In the original poster for It All Came True, Ann Sheridan receives top billing. It was the same in the original opening credits. Humphrey Bogart came third, just behind costar Jeffrey Lynn. The film was made in 1940. A year later Bogart would star in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, becoming one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood for the next decade and a half. Subsequent re-releases of the film put Bogart’s name front and center on the posters, and they even changed the opening credits so that his name comes first.
Buy It All Came True from MovieZyngIt is an understandable but completely boneheaded move as this is utterly Ann Sheridan’s movie. Bogart is still in his second-string gangster phase, though clearly his star was on the rise. But the movie doesn’t seem to know what to do with him.
Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn) has spent the last five years roaming the country, playing piano in gin joints and anywhere else that will let him, all the while writing songs in the hopes of becoming famous. He’s spent the last several months working for notorious gangster Chips Maguire (Bogart) who keeps promising him he’ll help sell his songs. When Chip’s place is raided by the police, he subsequently kills a man. But Chips has a plan. Previously, Chips made Tommy register a gun in his name, and it was that gun Chips used to kill the guy, so now Chips has Tommy over a barrel.
He forces Tommy to take him to the boarding house run by his mother, Nora (Jessie Busley), and her longtime-friend Maggie (Una O’Connor). Maggie’s daughter, Sarah Jane (Sheridan), has just returned home after a stint trying to be a showgirl. She’s brash and open-minded, and she’s not afraid to say what she thinks.
Sarah and Tommy once had a thing for each other, but that broke off when he left town. They are both still in love with each other, but neither will admit it. Chips pretends to be a guy named Grasselli who is recovering from a nervous condition, which allows him to stay in his room, far away from prying eyes. Turns out Sarah also knows Chips from her days as a showgirl. She threatens to turn him in, but when he lets her know Tommy will go down with him, she changes her mind.
That’s a pretty good setup for a film. But the film has little interest in it. Instead, it wants to be a musical variety act. The other boarders are a group of elderly misfits, including an old magician who calls himself the Great Boldini (Felix Bressart) and an old maid , Miss Fling (Zasu Pitts), who lives in constant fear that some man is following her home.
Sarah talks Chips/Grasselli into coming down one night to watch the guest put on a little entertainment. Someone reads some terrible poetry, the Great Boldini performs some magic tricks so poorly it becomes a comedy act, and Tommy plays while Sarah sings. Grasselli likes it so much he talks everybody into turning the boarding house into a nightclub. It all ends with a big performance at the newly renovated club. Meanwhile, the two old ladies have been treating Graselli like they were the mothers he never really had, which softens his heart enough to let Tommy go.
That’s probably a spoiler, but not much of one. This film truly has little interest in creating any tension between Tommy, Chips, and Sarah. This is very much light entertainment. I mostly didn’t mind. The songs and performances were a lot of fun. Ann Sheridan shines and Zasu Pitts is hilarious. The few moments that they do push the gangster angle on us feel a little disjointed with the rest of the film, but otherwise it is a lot of silly fun with music and magic.
Buy It All Came True from AmazonWarner Archive presents It All Came True with a new 4K scan or the original negatives. Extras include two animated shorts, “Circus Today” and “The Sour Puss,” plus several trailers.
