Sing as You Swing

Rubbish British musical 'comedy' with forgettable musical numbers from a host of forgotten acts. The so-called comedy is provided by the woeful Clapham & Dwyer, a double act with no chemistry or screen presence whatsoever. Professional twit Claude Dampier is at least faintly amusing.

Real acts, Real music, DO sing & swing. If people would only get off NETFLEX might understand real art. This move is a classic goldmine with virtuoso music performances and singers.

This is a line-up of whatever variety acts happened to be available during the week of production. The classiest performers are the American quartet The Mills Brothers (who do their impressions of a dance band) and jazz man Nat Gonella. They're thrown together with radio favourites such as impersonator Beryl Orde (her impressions include Gracie Fields, Mabel Constanduros and Mae West) and conductor Mantovani, whose orchestra is in gypsy costumes. The performances are linked with God-awful comic business by three more radio turns, the often incomprehensible Clapham and Dwyer and silly ass Claude Dampier, who does at least have comic timing. It's surprising to find two writers credited for the script since what little narrative exists is completely incoherent. (This may be because the version currently showing on British TV runs well under an hour, not 82 minutes as listed here). The final sequence consists of a broadcast on the new-fangled television, but no TV cameras are in evidence.

Ignore the wafer thin story and enjoy what is an enjoyable record of music hall acts.There is Billie Carlisle who with her partner Mindy were part of the original crazy week at the London Palladium which metamorphosis into the Crazy Gang.Claude Dampier was an early success in radio with his silly ads act.Clapham and Dwyer were big on the BBC,but watching them now they are virtually incomprehensible.They certainly aren't funny.The Mills Brothers had an act which would last well into the era of television.Nat Gonella was one of the top British jazz trumpeted of the thirties.I had the good fortune to see him perform in a music hall rescue in Jersey in the 1970s.So yes the production may be pretty basic but no more so than say many British films of the seventies and eighties.