Just Imagine

Maureen O'Sullivan and John Garrick

David Butler's Just Imagine is a justly neglected science fiction film from 1930.  The film is set in the far off future of 1980 in a world in which planes are the primary vehicles and numbers have replaced names. Marriage is dictated by the state which provides what little plot the film has. Lovebirds Maureen O'Sullivan (as LN-18) and John Garrick (as J-21) can't get a marriage license from the Politburo, so Garrick flies off to Mars to earn enough brownie points to wed his lady love. There, he encounters a planet of doppelgängers who alternately coddle and bruise him. There is also a refugee from 1930, played by vaudeville star El Johnson who specialized in ethnic (Swedish) humor, who is monikered 0 and serves no real purpose except to provide comic relief. Oh, as if things weren't bonky enough, there are musical numbers.

Joyzelle Joyner and John Garrick on Mars

The picture has the searing impact of a burlesque revue with jokes about the Volstead act included. The sets and costumes are endearingly gaga. The men's suits in the film's 1980 resemble maitre d's outfits at a French restaurant in Vegas. The tony dwellings of 1980 resemble the Art Deco look of the 20s and early 30s. Butler is a curiously lightweight director who was able to carve out a steady career in Hollywood despite helming a number of disasters like this one. He is able to create a few bold and startling images, Ms. O'Sullivan in close-up superimposed upon the surface of the earth or a passel of nekkid chorines (Pre-Code, baby) shimmying before their pagan idol, but the film doesn't really hold together. It resembles a night of vaudeville, alternating between comic and musical numbers. Neither Garrick nor Johnson were able to make much of an impact in their film careers and soon returned to the stage. I've never seen Ms. O'Sullivan look more beautiful, but she, like Garrick, gives a largely inane and callow performance. The second bananas, Marjorie White and Frank Albertson, fare much better. Ms. White was to die prematurely and tragically of an auto accident in 1935.

I would have enjoyed the film more if the songs had been better. The team of Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson were responsible for both the songs and the flimsy screenplay. They wrote some classic songs, like Bye Bye Blackbird, Has Anybody Seen My Gal ? and You're the Cream in My Coffee, but inspiration was lacking on this one. Most of the songs are light ballads designed for Garrick's tenor voice. They seem like knock-offs of the work of Sigmund Romberg, known for operettas like The Desert Song and The New Moon. Indeed, the drinking song in Just Imagine seems like a direct rip from the drinking song in Romberg's The Student Prince. Only the White and Albertson number, Never Swat a Fly, has any razzmatazz. Just Imagine is streaming on Tubi, if you are in the mood for a real Hollywood hallucination.