Heavenly Music

No, it's not the cornpone country music sung and performed by Gene Kelly, Phil Silvers and a bunch of dogs in SUMMER STOCK. It's advertising crooner Fred Brady being met at the Pearly Gates by a disapproving Eric Blore. He's directed to the Hall of Music. There he must prove himself worthy on an odeon stage covered with cotton wool before a committee of 19th Century Romantic composers headed by Beethoven.

No Haydn, no Mozrt, no Scarlatti. It seems that great art is always the art of two generations ago, isn't it? Especially when you listen to Baroque works like the Surprise Symphony and hear "Pop Goes the Weasel." With only seven notes in the scale, as Mr. Brady points out -- and demonstrates -- everyone steals from everyone else. It ain't where you got it, it's what you do with it.

Heavenly Music (1943)

** (out of 4)

This two-reel short from MGM actually won an Oscar but the end result, to me, didn't deserve the honor. Bandleader Ted Barry dies and gets the honor of going to Heaven where some famous musicians are waiting. Once there the musician has to go in front of some of the greatest musicians in history, including Beethoven, to decide if he belongs among them. This is a decent short but I'm still scratching my head as to why this was voted Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). The music is decent at best. The performances decent at best. Even the characters are only decent at best. The best moments are some rather campy ones with Beethoven but these aren't enough to make it a complete winner. Barry's voice wasn't overly impressive to me nor was his acting skills.

I just caught this movie today on Turner Classic, and it's very sweet - but most noteworthy is the leading man, who's a ringer for the young Bill Clinton (and, this being 1943, with a much better haircut than Bill ever had in the '70s). It's also an eye-opener for anyone who thinks the 1940s were an era of servile deference to the Dead White Euroguys of cultural history; our young bandleader is polite, but he argues tough with the millennium's heavyweight composers, and he scores his points. Recommended.

This short film is included as a special feature with the Judy Garland film "Introducing Lily Mars". Like so many MGM releases, a couple of shorts that debuted the same year as the feature are included--this one and a cartoon.

Aside from Eric Blore (who is wonderful as always), the actors and actresses in this one are minor MGM actors who are pretty much unknowns today. The idea back then was to try out short films with potential stars and give them a chance to show their stuff. While Frederick Brady sang nicely, apparently he didn't connect with the audiences and mostly played minor roles during his career.

The film begins in Heaven. Brady stands before the pearly gates and is met by Blore. He is then introduced to some very famous composers like Tchaikovsky and Beethoven--as Brady is a musician himself. They want him to sing--and when he does, it doesn't seem like the singing is coming from him (he could have improved his lip syncing a bit). The old time composers are angered, as they hear parts of their music in Brady's compositions--and he then goes on to say that ALL music bears similarities to each other--as the room breaks into an argument. Can they work out their differences and let him join their ranks? How about if a cute angel helps give him inspiration? Overall, this is a decent time-passer. While it's chock full of music, the plot makes it more palatable. Plus although he has trouble keeping his lips in sync, Brady did have a lovely voice.

By the way, if this is Heaven, why does Beethoven STILL have a problem with deafness? Can't they fix something like that?!

I'll leave others to speculate on how this short won the Oscar in its category -- though I suspect it stood out from the more physical comedies and the war-oriented short subjects that were likely all too common at the time, and was an entertaining and slightly wistful reminder of what Hollywood aimed at when it aimed high in the years before Hitler came to power.

I do wonder, watching it anew, however, if it was from this short that Steve Allen got the idea for his series "Meeting Of Minds," in which actors playing historical figures would meet in a "Firing Line"-type setting and argue their differences, because there is some of that going on in the fanciful plot of this film, and it almost looks like it could have been the pilot for the Allen series. (Oh, and as to another reviewer's contention that the authors of this script cribbed their plot from "Carousel," that reviewer ought to check his dates).

All of the music is good listening, and the portrayals are entertaining, and it is interesting that, in the middle of World War II, the producers allowed the portrayal of Richard Wagner (whose music was embraced by Hitler personally, and his regime) to have as much prominence as it does here. (Of course, in a later time, someone might have insisted that there be a representation of Gustav Mahler, and perhaps that Mendelssohn be portrayed, as well -- then the sparks could have flown between the three).

But this is fun viewing, and worth 12 minutes of your time.