Let's Sing a Song About the Moonlight

In 1929, Warner Brothers, flush with cash from early talkie pictures, purchased three music publishers. Not only were the thousands of copyrights these companies held and still hold very profitable, but they provided a deep well of music for Warners Brother musicals and soundtracks.

In the late 1940s, Warner Brothers also turned out three sing-along short subjects. Sing-alongs were long a popular feature of vaudeville houses, which also featured early movies; live entertainment during movie shows often incorporated sing-alongs, and the Fleischers introduced their Screen Songs in 1924, two years before Jolson sang for the Warner Brothers.

As the title of this short indicates, this short features songs which include the word 'moon' in their titles. It also includes clips from old Warner Brothers musicals where they sang these songs. Thus, at one stroke, this movie advertises Warner Brothers properties, and fills ten minutes in a movie show cheaply.

Let's Sing a Song About the Moonlight (1948)

*** (out of 4)

"Memories from Memory Lane" is the title given to this short from Warner, which is actually an excellent trip down just that...memory lane. I always find the idea of a group of people sitting in a theater singing to be rather funny but that's what this short does. We get four different songs being sung by professionals before the narrator steps in and tells the crowd to sing. We get the words up on the screen so that people can follow along. By the Light of the Silvery Moon, Moonlight Bay, In the Evening of the Moonlight and Shine On, Harvest Moon are the four songs performed. Ann Sheridan's singing of the last song, from SHINE ON HARVEST MOON, is shown then of course it's the crowds turn. I haven't seen too many of these sing-a-long shorts but this one here was a lot of fun. No, I didn't sing along with the screen but it was fun without my horrid voice adding anything.

Found this musical short on the On Moonlight Bay DVD. It has four songs featuring "moon" in the title with some men singing on the first three and Ann Sheridan (actually Lynn Martin) singing on the last one in a clip from the movie Shine on Harvest Moon. After each of those singing scenes, we're then encouraged to sing them as well during the lyrics printing on screen as another chrous is singing those songs. I'll just say this short was pretty entertaining for what it was.

In the history of cinema, exhibitors have tried many ways to warm up an audience before a film. Nowadays we just get endless ads and trailers, but in the golden days, there were short films, cartoons, information films, short documentaries, news bulletins etc. They usually served the same function as an overture to an opera, but many now are of immense kitsch or nostalgic value.

This short is a fascinating example. I don't know what date it is form (it mentions a 1943 film as past), so I am unable to conjecture as to what its use value was. It's part of a series called Melodies from Memory Lane. Four songs with the word 'moonlight' are sung by barbershop quartets, with hagiographic reconstructions of their genesis. These can be, as one might expect, typically reactionary - one songwriter, an undercover FBI man, lingering in what seems to be an ordinary bar, is said to be seething with discontenet at the seedy environment in which he has to work. The reconstructions are amateurish but sweet.

For me the film's great appeal lies in the gimmick whereby, after the quartet have sung the song, the words appear on the screen, and the audience is encouraged to sing along. If, as I suspect, these are wartime shorts, then the attempt to engender a sense of community is rather crass. But I don't care. I've always found the popular music of the 1940s rather schmaltzy and tacky, especially when compared to the classics of the 20s and 30s, but I had great pleasure belting these songs out, scaring my dogs, and annoying my neighbours. I bet it was as much fun then, and I'd much rather do that today, than suffer another 'wacky' ad for some soft drink.