Carolina Blues

The best part of "Carolina Blues" is the title music, a very swinging instrumental of "There Goes That Song Again", ending with a close-up of Kay conducting his band. Story line is not all that compelling, and Victor Moore's comedic contributions are many and mostly ineffective(however, he WAS pushing 70 at the time, so the physical bit he tries to do, I'm sure, was quite difficult). A plus is the several accurate references to Kay's hometown of Rocky Mount and surrounding areas, along with playing a show in a local tobacco warehouse. In eastern North Carolina, on the too-rare occasion that a big band did come to town, tobacco warehouses were just about the only facilities big enough to host their dances. According to Steven Beasley's new book on Kay, Kyser himself did play a date at a tobacco warehouse in Rocky Mount, 4 years earlier, as part of that town hosting the world premiere of his first movie, "That's Right, You're Wrong". So, there is a bit of a thrill for this eastern Nawth Cahlinian in hearing places and things from our neck of the woods mentioned in a movie.

A big band goes through shenanigans trying to raise money for WWII bonds.

Typical wartime musical on a B-budget. There's lots of bounce with engaging performers, but I could have used a better distribution of musical numbers. Mainly they're bunched into one segment, while the rest is taken up with storyline. The nimble-footed Step Bros., however, have to be seen to be believed. Plus, Ann Miller sings and dancers her way into our collective heart, along with a gorgeous Georgia Carroll.

Kyser may have been a big band conductor, but he's quite a good actor, even comedic one. Then there's Victor Moore in multiple curmudgeonly parts, and Ish Kabibble looking like a handsomer version of the Three Stooges. Put them all together, and the 'gang' comes up with enough war- bonds to finance a new navy cruiser. I guess those were the days when we actually paid up front for our wars. Anyhow, it's nothing special, just a light-hearted look at America pulling together during the Big One, with a few lively tunes thrown in.

Decent Kay Kyser vehicle with some fun performances. As is usually the case with Kyser films, he's not the most appealing part of the picture. Here we have a young Ann Miller with Victor Moore as her dad offering good support, an extremely talented group of black performers who put on a show-stealing number in the middle of the film, and the criminally underrated Jeff Donnell who is so full of personality in all her scenes I kept wishing she was the star. Also in the mix is Kyser's usual cast of characters - Ish Kabibble and the rest. They're ok. Several big positives for this one. What keeps it from being more highly rated is that the story is very old hat and it goes on about ten minutes too long. Still, worth a gander for fans of the period.

Kay Kyser had many top-selling recordings, but his Kollege of Musical Knowledge show, both live and on the radio, was more of a floor show than the performances of other swing bands and orchestras. His show is, of course, incorporated into this film. So in that respect, the film bears resemblance to other films in which Kyser appeared.

The extra bonus is the addition of sweet and lovely Ann Miller to the cast. Unfortunately, her one and only dance performance is butchered by cutaway shots and editing, so that about half is gone. You can only faintly hear the singing and tapping in the background.

What's left, however, is still pure Miller magic. Nobody else was such a machine-gun on feet.

Out of the 7 feature films starring Big Bandleader Kay Kyser, i rate this one dead last. I hate to say it, as I've commented on other Kyser films, and am a BIG Kyser enthusiast, but this, his one film for Columbia, and as it turned out, his last feature, is just embarrassing. It wasn't his fault. It was that Columbia had NO idea what to do with him. Kyser started w/ RKO in '39, did 5 features there, and was very successful. Then one for MGM, SWING FEVER, which was not very good, but better than this. But i digress...I don't know if it's just my 16mm transfer to vhs, but the production values seem cheap, as in dark lighting. The great band doesn't get enough to do, and though Ann Miller is good, comic relief Victor Moore practically chews the scenery. In a scene in a taxi, you can see Kyser mouth the other actor's line as he delivers it. The first 3 Kyser films are priceless in my book, as the freshness and heart are so very apparent. But this really drags. Thank God Ish Kabibble (Merwyn Bogue)is in fine, dumb-as-a-brick form.