They Learned About Women is a contender for the worst title ever given to a film musical. ‘Playing the Field’ and ‘Take It Big’ were other suggested titles, but undoubtedly lend themselves to innuendo. The other contender, ‘The Pennant-Winning Battery’ would arguably have been worse.
Van and Schickel were very popular entertainers, and their musical performances give an inkling of why they were so liked. But they were no great shakes as actors and it seems likely they would have gone the same way as the Duncan Sisters after It’s a Great Life, if Schickel’s untimely death had no rendered the matter moot.
Sam (Benny Rubin), Jack (Joe Schickel) and Tim (Tom Dugan) at the start of a new season. Jerry (Gus Van) is AWOL.
They Learned About Women was the second Metro musical outing for the songwriting team of Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, and is notable for being the first of the studio’s musicals with a score entirely written by one team. These remained a rarity for the next forty years. It’s a fairly average set of numbers, though ‘Ten Sweet Mamas’ is notable for several reasons. It is a very early integrated number, in two senses: it is sung by Gus Van not on a stage, but in a shower room, with the chorus engaged in their ablutions while singing; Van washes himself then lies face down on a massage table.
The song is also integrated in the way it comments on the themes and plot
Jerry tells the other players all about his Ten Sweet Mamas
of the film. ‘Ten Sweet Mamas’ is a variation on ‘Ten Green Bottles,’ with the number of mamas reducing throughout the song; in fact, Van starts singing at the seven point. The song’s subject is unfaithfulness, ostensibly female (“Can’t trust a woman/I have found”), though in fact the blame swings both ways (he loses his last mama because she catches him with his wife). The lyrics foreshadow Jack’s fickleness and Daisy’s duplicity. The shower room setting, coyly shot though it is, positions the film as pre-code, as does the lyric “Had two sweet mamas for my jelly roll,” which was a euphemism for sexual intercourse.
The film’s other highpoint is its one production number, ‘Harlem Madness,’ which gave Nina Mae McKinney, the breakout star of Hallelujah, her second and final opportunity to shine. Her singing and dancing is joyously eccentric enough to merit the song’s title.
Nina Mae McKinney gives it her all in ‘Harlem Madness’
The direction in They Learned About Women is fairly lacklustre, even though it took two directors to achieve it. It was far from unusual at MGM, at that time, for one director to complete another’s film, but it seems unclear why, on this occasion, Conway and Wood were given a shared credit.
Bessie Love works hard, as always, but there are diminishing returns for her third dose of heartbreak in a year. Frankly, Jerry is as big a chump as Terry in Chasing Rainbows; she would probably have been better off with Jerry.
Jerry Burke and Jack Glennon are baseball players for the Blue Sox who perform as a vaudeville act during the off-season. They are on a train to Florida for the start of the new season, along with a bevy of chorus girls. Jerry is very drunk, but insists they perform one more song before going to bed [He’s That Kind of a Pal].
Jack gets Jerry into bed, then hears golddigger Daisy Gebhart crying. Her tears are fake, but he is fooled by her pretence of innocence. Meanwhile, Jerry slips out of bed and goes back to entertaining the girls.
Jack (Joe Schenk) is taken in by the tears of golddigger Daisy (Mary Doran)
The next morning, Jack finds that the carriage containing Jerry was left behind during the night. Jack’s girl, Mary Collins, meets him at the station. As the train is pulling out, Jack thinks he hears Jerry’s voice. He jumps on board, but it turns out to be a record.
Later that day, the Blue Sox are training, while Mary types for the team’s owner, Stafford. Jack reunites with his friends Sam Goldberg and Tim O’Connor. Haskins, a new signing, upsets Coach Brennan with his practical jokes.
Jerry arrives in a taxi, still in his pyjamas. Brennan tells Jack and Jerry to get Haskins out. They succeed when they realize he cannot handle slow balls.
Several days later, the team is relaxing in a hotel. Mary sews on a button for Jerry, who asks if she will still do it when she is married to Jack [A Man of My Own]. Jack is talking to Daisy about her problems; she wheedles money from him and then kisses him. He says they probably should not see each other again, but agrees that they can write to each other. Jack introduces Mary as his fiancee and Daisy leaves [Does My Baby Love?; There Will Never Be Another Mary]. While Jack is talking to Mary, it is clear he still has Daisy on his mind, even though he says “a guy would be crazy to think of anyone but you”.
Mary (Bessie Love) sings ‘A Man of My Own’. Between takes, Love would entertain the cast with her trusty uke.
Half-way through the season, Jack receives a letter from Daisy, to whom he has been writing regularly. [Ten Sweet Mamas]. Jack asks Jerry to have dinner with Mary because he has a business meeting. At a nightclub, Jerry spots Jack and Daisy at another table. He tries to get Mary out, but she notices Jack and Daisy dancing while Jerry is fetching his hat. Mary pretends to be happy while Jerry puts her into a taxi, but cries as it drives away. Jerry goes back into the nightclub and pretends to be drunk, forcing Jack to take him home.
Back at the hotel, Jerry tells Jack he is a fool if he is ditching Mary for Daisy. He leaves Jack alone with Mary, who tells Jack she saw him with Daisy and now realizes that she and he are not really in love with each other. They agree to remain friends, but afterwards Jerry finds Mary distraught.
The next morning, Jerry tells Sam that Jack has been out all night. They find Daisy waiting in reception and insult her. Back in their room, Jerry and the others try to persuade Jack to stay away from Daisy, but he reveals that they got married that morning.
In the off-season, Daisy accompanies Jack and Jerry on tour, but there are gossip column reports of friction in the dressing room. Daisy is trying to persuade Jack to include her in the act. Meanwhile, Jack is impervious to how much Jerry and Daisy hate each other. The ball team and Mary are in the audience that evening, and are meeting Jerry at the hotel afterwards. Daisy says she and Jack cannot join them, because they are going to another party where a big booker will be present, but Jack persuades Daisy to go alone.
Daisy is trying to get bookings for herself and Jack as a double act, but Jack is feeling guilty about Jerry and about his plan to give up baseball [Dougherty Is the Name; I’m an Old-Fashioned Guy]. In the audience, Tim shouts for them to sing ‘Mary’, until Sam forces him to stop. [Harlem Madness].
At Jerry’s party, Mary gives him and Jack their contract for next season. Jack and Mary are awkward together, while Jerry torments Daisy when she calls to speak to Jack. Sam and Tim try out their new double act, ending when Sam accidentally knocks out Tim with a candlestick.
Van and Schenck recreat their stage act
Daisy arrives, but Jerry has told the house detective not to let her in. She sneaks in anyway and tells Jerry and the others that Jack is through with baseball and that they are throwing Jerry out of the act. When Jack shows signs of weakening, Daisy tells him that Jerry made a play for her before they were married and has been pestering her ever since. Jack punches Jerry and leaves with Daisy. Mary comforts Jerry.
Later, the Blue Sox are on a winning streak, largely owing to Jerry’s pitching. A bottle is thrown at Jerry during a match, and Jack, who is in the crowd, punches the offender and is reunited with Jerry. Afterwards, Jack tells Jerry and Mary that his new act has not been doing well, then finally confesses that Daisy has left him and he has not worked for months. Jerry says Jack can come back to the team and goes to speak to Brennan. Jack tells Mary that he has never really loved anyone but her, and she tells him that she is going to marry Jerry. Jack tells her to forget what he said.
Later, the Blue Sox are to play in the World Series. Jack is back on the team, but is not pitching well and is benched after the Blue Sox lose their first game. Jerry realizes that Jack is still in love with Mary. At the deciding game, the Blue Sox are trailing badly. During a break for rain, Jerry tells Brennan he should play Jack, and he tells Jack that he cannot go through with his marriage to Mary. Jack confesses that he still loves her, which is why he has been playing badly. When play resumes, Brennan sends Jack on to pitch and he throws well. When the Blue Sox are put in to bat, Jack is hit in the head by the ball. But he plays on and Jerry hits a home run, winning the game. Jack collapses and comes to in Mary’s arms. She tries to pull away from his embrace, Jerry selflessly indicates that everything is all right.
Bessie Love (1898-1986) was given her start in films by D W Griffith in 1915 and enjoyed a successful dramatic career in silent cinema. By the late twenties her film career was in decline and she spent time touring on the musical stage. This led to a part in Warners’ musical short The Swell Head (1928), which in turn secured her a contract with Metro.
Her role as Hank in The Broadway Melody won her a nomination for Best Actress and is the film’s standout performance. As well as appearing in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, Love went on to star in three more Metro musicals: Chasing Rainbows (which reteamed her with Broadway Melody’s Charles King); They Learned About Women; and the 1930 version of Good News.
The 1931-32 moratorium on musicals brought this stage of Love’s career to a halt and she went into semi-retirement before relocating to the UK in 1935, where she lived out a long life as a notable supporting player in television and films.
