Sidney Bracy [sic] (1877-1942) was a stage actor in his native Australia before moving to America and commencing his film career in 1909. Later in life he tended to be cast as authority figures and servants, including upwards of 54 butlers and a variety of valets and chauffeurs.
Four of Bracey’s MGM musical appearances were as butlers: Children of Pleasure, A Lady’s Morals, Hollywood Party and San Francisco. He also showed up uncredited in Broadway to Hollywood, The Firefly and Rosalie.
German-born Lee Kohlmar (1873-1946) started out in live theatre and made his screen debut in 1915. He worked throughout the silent period, occasionally as director.
Most of Kohlmar’s sound roles were uncredited, and these included Children of Pleasure and, his final film, The Big Store.
Helen Johnson (1906-2002) had a very brief career in leading roles, followed by a slow decline under the name Judith Wood, culminating in an uncredited appearance in The Asphalt Jungle (1950).
In the early 30s, Johnson appeared in a number of ‘A’ features, most notably as the feckless Pat Thayer in Children of Pleasure.
Winifred Elaine Gibson (1898-1987) was an actor who starred in films without ever really becoming a film star. She had performed in vaudeville, burlesque and musical comedies before featuring in Nothing But the Truth (1929). The following year she was given the female lead in Children of Pleasure.
Thereafter, Gibson mostly appeared in ‘B’ pictures; Richard Barrios calls her “one of the best tough blondes in Depression cinema”. In the 1950s, as she moved into television work, she and her partner, Beverley Roberts, were heavily involved in the development of theatrical trade unionism in New York.
Performers
| Lawrence Gray | Danny Regan |
| Wynne Gibson | Emma Gray |
| Judith Wood | Pat Thayer (as Helen Johnson) |
| Kenneth Thomson | Rod Peck (as Kenneth Thompson) |
| Lee Kohlmar | Bernie (as Lee Kolmar) |
| May Boley | Fanny Kaye |
| Benny Rubin | Andy Little |
| Jack Benny | Himself (uncredited) |
| Sidney Bracey | Miles – Butler (uncredited) |
| Eddie Bush | Member of Biltmore Trio – Party Vocalists (uncredited) |
| Rosalind Byrne | Girl at Party (uncredited) |
| Mary Carlisle | Secretary (uncredited) |
| Carrie Daumery | Dowager at Party (uncredited) |
| Drew Demorest | Song Writer (uncredited) |
| Ann Dvorak | Chorus Girl (uncredited) |
| Jay Eaton | Eddie Brown (uncredited) |
| Cliff Edwards | Himself (uncredited) |
| Paul Gibbons | Member of Biltmore Trio – Party Vocalists (uncredited) |
| Maude Turner Gordon | Dowager at Party (uncredited) |
| Edward Martindel | Mr. Thayer (uncredited) |
| Doris McMahon | Society Girl at Party (uncredited) |
| William H. O’Brien | Party Butler #2 (uncredited) |
| Hal Price | Song Writer (uncredited) |
| Herbert Prior | Jeweler (uncredited) |
| Bill Seckler | Member of Biltmore Trio – Party Vocalists (uncredited) |
| Polly Ann Young | Society Girl at Party (uncredited) |
Songs
| Dust | Fred Fisher, Andy Rice | Lawrence Gray, Wynne Gibson |
| Girl Trouble | Fred Fisher | Lawrence Gray; Benny Rubin, Wynne Gibson |
| The Better Things in Life | Fred Fisher | Lawrence Gray |
| Leave It That Way | Fred Fisher, Andy Rice | Lawrence Gray |
| The Whole Darn Thing’s for You | Fred E Ahlert, Roy Turk | Lawrence Gray, The Biltmore Trio |
Synopsis
Successful songwriter Danny Regan bumps into Jack Benny while coming out of the subway, then fails to persuade a drunk to sing one of his songs. He calls into a theatre to watch Fanny Kaye perform one of his numbers [A Couple of Birds with the Same Thing in Mind]. He sits next to, and admires, an attractive young woman, but she leaves before the end of the number.
Finally, Danny calls at the office of his partner Bernie, a publisher and agent, who is busy dictating telegrams. His old friend Emma Gray is working there and he starts to tell her about the girl he has just seen, until she has to stop and help Bernie.
Cliff ‘Ukelele Ike’ Edwards looks in and talks to Danny about the song he is performing. Bernie recalls how it was Emma who first introduced him to Danny as a songwriter with potential.
Fanny Kaye is planning to come over and listen to a new song Danny has written for her. Emma asks Danny to finish his story about the girl, even though it is clearly painful to her. Fanny arrives with her pianist, Andy Little. It seems Fanny always marries her pianists and she has her eyes on Andy.
Danny and Emma demonstrate the new number [Dust]. Soon, the song has been turned into a production number for Fanny [Dust]. During the performance, Danny spots the young woman he saw earlier sitting in a box.
Fanny calls Danny onto the stage and he nervously thanks the audience, while being admired by the young woman. Later, Danny and Emma are dancing at a nightclub when he sees the young woman again. Her name is Pat Thayer, and she is accompanied by Rod Peck. Danny invites Pat and Rod to his table, where he introduces them to Fanny and Andy. Pat lies about where she first met Danny, claiming to have almost killed him with her car.
Danny is invited to perform one of his songs [Girl Trouble]. At the table, Pat looks on admiringly while Emma looks troubled. Danny suggests Andy sing, and Andy asks Emma to join him in a more cynical version of the song [Girl Trouble].
Danny and Pat dance, and he learns that she is part of a wealthy oil family. Rod tells Emma that he has been engaged to Pat a dozen times, on and off. The orchestra plays one of Danny’s songs [The Better Things in Life]. Later, Emma tries unsuccessfully to warn Danny that Pat may not be as serious as he is.
Pat visits Danny at his office [Leave It That Way]. Danny proposes and Pat accepts. She agrees to keep it secret so they can have a quiet wedding. Emma helps Danny choose a ring, and they see Pat and Rod at the same store. Pat is choosing favours for the bridesmaids, and tells Danny they cannot really have a small wedding, but must have a big affair with a rehearsal the night before.
At the rehearsal, the older guests gossip that the marriage will not last, and the servants agree. [The Whole Darned Thing’s for You]. Danny overhears Pat flirting with Rod, who tells her she does not love Danny any more than any of the other men she has played with. Pat says the marriage will be an experiment to find out if that is true. If it fails, she will come back to Rod. Later, Danny breaks up the rehearsal of the ceremony and repeats Pat’s own words back to her.
Some days later, Emma and Bernie are worried because no one knows where Danny is. Fanny tells them she and Andy are getting married, which is news to Andy. Danny calls and Emma rushes to his apartment. She finds him drunk and feeling cynical about love. Then he tells Emma he loves her and they should get married straight away.
The next morning, Emma tells Danny that he passed out after the ceremony and she slept in the other room. She asks him if he loves her and laughs when he says yes. Pat arrives, at Emma’s invitation. Emma tells Danny she was not fooled by him and there was no wedding. She says Pat really loves him and leaves them alone together. Danny tells Pat she is sweet, but then rushes out after Emma.
Opinion
There are things to enjoy in Free and Easy, but it is a film whose final shot is heartbreaking, and not for the hoaky reasons intended by the filmmakers. Buster Keaton’s character, Elmer Butts, has failed to get the girl he loves. Dressed in a ridiculous uniform and in Pagliacciesque clown makeup, Keaton gazes off-camera at Anita Page with a look of utter despondency, then raises his eyes to heaven. It is probably the most downbeat ending ever given to a musical, and that includes West Side Story (1961 and 2021).
It has been suggested that Keaton is looking, not at his co-star, but at his life as one of the preeminent filmmakers in Hollywood (or anywhere else) disappearing in front of his eyes. It is as though the full implications of what he has given up by signing a contract with MGM is becoming clear for the first time in front of our eyes. Symbolically, Keaton loses the girl for the first time in his career, just as he has lost his independence and potential for creativity.
Free and Easy was Keaton’s first talking picture, and the first since his earliest days when he had played no real part in its development. The opening titles claim the film as A Buster Keaton Production, but this would seem to have meant little in practice. The film was directed by Edward Sedgwick, a friend of Keaton’s and another comedy specialist who failed to find a settled place at Hollywood’s most successful studio.
Keaton turns in a professional performance, but he is not playing a Buster Keaton character: in his own films he was never a loser. The finale suggests that Metro were under the impression they had signed Chaplin or Harry Langdon. Left to his own devices, Keaton would probably have made a successful transition to sound: his baritone voice is effective both speaking and singing, and would not have impeded his gag-based comedy.
The biggest revelation in Free and Easy is Trixie Friganza as the stage mother from hell, Ma Plunkett. Friganza had been a vaudeville star for many years and the film captures some of the talent that made her stage career such a success.
Anita Page and Robert Montgomery (who does get the girl) stand around looking attractive, and the film features cameos by a number of MGM luminaries. One of the more interesting aspects of Free and Easy is the glimpse it gives of the Metro studio during the transition to sound.
Karl E Zindt (1909-78) was a sound engineer who started out in Douglas Shearer’s new sound department at MGM. While there, he worked on the highly successful Grand Hotel (1932) and, with slightly less prestige, Free and Easy. Thereafter, Zint spent most of his career on Poverty Row aand in television.
