Roof Tops of Manhattan

A superior short from Joe Henabery, featuring several good night club acts, including 'Bazooka' Bob Burns a popular performer of the period: a hillbilly Will Rogers with a homemade trombone he called a 'bazooka'. No nightclub ever featured this array of talent, but as a short variety show a lot of fun.

Sky High Roof is a radio show and night club. There are a variety of entertainers performing. The O'Shea family is hanging out on their rooftop in a hot summer night listening to the radio show. Their daughter Ellen is called away by the no-good Nick Lewis. They go to the Riviera Roof Garden night club. They are surprised when her parents suddenly show up.

It's a musical short with lots of singing, dancing, and some comedy. I don't know most of these performers, but that's a good point for this short. It showcases people that I've never seen before. Gil Lamb is probably the only one I know for sure. It's all going so easy and breezy. Out of nowhere, the story takes a turn. I am not sure about that move. I would have prefer staying light and breezy.

A short film featuring performers devoted to developing talents with which to entertain an audience, in the days before sincere feelings, political convictions, and psychological ruminations were considered to be sufficient to regale the hoi polloi. A glimpse of somewhat innocent days gone by....

The Vitaphone division of Warner Brothers was mostly devoted to producing sound shorts--both BEFORE "The Jazz Singer" debuted and through much of the 1930s. The acts in these shorts mostly consisted of night club acts, vaudeville entertainers and a few were soon to be stars being given their chance in these shorts (such as June Allyson). In "Rooftops of Manhattan" you have a nightclub supposedly set atop a huge skyscraper and act after act come and go on the screen...mostly of the nightclub quality. Most of the acts are pleasant enough but not especially memorable or super-talented. And, because of this, you've probably never heard of any of the acts. If you are curious, check the IMDb page for this film.

So is it worth seeing? Well, if you are a nut about Vitaphone, of course. For the average viewer, however, it's very hit or miss. The comedy of Bob Burns and his 'bazooka' (a homemade trombone sort of contraption) is nice and I enjoyed his mother-in-law jokes. The rest...well they were fine...but nothing special.

Twenty-two amateurish minutes of a Vitaphone "Broadway Brevity" short, this is strictly cornball stuff that should have been discarded, just as vaudeville died.

Nothing I can say about the musical interludes except that they fall flat, the dancing is clumsy and the intentionally funny clumsiness of Gil Lamb is barely good for a few chuckles.

It's a sort of "42nd Street" sketch with the rooftops of Manhattan supposedly telling the stories of a disparate group of patrons who enter the club, all with weak back stories that are supposed to give some significance to the "rooftops of Manhattan" theme.

Evidently, there was no Busby Berkeley around to give this a shot in the arm. It's barely watchable and highly forgettable as entertainment.