Cheer Up and Smile is a perfect musical fare for a lanky, pre-Dagwood Arthur Lake. Spurned by college girlfriend Dixie Lee, Lake heads to Hollywood to try his luck in show business. When popular radio singer “Whispering” Jack Smith is knocked unconscious by robbers, squeaky voiced Lake becomes the overnight sensation of the airwaves. Enter Dixie Lee to reclaim Arthur, only to become dubious when she is led to believe he is having an affair with steamy temptress Olga Baclanova.
In stark contrast to the tongue-tied, bumbling Lake, the fraternity initiation scene is all but stolen by the film's confident, no nonsense, un-credited 23-year-old former USC footballer named Marion Morrison. This was the last film that Morrison would work on as a prop man and bit player. By the time Cheer Up and Smile was released, Morrison, now known as John Wayne, was seeing America first, touring the Grand Tetons and Zion National Park as the star of Fox's 70mm Grandeur epic Western, The Big Trail (1930). —Miki Shannon
35mm, b/w, 76 min. Director: Sidney Lanfield. Production: Fox Film Corporation. Distribution: Fox Film Corporation. Producer: William Fox. Adaptation: Howard J. Green. Based on the story: “If I Was Alone With You” by Richard Connell. Cinematographer: Joseph A. Valentine. Editor: Ralph Dietrich. Cast: Arthur Lake, Dixie Lee, “Whispering” Jack Smith, Olga Baclanova, Charles Judels.
Restored from a 35mm single-system nitrate workprint. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Film Technology Company, Audio Mechanics, Simon Daniel Sound, DJ Audio, Inc.
