Many thanks to Kevin Maroney for finding a Youtube clip of the Buddy Ebsen/Vilma Ebsen/Eleanor Powell dance number Sing Before Breakfast!
The clip includes all the dancing and singing, but does have a couple of cuts: first, the clip starts with the two Ebsens silhouetted through a window, dancing. In the movie we then see Eleanor Powell in the room below doing the goofiest overacted reaction shots. Imagine an actor in a silent movie emoting "What is that sound up there? Where? There! It's someone dancing! I must go dance with them!!" and you've got the idea.
The clip skips all that (no big loss to the dance number, but it cracks me up so I was sorry not to see it) and jumps to the beginning of the dancing. Which in the movie is broken into two parts, with a few minutes of dialogue in between. Powell introduces herself to the Ebsens, some exposition that moves the plot along, and a few gags. Almost all the dialogue is cut from the clip, which jumps right to the continuation of the song and dance. Again, it was probably good to cut it, but I was sad to see it go as it included some funny lines from Buddy Ebsen. My favorite is when he spills the salt and Powell asks him if he isn't going to throw some over his shoulder. He replies "Naaah, I throw it over my eggs!" Another good line is "We like to eat breakfast at noon -- saves money on lunch!"
The Youtube clip also includes some extra stuff at the beginning and end: pictures of promotional posters for the movie, and the birth and death dates for the Ebsens. I hadn't realized that Vilma Ebsen died just this year. I think I read that she and her brother Buddy were a vaudeville team and broke into movies together, but she retired soon after Broadway Melody of 1936.
Post a comment