Blyth took her place as the 'good girl' non-dancing songstress love interest for Don. She had a nice solo in "Moonlight and Roses", as well as several songs with Don, sometimes with Peggy included.Elinor Donahue, later to gain wide recognition as the elder teenage daughter in the popular TV series "Father Knows Best", was the cute little tap dancing girl. Reportedly, she started tap dancing before age 2!, and also had some very early radio singing engagements.As in many Universal musicals of this era, 'The Jivin' Jacks and Jills' were on hand to enhance many musical numbers...Ben Carter was a well-known African American performer and promoter of AA theatrical talent. I'm sure I heard the soprano-like voice of Bobby Brooks in his choir. Bobby also sang a number in the Don + Peggy films "Top Man" and "This is the Life".Florence Bates, although 3X the ages of the 3 stars, didn't start in show business until just a few years earlier, having been well educated and traveled. She naturally was cast as brassy middle-aged women, often authority figures, as in this film. I remember her in the Errol Flynn western San Antonio, and as Vera Ellen's dancing instructor in "On the Town"Ex-Glenn Miller big band singer Ray Eberle was on hand to sing the ballad "This Must Be a Dream". Sinatra considered him his chief potential competition to be the young pop singer idol of the '40s. Don, to my ear, was just as good. He was backed up by Eddie Miller's Bob Cats. Miller had been a featured singer and clarinetist with Bob Crosby's Bob Cats, among others, and took over Crosby's reorganized Bob Cats for a couple years.

I heard of this movie while watching a documentary about Donald O'Connor. I thought it sounded good and watched some clips online. It was great! I tried to find the film and I couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, after a few months of searching, I found that Gloria Jean herself was selling copies. I bought one immediately. I saw it and it is now my favorite movie. The comedy is hilarious. Like the rationing scene between Peggy and Donald. I loved the songs. They were very well written and the choreography was phenomenal. All the performances given were stupendous. Especially Bobby Brooks and the Ben Carter Choir. They were fabulous! I highly recommend this film to everyone. It is appropriate for families to watch, too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

My copy of this is so murky it's like looking through the mists of time, but the movie itself is as fun now as it was in 1943. It was a star-maker for Donald O'Connor, and it's easy to see why - he's hilarious, adorable, and already shows the crisp, weightless precision in his dancing that later became his trademark.Peggy Ryan (like a young Lucille Ball!) and Gloria Jean (endearingly beautiful and with a voice to die for) are both at their best, and Louis DaPron, head choreographer at Universal, did right by the Jivin' Jacks and Jills, who are thrilling to watch. Some even get small acting parts, but it's their acrobatic dancing that astounds, then and now.As another reviewer commented, there is a routine in blackface, and that is always jarring for modern audiences, me included. The later sequence where the black children sing in a hayloft could (as the earlier reviewer suggested) be seen as demeaning, or it could be seen as the kids being an angelic choir (I think more the intent). I doubt that Universal gave it a lot of deep thought either way... it was intended as a means of separating on stage two separate 'acts', the choir from the dancers.There's not too much time wasted on plot here, but what little there is is friskied-up by off-the-cuffs and a general lack of formality. According to Peggy Ryan, the filming took eight days. The result is a film with a lively spontaneity that would only have been muted with further polishing.

This utterly delicious hilarious swing musical is terrific. Made as part of a series at Universal that seem to be the dance version of those MGM Andy Hardy films; instead (and better) here we have the dynamic and effervescent talent of Donald O'Connor with gorgeous Gloria Jean and zany Peggy Ryan who make a trio of song and dance talent that is an entertaining as it is astonishing. MISTER BIG is completely engaging for its 63 minutes and with sensational tap numbers from the jivin' Jacks and Jills solid Universal production values and a roster of house actors, this film deserves renewed appreciation on DVD. It would be appropriate for Universal to box-set all these teen 40s musicals with Donald O'Connor and the Jivin Jacks and Jills and set them before a very appreciative public again. The group tap numbers are real musical dynamite; O'Connor is simply hilarious; the music numbers are fun and the sets and art direction is excellent. The other titles in the series are: GET HEP TO LOVE.... CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK... PATRICK THE GREAT... GIVE OUT SISTERS... PRIVATE BUCKAROO... and WHAT'S COOKIN'.... all of which I now am keen to enjoy. What a teen talent Donald O'Connor was! I have never seen his early comedy films and this intro into the 40s musicals he made has me enthralled to see more. MISTER BIG is the sort of musical with acrobatic group tap dance numbers you could only dream of, and here is a 63 minute musical with 7 songs and routines, better than I could have wished for. MISTER BIG is just great. My dollars are ready for the whole box set, when Universal care to plonk it on a shelf in a DVD store anytime soon.