Swing Your Lady (1938)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) The passage of time can be kind or cruel to some movies, often depending on later events that are completely outside the intent, scope or effect of the film itself. In Swing Your Lady’s case, you can certainly make a case that the film’s upbeat, comic title would be entirely unacceptable in a more egalitarian society. But that would be missing the film’s most hilariously passé element—Humphrey Bogart as a fast-talking wrestling promoter in a southern small town, in the middle of a trifling romantic comedy. What. A. Difference. From his later screen persona—but then again, Bogart aficionados know that late-1930s Bogart was still finding his niche, and Warner Brothers was using him badly—no longer really trying him in completely unsuitable roles, but getting value out of his contract by throwing him in wildly different films. (Hence The Return of Doctor X the following year.)  Much of the comedy in watching Bogart in Swing Your Lady (a title more about wrestling than dancing) is seeing Bogart out of his element and still trying to do his best to make a humdrum film come alive. (As a bonus, Ronald Reagan also has a small role here, plus a few wrestling figures of the time.)  Surprisingly enough, the film is as more progressive than its now-troublesome title suggests—much of its plot revolves around a physically strong woman blacksmith courted both professionally to become a wrestler, but also romantically by two men attracted to her: a far cry from the usual physically frail heroines in Classic Hollywood movies. (What’s more, the male lead abandons his professional wrestling ambitions in the final minutes of the film, to take up the blacksmithing business with his now-wife. A few troublesome details aside, that’s not too bad for female agency and representation.)  Still, let’s not go overboard: Swing Your Lady is interesting, but it’s not necessarily all that good: much of its comic value now comes from a wholly miscast actor gamely trying to be professional about it. But I’ll take it: entertainment is entertainment, even if it’s not what the filmmakers intended.