The Go-Getter (1937)

(On Cable TV, December 2022) There’s a refreshing undercurrent of can-do optimism at play in The Go-Getter, a romantic comedy featuring an indefatigable veteran whose positive attitude is ready to take on disability, an unfavourable hiring environment, an eccentric millionaire and the heart of the millionaire’s daughter. George Brent plays the ever-sunny protagonist, while Anita Louise is the romantic interest and Charles Winninger apparently has a lot of fun as a retiree so rich he’s become benevolently capricious. Various obstacles are thrown in the protagonist’s way, but they don’t matter: he still finds a way to triumph over them all. Directed by Busby Berkeley, The Go-Getter is not a musical—anyone looking for his signature lavish choreography will be disappointed. But as a light-weight romantic comedy, it breezes along smoothly. What may not be so successful is the film’s refusal to go all-out on the comedy: Despite the kind of protagonist and idle rich character designed for laughs, this film remains comfortably within the realm of the plausible—although the blue vase episode gets close to outright comic mayhem. Maybe the film could have benefited from a more farcical rewrite, or maybe it would have destroyed the delicate balance at play here. (Or maybe Berkeley wouldn’t have known what to do with a more slapstick project.)  Still, it’s watchable enough: neither Brent nor Louise strike me as the best possible choices in their roles, but they are competent, and that’s probably all we could ask for a B-movie of the time.