Ding Dong Williams

This is a 1946 movie about music that was current then but it doesn't seem dated.

Felix Bressart as the only recognizable performer is not a good sign, at all; but this is sweet and it's fun and has something for anyone who likes music.

We have jazz. We have country and western. And we have a child playing concert piano.

None is looked down on in a smirking fashion, though jazz is the star of this slight, appealing movie.

This unusual RKO musical comedy stars Glenn Vernon as a young jazzbo whose inability to read and write music almost loses him a lucrative gig at Sunrise Studios, one of the top movie makers in Hollywood. He's hired by dotty music department head Felix Brussart, whose Old World musical compositions are no longer sufficiently hip for the studio bosses. Young Marcy McGuire introduces him to Ding Dong, whose Gershwin-like stylings would seem to be just what the producers ordered--until they learn the young prodigy is a musical illiterate. Bearing a 1945 copyright date, Ding Dong Williams is the earliest film I've seen that incorporates the colloquialism 'groovy' in its dialogue. Filled with interesting character actors and odd cameos (including future Hideous Sun Demon Robert Clarke and real life musical director Bakaleinikoff), this is a mildly diverting oddity that will mostly appeal to fans of second features.

Thank goodness TCM is around to show these little wonders. Movies like this hardly ever see the light of day, and when you DO see them, they can really drop your jaw. With Ding Dong Williams it's like someone took a blunderbuss, stuffed it with 10 rejected scripts, and fired it at a caged screenwriter. The result is mesmerizing.

Most movies pick a theme and go with it, no matter how bad that theme might be. This is more like movie-making improv. The female lead seems to be trying to channel Judy Garland, and the musical numbers appear to be fighting with one another for screen time. With lines like, "Zing and Zang are here to write down what Ding Dong plays", the editor apparently snuck out of the production early on. Zany does not describe the "comedy" correctly. Stupifying is a better word.

This movie is not particularly offensive, but I can't imagine why anyone made it. But again, even the most obscure movie is represented on IMDb, although this is the first one I've seen here that has no foreign voters at all.

Much like a car wreck, Ding Dong Williams is a mess, but it's hard to look away from the carnage.

Director Kenmore is in trouble because his latest film has no musical score. Never fear, enter Angela, the daughter of the man in charge of the musical department of the studio. She has fallen in love with the music of a young clarinetist, Ding Dong Williams, who she thinks is a genius creating his own melodies. The only problem is, Ding Dong has no idea what notes to put on paper because he is not professionally trained to write music that way. Everythng he plays comes from memory.

Angela gets Ding Dong to come to the studio, where he is surprised to see some of his idols, like Steve Moore, the cowboy star, and other favorites. Angela gets an idea to engage two talented guys in the studio who can transcribe to paper Ding Dong Williams' compositions, something better said than done. Getting Ding Dong in the right mood, and or, in a quiet place where he can play becomes the biggest challenge Zang and Zing have ever encountered in their lives.

This RKO "feel good" comedy of 1946, came out following WWII, as audiences wanted to be entertained, which is the sole purpose of this comedy with music. Directed by William Berke, it has some good performances by the perky Marcy McGuire, who is seen as Angela, and Glen Verdon, a talented musician. Also in the film we see Felix Bressart, James Warren, Anne Jeffreys, the funny Tommy Noonan and Cliff Nazarro, as Zang and Zing, the music transcribers, Ruth Lee and Jason Robards Sr.

There is a great rendition of "Cool Water" by James Warren and his cowboy friends. Also the child prodigy, pianist Richard Korbel, appears playing the first movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto, and excerpts from Beethoven and Chopin's Fantasy-Impromptu with great flair.

"Ding Dong Williams" must be one of the most wrong-headed titles in film history. After all, I am sure many, many folks stayed away from theaters when they saw such a stupid title. It's sad, because the film certainly is better than the title....it just HAD to be!!

Hugo Meyerheld (Felix Bressart) is a musician who works for a movie studio. However, his skills are a bit limited and old fashioned...and if he cannot come up with some hip music for one of the films, he's out of a job. Fortunately, his secretary knows of a young musician whose music is original and very hip....and Ding Dong Williams is hired! There are some problems with this (apart from his stupid name)...he cannot write nor read music...and he's never written down anything he and his band played! How's Ding Dong going to make it in Hollywood?

This film is a great example of a movie that works pretty well because the acting is so nice...as well as the music. I normally don't love a lot of music in movies, but Ding Dong's playing AND the wonderful Edvard Grieg piece played by a VERY precocious child is terrific (though the Chopin piece WITH Ding Dong was not particularly enjoyable). As far as the plot goes....it's decent and worth seeing. And, at least for me, I like ANY movie featuring Felix Bressart...he's a character actor who is just charming in everything.