Swingtime in the Movies

The plot of Swingtime in the Movies is mildly amusing and of the appropriate length. The real highlight is seeing some of the great actors of that time in cameo appearances.

The Humphrey Bogart bit is a must-see for all Bogey fans!

This almost half and hour two reel short subject could almost qualify as as a mini-musical with several numbers by songwriters M.K.Jerome and Jack Scholl. The film is a movie with a short as director Fritz Feld tries desperately to finish a western he's directing and replace his less than talented leading lady Helen Lynd who just can't quite master a mushmouth Southern accent.

Feld finds his new leading lady in the Warner Brothers studio cafeteria among the servers in the person of Katherine Kane. The highlight of the short is the break for lunch in the cafeteria where the servers do a number and the camera pans to several of the Warner Brothers stars taking a break.

As this film was done in color it rather than some of the feature for these stars might well be considered their respective color debuts.

Fritz Feld and assistant Charley Foy provide a lot of laughs. It's a worthwhile short subject and worthy of the Academy Award nomination it got in that category.

Musical comedy film short about a scatter-brained Hollywood director named Mr. Nitvitch (Fritz Feld) trying to make a film called "The Texas Tornado". But he can't pronounce "tornado", and it comes out the Texas "tomato". The dialogue milks this for all it's worth. The film's overall tone is lighthearted, with a touch of romance.

Acting trends melodramatic, probably deliberately so. A highlight is the sequence at the "Superb Studio Cafe", where waitresses burst into song and dance, and then-current real-life actors make cameo appearances, with snippets about their careers, meant to be promos. Actors include: George Brent, Marie Wilson, Pat O'Brian, Humphrey Bogart, and John Garfield.

A couple of melodic songs helps a lot: "Drifting On The Rio Grande" and "The Toast Of The Texas Frontier".

Kinda silly and corny, the film nevertheless presents viewers with a time capsule of how movie making was viewed in the 1930s.

A Warner Bros. treat, filmed in bright Technicolor, SWINGTIME IN THE MOVIES is a breezy short subject the studio obviously used to demonstrate its skillful handling of color photography in the year that produced THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD ('38).

FRITZ FELD is the irate director with a language problem--and obviously doing a take-off of Warner's director Michael Curtiz who used to fracture the English language ("Bring on the Empty Horses").

JOHN CARROLL gets a chance to demonstrate his rich baritone voice with some forgettable song numbers and KATHRYN KANE is the waitress who is discovered in the studio commissary when director Feld wants to find a girl with a Southern accent for his latest western.

A few Warner stars are seen in the commissary having lunch: HUMPHREY BOGART, PAT O'BRIEN and JOHN GARFIELD--in what may well be their debut in Technicolor.

Lots of fun.

When "Swingtime in the Movies" begins, you might wonder why Warner Brothers spent all that money for Technicolor (which was MUCH more expensive than black & white film stock). Then, a few minutes into the film, you realize why....it's all a giant advertisement for Warner Brothers movies and stars.

This short is supposed to be about the making of a western musical...complete with a temperamental foreign director and John CarrolL in the lead. But when it comes to the female lead, the actress chosen is all wrong...and so the nutty director is now in search of someone to play a nice southern girl in the film.

Insert ad! The film crew break for lunch and then go to the commissary. There, you see several top Warner stars supposedly enjoying lunch there...including Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart and George Brent. It's pretty obvious these stars really were NOT in the scene and were added later....and it's all just an opportunity to show these stars and mention their current projects in the hope that audiences run like lemmings to see these films.

Then, after lunch, the shooting of the western musical continues...with a waitress 'discovered' in the commissary to play the southern gal! I am sure that happened all the time! It's all very silly...though I was very impressed with Carroll's voice. I've heard him sing in a few other films...here his voice is very strong and almost operatic. In fact, it's really the ONLY reason to see...and hear this film. He's terrific...the rest of it, silly and forgettable.