Carolina Blues

Just like Swing Fever--released in the same year--Carolina Blues features the corny persona of Kay Kyser. The guy has as much charisma as Bing Crosby, which is to say not much.

Here again, Ann Miller does not get enough time on the dance floor. She is so fresh faced in these early films; if only they had featured her talents more.

I still have not figured out which band member sports bangs and again plagues this movie with his senseless, humorless bits.

Some of the music by Styne and Cahn is really disappointing. The lyrics are silly--and not in a good way.

Kay Kyser had many top-selling recordings, but his Kollege of Musical Knowledge show, both live and on the radio, was more of a floor show than the performances of other swing bands and orchestras. His show is, of course, incorporated into this film. So in that respect, the film bears resemblance to other films in which Kyser appeared.

The extra bonus is the addition of sweet and lovely Ann Miller to the cast. Unfortunately, her one and only dance performance is butchered by cutaway shots and editing, so that about half is gone. You can only faintly hear the singing and tapping in the background.

What's left, however, is still pure Miller magic. Nobody else was such a machine-gun on feet.

Out of the 7 feature films starring Big Bandleader Kay Kyser, i rate this one dead last. I hate to say it, as I've commented on other Kyser films, and am a BIG Kyser enthusiast, but this, his one film for Columbia, and as it turned out, his last feature, is just embarrassing. It wasn't his fault. It was that Columbia had NO idea what to do with him. Kyser started w/ RKO in '39, did 5 features there, and was very successful. Then one for MGM, SWING FEVER, which was not very good, but better than this. But i digress...I don't know if it's just my 16mm transfer to vhs, but the production values seem cheap, as in dark lighting. The great band doesn't get enough to do, and though Ann Miller is good, comic relief Victor Moore practically chews the scenery. In a scene in a taxi, you can see Kyser mouth the other actor's line as he delivers it. The first 3 Kyser films are priceless in my book, as the freshness and heart are so very apparent. But this really drags. Thank God Ish Kabibble (Merwyn Bogue)is in fine, dumb-as-a-brick form.

Band Leader Kay Kyser and his big band return to America after a long stint playing for the troupes. He wants to take a break but his publicist convinces him to do another show for plant workers. His regular singer needs time to get married. He reluctantly accepts Julie Carver (Ann Miller), the plant owner's daughter, as her replacement.

It's a bit of song and dance during the war years. The writing isn't much. The acting is fine. There isn't much of anything other than the musical breaks. It may as well be a concert show. It's a waste of an hour although that was needed back then. People just needed a break and that's what this is.

The best part of "Carolina Blues" is the title music, a very swinging instrumental of "There Goes That Song Again", ending with a close-up of Kay conducting his band. Story line is not all that compelling, and Victor Moore's comedic contributions are many and mostly ineffective(however, he WAS pushing 70 at the time, so the physical bit he tries to do, I'm sure, was quite difficult). A plus is the several accurate references to Kay's hometown of Rocky Mount and surrounding areas, along with playing a show in a local tobacco warehouse. In eastern North Carolina, on the too-rare occasion that a big band did come to town, tobacco warehouses were just about the only facilities big enough to host their dances. According to Steven Beasley's new book on Kay, Kyser himself did play a date at a tobacco warehouse in Rocky Mount, 4 years earlier, as part of that town hosting the world premiere of his first movie, "That's Right, You're Wrong". So, there is a bit of a thrill for this eastern Nawth Cahlinian in hearing places and things from our neck of the woods mentioned in a movie.