Swingtime in the Movies

Director Nitvitch has a leading lady with a speech impairment. He goes to the studio canteen and finds it filled with talent. Waitress Joan Mason becomes his new leading lady in the western musical.

It's a WB color short. It's a slice of Hollywood and that's fascinating. I don't recognize any of the main actors. They're fine. There are some familiar faces in the background. It was nominated for an Oscar. While technically good, there isn't anything superior in this.

This almost half and hour two reel short subject could almost qualify as as a mini-musical with several numbers by songwriters M.K.Jerome and Jack Scholl. The film is a movie with a short as director Fritz Feld tries desperately to finish a western he's directing and replace his less than talented leading lady Helen Lynd who just can't quite master a mushmouth Southern accent.

Feld finds his new leading lady in the Warner Brothers studio cafeteria among the servers in the person of Katherine Kane. The highlight of the short is the break for lunch in the cafeteria where the servers do a number and the camera pans to several of the Warner Brothers stars taking a break.

As this film was done in color it rather than some of the feature for these stars might well be considered their respective color debuts.

Fritz Feld and assistant Charley Foy provide a lot of laughs. It's a worthwhile short subject and worthy of the Academy Award nomination it got in that category.

A Warner Bros. treat, filmed in bright Technicolor, SWINGTIME IN THE MOVIES is a breezy short subject the studio obviously used to demonstrate its skillful handling of color photography in the year that produced THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD ('38).

FRITZ FELD is the irate director with a language problem--and obviously doing a take-off of Warner's director Michael Curtiz who used to fracture the English language ("Bring on the Empty Horses").

JOHN CARROLL gets a chance to demonstrate his rich baritone voice with some forgettable song numbers and KATHRYN KANE is the waitress who is discovered in the studio commissary when director Feld wants to find a girl with a Southern accent for his latest western.

A few Warner stars are seen in the commissary having lunch: HUMPHREY BOGART, PAT O'BRIEN and JOHN GARFIELD--in what may well be their debut in Technicolor.

Lots of fun.

Swingtime in the Movies (1938)

*** (out of 4)

A "behind the scenes" short from Warner has a musical director (Fritz Feld) being disappointed in his leading lady who can't quite get her Southern accent down. He eventually finds a lady (Kathryn Kane) working in the cafeteria who is from Texas and is just right for the part. The "story" side of this film is mildly entertaining but the real reason to watch is for an early sequence inside the Warner cafeteria where some of their biggest stars are show. We get to see Pat O'Brien, George Brent, John Garfield, Prescilla and Rosemary Lane and a funny sequence with Humphrey Bogart keeping the "Dead End Kids" in line. It's worth noting that this short was also Garfield's only Technicolor film so that's reason enough alone to check it out. These stars are the main reason to see this film but there are plenty of other good moments and that includes the music numbers. The big production inside the cafeteria is certainly the best one but all of them are worth listening to. Kane herself makes for a nice leading lady and really delivers a fun performance making her character quite likable and memorable.

Academy-award nominated Short Subject. It's about director Nivitch (Fritz Feld) trying to shoot a Western but having nothing but trouble. He needs a girl with a Southern accent...and finds one working as a waitress in the studio restaurant. You can write the rest yourself.

This sounds pretty terrible but it's amusing. It's shot in Technicolor and has some pretty good songs and dances--the dances especially are designed to take advantage of the color. The acting is just OK--Kathryn Kane and Jerry Colonna are the leads. There are also some cameos from Warner Brothers stars in the restaurant. Among them, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien--all in color and smiling for the cameras!

Nothing great but fun. Worth seeing.