Swing Your Lady

{{Infobox film

| image = Swing Your Lady FilmPoster.jpeg

| alt =

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = Ray Enright

| producer = Samuel Bischoff

| based_on = {{based on|Swing Your Lady
1936 play|Kenyon Nicholson
Charles Robinson}}

| screenplay = Joseph Schrank
Maurice Leo

| starring = Humphrey Bogart
Frank McHugh
Louise Fazenda
Nat Pendleton
Penny Singleton
Allen Jenkins
Ronald Reagan

| music = Adolph Deutsch

| cinematography = Arthur Edeson

| editing = Jack Killifer

| released = {{film date|1938|1|8}}

| runtime = 77 minutes

| country = United States

| language = English

| studio = Warner Bros.

| budget =

| gross =

}}

Swing Your Lady is a 1938 American country musical comedy film directed by Ray Enright, starring Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh, and Louise Fazenda. Ronald Reagan is also in the cast in one of his early roles. Brunette singer Penny Singleton who was also cast was about to turn blonde and embark on a long, hugely successful career playing the iconic comic strip character Blondie in a series of 28 films and a popular radio show.

Swing Your Lady features the first film performance by the Weaver Brothers and Elviry, a comedy troupe better known as The Arkansas TravelersNot to be confused with Bob Burns' Arkansas Traveler during their many years in vaudeville and on the Grand Ole Opry radio show.{{Cite web |title=Down in "Arkansaw" |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/73534/down-in-arkansaw |access-date=2022-09-10 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}} Following this performance, the trio was picked up by Republic Pictures for Down in Arkansas, the first in what was to be a series of 11 comedy films for the studio.{{cite book |last1=Austin |first1=Wade |title=The South and Film |date=1981 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=0-87805-148-1 |pages=86–87 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/southfilm0000unse/page/86/mode/2up |access-date=3 January 2021 |chapter=The Real Beverly Hillbillies}}

Plot

Promoter Ed Hatch comes to the Ozarks with his slow-witted wrestler Joe Skopapoulos whom he pits against a hillbilly Amazon blacksmith, Sadie Horn. Joe falls in love with her and won't fight, at least not until Sadie's beau, Noah, shows up. Love triumphs, despite Ed's machinations, and after defeating Noah, Joe passes on a bout at Madison Square Garden to marry Sadie and take over the blacksmith's shop, while Noah rides away with Ed and his crew.

Cast

Actor/Actress \|\| Role
class="wikitable"
Humphrey Bogart	Ed Hatch
Frank McHugh	Popeye Bronson
Louise Fazenda	Sadie Horn
Nat Pendleton	Joe Skopapolous
Penny Singleton	Cookie Shannon
Allen Jenkins	Shiner Ward
Leon Weaver	Waldo Davis
Frank Weaver	Ollie Davis
June Weaver	Mrs. Davis (as Elviry Weaver)
Ronald Reagan	Jack Miller
Daniel Boone Savage	Noah Webster
Hugh O'Connell	Smith
Tommy Bupp	Rufe Horn
Sonny Bupp	Len Horn (as Sunny Bupp)
Joan Howard	Mattie Horn
Sue Moore	Mabel
Olin Howland	Hotel Proprietor
Sammy White	Specialty Dancer

Production

The film featured Daniel Boone Savage, a professional wrestler, making his film debut and Nat Pendleton, a former Olympic and professional wrestler.{{Cite web |title=Swing Your Lady |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/441/swing-your-lady |access-date=2022-09-10 |website=Turner Classic Movies |language=en}}

Reception

Bogart was apparently becoming very disenchanted with the film roles that Warner Bros. was offering him at this stage of his career; the following year he appeared in his only horror/sci-fi film, The Return of Doctor X, and these were two roles he never liked talking about when he became a major film star several years later; he considered his performance in Swing Your Lady the worst of his career.{{cite book|last=Shipman|first=David|author-link=David Shipman (writer)|title=The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years|location=London|publisher=Macdonald|year=1989|edition=3rd|page=68}}Audio commentary by Eric Lax for Disc One of the 2006 three-disc DVD special edition of The Maltese Falcon.

Swing Your Lady is listed in the 1978 book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time.