Changing of the Guard

Halliwell Hobbes talks to Sybil Jason about his retirement as colonel of a Scots regiment. Then she dreams of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

It's one of the 3-strip Technicolor shorts that Warner Brothers did in the 1930s, beautiful exhibition of the technology's ability to reproduce colors. It was also intended as a screen test for Miss Jason. Everyone wanted a child star like Shirley Temple. Warners hoped that Miss Jason wold be theirs. She's cute, she sings well, she photographs well in medium and long shot..... but somehow it wasn't enough.

Changing of the Guard (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

On New Year's Eve a young girl (Sybil Jason) asks her grandfather (Halliwell Hobbes) about the picture of him in a military outfit. The elderly man then tells her about his days in the military before the young girl dreams about being at Buckingham Palace. This Warner short isn't going to win any awards and it's certainly poorly written but there's no question that the only reason this thing was made was to show off the new Technicolor. The new color process is certainly the highlight here as you can't help but wonder what those people who saw this in 1936 must have thought. There's no question the quality isn't the greatest by today's standards nor by the standards of where the process would be at in just a few years. The actual story I found to be rather weak, uninvolved and at times boring. We've seen this type of thing before in countless films and this one here really doesn't do much with it. I'm sure fans of Jason will want to check this out as she does a dance towards the end of the movie but I must admit that I wasn't bowled over by it.

Watching Changing Of The Guard after over 70 years it's fairly obvious that Jack Warner was trying to build Sybil Jason into another Shirley Temple. He would have been better advised to have concentrated on making her the first Sybil Jason.

The short subject consists of Sybil visiting her grandfather who was a colonel in a Highland Regiment back in the Boer War days. The Colonel is Halliwell Hobbes and he reminisces about his farewell dinner with his officers where we get to see and hear Gordon Hart and future Sky King, Kirby Grant, treat us with some old Scottish airs.

Then afterwards Jason falls asleep where she imagines herself in the regiment and she leads a group of dancing grenadiers in the title song of the short subject.

It's not that it isn't well done, it most certainly is, but you would think that Warner might have tried for some original material rather than copy what Darryl Zanuck was doing at Fox. But that's what they did back in the day.

How strange to find a Technicolor short from 1936, especially one telling a story. The reds are gorgeous from the Colonel's formal dress to the flowers that contain reds and pinks and are surrounded with nice greens. The maroon of the grandfather's robe is quite amazing as I find that this is a difficult color to find in early movies and they do it so well here. The blues from dark to light are scrumptious and the cornflower blue of Sybil's bathrobe and even the blue of her eyes stand out quite amazingly.

Sybil Jason is quite delightful in this short. She rarely got to stand out in a leading role and here she gets to sing of "The Changing of the Guard" and does it wonderfully. She also gets to tap dance with a regiment of beautiful guards. I'm pretty sure that Buckingham Palace never got to see such a delightful sight as these dancing ladies. And lets not forget the bagpipe regiment, the singing of "Annie Laurie" and "Auld Lang Syne".

A delightful short and one that I would recommend to anyone interested in early Technicolor.

It may seem odd to describe this film as tedious, considering it's only a short, but I found The Changing of the Guard extremely slow and static. It may be of interest to historians as an early example of Technicolor, but the photography is unimaginative. Sybil Jason fans will probably enjoy her dance number. Jason was present when I saw this screened, and I believe she said the choreography was by Busby Berkeley, though his name doesn't appear in the credits.

The story begins with Sybil visiting her grandfather on New Year's Eve. As it gets late, Sybil falls asleep and dreams her dance number. Okay, so the film was probably made just to showcase Warners' child star, but there's still no excuse for the weak dialogue and plodding direction. You'd think if the studio was going to lay out the money for Technicolor they'd want something that was a little more lively.