Swing Fever

Swing Fever is a fun wartime film starring the great big band leader Kay Kyser and a fine supporting cast, including a number of fun cameos. Even a young Ava Gardiner plays a receptionist. Great big band music, swing dancing, songs and jokes. And Lena Horne has a nice number also in the film. A great wartime film in the spirit of 'Thousands Cheer' (1943), 'Stagedoor Canteen' (1942), and the fun 'Hollywood Canteen' (1944). Well, maybe not quite the cast of those films and not quite as good as the other films, but still a rollocking good time, particularly for fans of big band and swing music and wartime, TCM films.

Kay Kyser is an aspiring composer with the gift of an "evil eye" that allows him to put people in a trance. He gets mixed up with gruff boxing manager William Gargan and his girlfriend Marilyn Maxwell. A rare outing where Kyser plays a character that isn't himself. It might be the only one come to think of it. The evil eye scenes are silly fun. The musical numbers are good. The best parts of the movie are Kyser's interactions with his regular bandmates, who in this play a swing band that is reluctantly saddled with Kyser's more classical oriented composer. Harry James and Tommy Dorsey also have a funny cameo with the film's biggest laugh. Despite a solid cast offering support, this one is little more than a passable time-killer.

A lackluster plot surrounds some lukewarm musical entertainment in this mid-war production. The best parts of the film are the musical acts in the nightclub, but the producers do their best to sabotage them. As is typical, there are the obligatory salutes to the boys in uniform and a whole lot of hokum, everything from comic acts that are totally unfunny to juggling and faux magic tricks. The movie is called Swing Fever, so you might think the action is hot. It is for those few moments when the band or the swing dancers are allowed to go at it. but most of the "action" is like watching The Lawrence Welk Show, corn and all.

Cameos are jammed in, as was the custom, but they are random and flat. Kay Kyser is his usual cornball self. And of course they include the usual nods to the wartime mythology of soldiers and sailors getting the beautiful canteen girl, who might be a star.

Particularly painful are the "comic" stylings of the band member with bangs who recites "poetry" and otherwise annoys.

The word swing in the title also refers to the boxing plot. A number of real boxers are in the film. We know what great actors they are.

It's a shame Kay Kyser's 5 picture deal w/ RKO ended with AROUND THE WORLD('43), because when MGM signed him for this one film, they dropped the ball big time. It's a poor story that barely features Kyser's great band, and has an overlong production number, MISSISSIPPI DREAMBOAT. I think this is the first onscreen appearance of Lena Horne, who sings a song then disappears, but i could be mistaken about that. Blonde and sexy Marilyn Maxwell plays Kyser's love interest, which seemed a bit far-fetched until Kyser's real life widow, Georgia Carroll, informed me Kay and Marilyn dated seriously in real life! THERE IS A CLASSIC VISUAL GAG where Kyser's rehearsing his band and identifies a couple of strangers playing along. Kyser (as Lowell Blackford) doesn't recognize them, but tells them they can't play his music very well. The camera pans over to TOMMY DORSEY and HARRY JAMES who leave the bandstand, complaining " No one can play this music. This guy'll never get anywhere. Besides, he looks too much like KAY KYSER!!" Best line in the film! In conclusion, SWING FEVER never reaches fever pitch, and the dummies at MGM never tried again w/ Kyser, who, by the way was a big big star at this time. Good posters, though!!

From the contrarian viewpoint, this is the only Kay Kyser film I've seen yet that I've found watchable. Kyser plays a character other than his usual "Kay Kyser, goofy band leader" -- not a complete change, but just different enough to make him tolerable. And, while it's Kyser's band, someone else has apparently arranged the music so it actually swings and has some oomph for a change.

The script is as thin as usual for this sort of musical, but passable. Marilyn Maxwell's part doesn't require much acting, but she's a treat when she's on screen. And her singing, which is excellent, is a hoot for the vintage musicals connoisseur to watch - one song she does Mae West, later she puts on a bit of Ginger Rogers.

Lena Horne's "You're So Indifferent" is a pleasure - in a minimalist bluesy mode, unlike so much of what she did at MGM.