Swing High

The usually lightly sarcastic Pete Smith narrates this short documentary looking at the acrobatic Codona family. We start with a little bit of Vera's practice session before Alfredo tests the apparatus before a live show with a packed audience below. He flies through the air with the greatest of ease (at up to 60mph) with pirouettes and turns before being caught by his brother Lalo. There's quite an interesting perspective from a top-down slo-motion camera that gives some indication of the perilous nature of their routines. Despite an early visit to the safety net, Alfredo manages the first ever airborne double somersault ever, anywhere... then a triple pirouette. Can he manage a triple somersault? Blindfolds - well a pillowcase? It's fascinating to watch this, and though I would have liked some natural sound with some crowd oohs and ahhs, the use of the slow motion imagery does work well and Smith's on quite good form, too. I did enjoy this.

Swing High (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar nominated short with Pete Smith narrating this look at The Flying Codonas, a fourth generation family of trapeze artists. The high wire acts are pretty exciting and the film moves along very well. According to the intro, this film originally won the Oscar by three votes but back then that would mean a tie. Another film's producer, Mack Sennett, demanded a recount and on that vote his film won.

The history of this film is very interesting to say the least.

If you're interested in seeing this then Turner Classic Movies shows it quite often.

It's an MGM short of The Flying Codonas, a trapeze family act. They're in their practice tent going through some of their moves. The cinematography is mostly stationary. There is slow motion with various angles from the ground to top down. Some of it isn't quite as sharp especially the slow motion. It was nominated for an Oscar. The narration has a bit of broad sarcastic humor. This is like an industrial short for the circus.

This short, nominated for an Academy Award, is a very early short narrated by Pete Smith. It is fairly representative of the style of short he would become noted for: broadly comic narration, good camera work and effects for a short subject and covering a somewhat offbeat topic in a comical, somewhat jocular manner. Turner Classic Movies runs this as filler between features occasionally and virtually every March for the 31 Days of Oscar. Not his best but well worth catching. Recommended.

A Smith called Pete narrates (a trifle stiffly) this short subject about the Flying Codonas, a fourth-generation trapeze act. It's shot interestingly, with the camera sometimes placed over the the act, and slow-motion views of men and girl in tights, showing off the difficult evolutions, including the almost impossible triple somersault. As Pete says, a nice way to earn a living; almost as good, I imagine, as making snarky comments on the act.

This movie holds a place in the history books for having lost the Oscar for Best Novelty Short. Originally, it was declared the winner, but when Mack Sennett learned his short about fishing for marlin had lost by less than three votes, he protested this was against Academy rules. Another vote was taken, and Sennett was declared the winner. Smith would not win the award until his color short, PENNY WISDOM.