What Price Jazz

What Price Jazz (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The title is an obvious take on WHAT PRICE GLORY but that's the only connection between this and the silent film. What we basically got is a cry for understanding as we see a group of jazz performances and then we're introduced to an evil white man who thinks jazz is evil for people and wants it banned. There are some rather clever touches in this short including naming the bad guy Mr. Public Opinion since he speaks for everyone. I thought the way the short made fun of the man trying to make up the minds of everyone was well-done and in some pre-code glory he's finally busted once some sexuality of the jazz pulls him in. The jazz and dance sequences aren't the greatest the genre has to offer up and I think it's fair to say that if they really wanted to win people over that perhaps some better song selections should have happened. Still, the film is quite charming in its own way and fans of shorts should find it entertaining.

The story begins with Mr. Blue Laws (Nelson McDowell*) preaching about the evils of jazz to his followers at the Society for the Prevention of Jazz! Mr. Public Opinion is there and is wholeheartedly behind Mr. Blue Law's campaign.

The scene then cuts to a nightclub and jazz musicians and dancers are putting on a heck of a show for the audience. Everyone is having a good time...so, naturally, Mr. Blue Laws and Mr. Public Opinion show up and start destroying EVERYTHING.

You then hear that the pair have killed Rudy Vallee AND Paul Whiteman (the two biggest acts of the day) and a band is hiding out in the woods. Now they are NOT a very smart band, as they start playing music and a soloist appears! Soon Mr. Public Opinion and Mr. Blue Laws appear...ready to kill the dreaded jazz musicians....so what's next?

I actually was shocked by this one. I bought several DVD short collections from MGM recently and pretty much hate most of the films...especially the comedies. But here they scored a bullseye-- with a very funny, clever and engaging musical comedy that is 100% original and strange! I sure wish they all were that good.

*McDowell also starred as a preacher in the weird and funny "The Devil's Cabaret"...another of the few shorts I've seen and love from the collection. This is because BOTH films are so bizarre that you can't help but watch!!

This is a 15 minute short film made in 1934 that is more of an interest to musicians and musicologists that film buffs. It focuses around a public crier, "Mr. Blue Laws," denouncing jazz music to the public. Another gentleman, "Mr. Public Opinion," steps up to join Blue Laws' crusade against jazz. The two 'crash' a night club hosting jazz and we follow their pursuit to stamp out the evil jazz that has been responsible for wiping out the Waltz and the 'Two-Step.' After being cornered, the band, helped by a group of 'rhythm dancers," vows to play to the end proclaiming their love of jazz. Very surreal for the time.

Nearly the entire 15 minutes is filled with big band style jazz music laced with poetic, almost beat-like dialogue. The short film seems to show a change in generations, reflecting on what probably went on in the late twenties musically (yet this is '34).....and the public acceptance of 'jazz' and swing as popular forms of music (especially brought to the masses by "talking" pictures only a few years earlier).

The film definitely was made to get a personal opinion across. The first scene with "Mr. Blue Laws" shows him in his moral crusade against jazz, walking past a drug store....which just seems a bit too coincidental...and many cliches abound....and if it weren't for the ending, I'd say this were a public service announcement warning against the sub-culture of jazz......with Mr. Blue Laws representing those for prohibition and Mr. Public Opinion, or the mainstream listener, stuck in the middle.

The music is a pleasure. It really reflects the acceptance of early jazz, and really swing, into the mainstream and clearly into Hollywood and therefore a slice of American music history. All of the faces in this film are white, which sadly does not properly reflect American jazz history. But it does seem to mark the first acceptance of jazz into "white society" on film.

And check out the early special effects as Mr. Public Opinion speaks...the pedestrians disappear behind him....nice for a short film.

This short movie, which I saw at Turner Classic Movies (TCM), is a very nice piece of history! It shows something of all times...People don't accept anything new. They have to get used to it and that takes time. The public opinion will change if you work hard enough and believe in yourself an the things you stand for (in this movie the jazz).