Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica School

I've enjoyed some pretty strange musical novelty acts over the years, from the South Minneapolis Bassoon Quartet to Peter Schickele's annual presentation of P.D.Q. Bach, but this short about an all-harmonica orchestra, is a pip! Dozens of harmonicas from tiny ones that a baby could swallow through triplex monsters a foot in length provide a lot of variation and a surprisingly full sound.

Visually, director Negulesco shows his usual flair, filling the numbers with blackout productions and a snappy dance to "Begin the Beguine" -- no Artie Shaw, but quite good. and a lot of his signature silhouette shots. Also, notice the way he takes care to shoot the harmonicas to emphasize hand movements.

This is one of the newest of the Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally had been more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff. However, starting during the war years these shorts began to have a narrator and purported to give a bit of background on the band leader.

Of all the Vitaphone musical shorts I have seen, perhaps my favorite was made in the mid-1930s and it featured Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals. It was so peppy, funny and weird that I was longing to see more. Fortunately, the DVD set "Warner Brothers Big Band, Jazz & Swing Short Subject Collection" DID have another Borrah Minevitch short, though this time he's billed not with his Harmonica Rascals but with his Harmonica School. And, having seen the two films only a day apart, it was obvious that the band was completely different. While there was STILL a black man and a midget (yes, a midget), the members appeared all-new and younger. This worked with the short because it was supposed to be set in a school--and so old guys would have made no sense if they were supposed to be students.

As far as the cast goes, once again, Minevitch was the king of inclusion. Whether or not he was trying to exploit the vertically challenged, he did feature overweight characters, the young and, in some cases, the not particularly attractive. This is NOT a complaint--actually I loved how the film did not feature the typical clone-like actors or singers. All in all, a lot of fun and it is wild having this much sound coming out of such an amazing array of harmonicas!

Above average nine-minute musical short. Inclusion of black harmonicist Ernie Morris racially integrates this WWII era campy curio directed by Jean Negulesco who would later create noirs such as Nobody Lives Forever, Road House, Under My Skin and the neglected Mask of Dimetrios.

Features a funny vaudeville bit involving three guys ejecting rubber eggs from their mouths. Watch the facial expressions.

Includes several elements now politically incorrect: sight gags involving a dwarf, fat humor, and in particular, a JonBenet Ramsey look alike seductively dancing a samba.

In black and white. Shown occasionally on Turner Classic Movies in their "Short Subjects" section. You can sometimes catch it sandwiched in between regular TCM features.

They don't make music videos like they used to.

Borrah Minnevitch and His Harmonica School (1942)

*** (out of 4)

An extremely bizarre and at times untasteful short showcases the title act who really need to be seen to be believed. The film showcases several musical set pieces but in the end it's the weird visuals that really steal the show. We have a wide range of acts, all dealing with harmonicas but the really eye opener are the acts themselves, which include midgets, fat jokes and racial jokes. The performance all do a good job and the music is rather catchy but it's somewhat hard paying too much attention to this when you're eyes are bulging out of you head by what you're seeing. Fans of the weird are certainly going to love this thing. I doubt any other film in history has as many harmonicas but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.