Love on Tap

One of the Tin Pan Alley studios made this short film about the Merriel Abbott Dancers. It has a few routines with this small dance troupe of eight young acrobatic women. A romance of some sort is woven into it. One can't get much in such a short amount of time.

The dancers are so-so. They are entertaining for what they do, mixing in some acrobatic flips and things, but there's nothing exceptional in their talents and routines. The one funny and notable scene in this short film is all eight dancers packed into a police car.

This short came with a DVD of the Thin Man series that I bought.

This short film shows hot, attractive, and beautiful girls dancing, talking, and moving throughout the film. Some of the girls are beautiful, their hair in particular and their faces/body. So much nostalgia of the swing back in the good old days from 1929 to 1947.

What's entertaining about this, and things like it, is savoring the notion that the people who made it thought they could get away with it.

There are similar affronts today all over the multicinema. But with a little distance, this one is pretty bad.

It is a short to begin with. And 2/3 of it has to be dancing, so the story is as skeletal as possible, more cartoonish than your standard cartoon.

You have your ultrarich handsome, patient guy in love. You have the target of his affection, a sensitive, artistic beauty who manages (owns?) a dance troop of 14 or so dancers. When on stage, the girls are sexy in that way of elegant crotchshowing we are not supposed to notice. When with the owner, they act like children.

The story involves how the "children" get in the way of setting a wedding date, then repair the damage.

The "on tap" part is their tap dancing. They *are* pretty.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Overall, this short musical feature is pretty bland, but it does have a couple of good moments. The plot is based on a familiar idea, and the characters are one-dimensional, so it relies a lot on the dancing sequences and on an upbeat tone.

The story focuses on an engaged couple (Mary Howard and Truman Bradley) whose wedding plans have already been postponed a number of times. It gives the idea a slightly interesting variation (from, for example, the way that it was used in numerous Bulldog Drummond features) by having the prospective bride be the one whose responsibilities keep getting in the way. But after this setup is established, the rest of the plot is mostly predictable. The couple themselves are likable, but not particularly interesting.

A good part of the screen time is given to some performances by the Merriel Abbott Dancers, and their routines have some good moments. There is also some variety in the musical numbers, with a formal stage number and a more informal outdoor routine. They help to give a little life to an innocuous, but plain, movie.

LOVE ON TAP is basically a short MGM musical designed to showcase the Merriel Abbott dancers, with MARY HOWARD and TRUMAN BRADLEY as a pair of would-be honeymooners whose marriage plans are interrupted by the needy girls (an annoying plot device) and the lady's willingness to put their plans on hold once too often.

It's a brisk, harmless piece of fluff which makes the girls' dancing routines look like "The Rockettes" in rehearsal, with perhaps more acrobatics than usual for high-kicking dancers working out with a swing band, courtesy of GARWOOD VAN and his orchestra.

The whining girls always have a petty problem that needs instant solving but, of course, it's pretty clear that all will end well before their final tap dancing routine.

Summing up: A trifle easily forgotten after one viewing. Mary Howard looks like an even prettier version of Norma Shearer--and whatever happened to Truman Bradley? He had leading man possibilities.