Swingtime in the Movies

Director Nitvitch has a leading lady with a speech impairment. He goes to the studio canteen and finds it filled with talent. Waitress Joan Mason becomes his new leading lady in the western musical.

It's a WB color short. It's a slice of Hollywood and that's fascinating. I don't recognize any of the main actors. They're fine. There are some familiar faces in the background. It was nominated for an Oscar. While technically good, there isn't anything superior in this.

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.

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.

Academy-award nominated Short Subject. It's about director Nivitch (Fritz Feld) trying to shoot a Western but having nothing but trouble. He needs a girl with a Southern accent...and finds one working as a waitress in the studio restaurant. You can write the rest yourself.

This sounds pretty terrible but it's amusing. It's shot in Technicolor and has some pretty good songs and dances--the dances especially are designed to take advantage of the color. The acting is just OK--Kathryn Kane and Jerry Colonna are the leads. There are also some cameos from Warner Brothers stars in the restaurant. Among them, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien--all in color and smiling for the cameras!

Nothing great but fun. Worth seeing.