Hollywood Rhythm Vol. 02 - The Best of Big Bands & Swing

Format : Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Publisher : Kino Video
Company : Kino International
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Features

BEST OF BIG BANDS & SWING, THE (DVD MOVIE)

Product Description

During the "Dawn of Sound," musical short subjects were the hors d'oeuvre before the main feature, and an effective means for the studio to test their freshly signed talent in front of the camera. Aggressively pursuing the top singers, songwriters, and musicians of Tin Pan Alley, Paramount's roster of contract players was composed of some of the top names in the world of entertainment. Cary Grant makes his film debut as a sailor cruising the Far East in search of whoopee in Singapore Sue. Artie Shaw presents a master class in the elements of swing-band construction (Artie Shaw's Class In Swing). A very young Bing Crosby croons three ballads in Dream House, a comedy musical directed by slapstick impresario Mack Sennett. This collection showcases several top female vocalists, including Ethel Merman (Her Future), Ruth Etting (Favorite Melodies) and Lillian Roth (Meet The Boyfriend). There's also a two-edged homage to that icon of thirties naughtiness, Betty Boop, with appearances by Betty's prototype, "Boop-a-Doop Girl" Helen Kane (A Lesson In Love), and Betty's actual voice, Mae Questel (Musical Doctor, in which Dr. Rudy Vallee finds musical deficiencies to be the root of all ills). Perhaps the gem of this collection, however, is Office Blues, in which a pre-Astaire and pre-stardom Ginger Rogers cavorts with Broadway chorines in an Art Deco extravaganza. With artists like these on the bill, it's clear that the short subject -- not the feature -- was often the highlight of the program!

Amazon.com

The musical shorts collected on Hollywood Rhythm: The Best of Big Bands and Swing (Vol. 2) are delightful, but purists may note that these pieces only occasionally intersect with either big band or swing music. "Artie Shaw's Class in Swing," which deconstructs the elements of the big band sound, qualifies on both counts. What really comes shining through on this collection is the sheer weirdness of early-sound short films, caught somewhere between the slapstick of silent comedy and the music video of the future. How else to explain 1932's "The Musical Doctor," a surreal vehicle for Rudy Vallee, in which the 1920s crooner plays a physician prescribing music for health?

Some great stars are seen early in their careers, including Bing Crosby doing one of his signature tunes, "Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day." Der Bingle, who had not yet relaxed into the casual screen persona that made him one of the biggest movie stars of the mid-century, also dons blackface for an uncomfortable sequence in "Dream House" (1932). Cary Grant gives perhaps the worst performance of his marvelous career in support of Anna Chang (and "Pickard's Chinese Syncopators") in "Singapore Sue" (1931), and Ginger Rogers is fun in "Office Blues" (1932), although she does most of her singing stuck behind a desk. She's a secretary trying to land her shy boss ("I like to urge a man, but he's like a clergyman"). The DVD bonus tracks include less inspired musical one-offs featuring the likes of Tallulah Bankhead and Maurice Chevalier. --Robert Horton

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