AllMovie

Wonder Bar is one of the strangest of Hollywood's early musicals. A backstager, Wonder Bar is much less concerned with getting a show on than with cataloguing the sexual desires of its ensemble cast -- sometimes with humor, sometimes with drama. There's a refreshing frankness and even a lurid quality to much of the goings-on, surprising for the era, which gives the film a distinctive tone. Busby Berkeley has a grand time with the "Don't Say Good Night" sequence, which grows from a duet between Dolores Del Rio and Ricardo Cortez to a group number involved white clad and black masked revelers moving betwixt shifting white columns, leading up to a climax involving mirrors that is quite breathtaking. Unfortunately, Berkeley is also at least partially responsible for the notorious "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" number, considered by many as the most offensive sequence in musical film history. Another of Jolson's blackface routines, it features practically every possible racial stereotype, including a giant watermelon upon which Hal LeRoy performs his taps. Much more interesting (and better) is the masochistic tango danced by Del Rio and Cortez, a powerful number with a whipping sequence that is truly disturbing. Aside from the "Mule" number, Jolson is good here, fitting into the ensemble surprisingly well while still retaining his bravado, and Del Rio and Cortez are a fascinating couple. Bacon's direction is solid, with some inventive editing and camera angles. In spite of "Mule," Wonder Bar is an absorbing musical melodrama with some exceptional sequences.