Poppin' the Cork

Making his talkie debut here, radio comedian Milton Berle manages to turn what should have been a rather pleasurable motion picture experience into a decided pain. True, his material was weak to begin with, but it doesn't get any better when Merle shouts out every puerile word at the top his voice. Nor does it improve the situation any, Mister Director, if you keep your camera on Ham's-the-name Milton for such an inordinate length of time. Well done, Jack, old boy! Thanks to your incompetence, you manage to send a promising script straight to the rubbish heap. And you almost do the same for Robert Alton's ritzy choreography which is most fortunately clever enough to survive both Berle's continued assaults and your own weak-as-water direction.