Her Future (1930) Online

Ethel Merman burst on the show business scene in the fall of 1930, when she appeared in the Broadway musical Girl Crazy and stopped the show with her energetic rendition of "I Got Rhythm." Almost immediately she was signed to make a series of musical shorts for Paramount, and Her Future was one of the first to go before the cameras. All too often musical shorts of the period would present singers in conventional nightclub settings or in simple (sometimes dull) scenarios, but you have to give the filmmakers responsible for this particular item credit for coming up with an imaginative way to showcase their star performer. It's weird but effective, and makes for a memorable short.

The opening shots reveal that we're in a bizarre, Expressionistic courtroom, like something out of a German horror film of the '20s. There are two lawyers in the foreground standing at a table covered with papers, looking up at a judge who appears to be at least ten feet in the air, sitting at a perfectly smooth, tower-like judicial bench. A shaft of light shines into the room at a jagged angle. There is a woman on the witness stand, which takes the form of a smooth niche within the wall. She's wearing a hat and is turned toward the judge, and initially her face is not visible. It's established that this woman has already been found guilty, and is now awaiting her sentence. The judge notes that because this is her first offense he's inclined to be lenient, so the woman's lawyer invites her to express in her own way why she's there.

The woman is Ethel Merman, of course, and therefore she chooses to express herself in song. In an uncharacteristically demure fashion she launches into a bluesy rendition of "My Future Just Passed," a lament of lost love. (The first time I saw this film I expected to hear something specific in the lyrics about her crime, something along the lines of Frankie and Johnny, but all we hear is that her man left her.) The song builds in intensity towards the end, and we're given to understand that this performance convinces the judge to suspend Ethel's sentence. He releases her from custody and asks where she'll go from here. Ethel happily replies, in song, that she's heading for Dixie, and launches into a rendition of the hot gospel tune "Sing You Sinners." She really cuts loose on this number, ending the short on a rousing note.

And that's all she wrote! This film isn't going to satisfy anyone expecting a plot, but it's a must for fans of Merman, viewers interested in Broadway musical history, and buffs who enjoy offbeat novelty shorts.

If I didn't know better, I never would have guessed that the woman starring in this Paramount short was Ethel Merman! This is because Merman didn't become a movie star until MUCH later--and, like all of us, she changed a lot. Plus, the fashions of 1930 and the mid-1940s changed immensely.

The plot of this one is pretty non-existent. Merman is taken to a very surreal looking courtroom and instead of pleading to the charge, she sings a long song. Then, when they announce that they are going to let her off with a warning, she starts singing again! The problem isn't just that there isn't much plot, but the songs just aren't very good and the acoustics are poor. It comes off as a rather cheap little film--one that doesn't really show off Merman's many talents.

Promising to be a good girl as the defendant in a court case facing an unknown charge, the big Broadway sensation of 1930 sings a poignant plea for understanding, followed by a jazzy spiritual, forecasting "Blow Gabriel Blow" just a few years later. It's sort of a surreal way of showing Merman reform, but there's history in these rare shorts she did while still making a name for herself. Once she breaks into "Sing You Sinners", the stage is set for Merman to rise from featured player to star, and that was just right around the corner. It's just too bad that the movies were allegedly too big for her, because with the right direction (as proved in the film version of "Call Me Madam"), she would have been just fine.

Her Future (1930)

** (out of 4)

It's been said that once sound came into play writers really didn't need any type of story as long as there were some music numbers thrown into keep people entertained. That's certainly the case here because the "story" here is without a doubt one of the strangest I've seen in terms of setting up the music. Ethel Merman plays a woman being found guilty of a crime and she is given permission to address the court, which she does through a song (My Future Just Passed). Merman plays one more song (Sing, You Sinners) hoping that the judge will forgive her crimes. If someone really did have to sing to try and defend themselves then I'm afraid Mrs. Merman would have been in jail for a very long time. I'm not going to sit here and bash the entire vocal career of Merman but what we have here is pretty bad from start to finish. I found both songs to be poorly written and I wasn't all that impressed with the way they were performed either. I thought there were some parts where Merman was so high-pitched that I had to rush and turn the volume down. Another major problem is that the wrap-around story is just downright silly and we don't ever get to know what on Earth she's done. Merman fans might want to check this out if they have to see everything she's done but others should stay clear.