Frances Carroll & 'The Coquettes'

Frances Carroll & the Coquettes (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Lively short from Warner proves that women can jam just as good as the men. I've seen at least three dozen of these Warner/Vitaphone shorts and it was somewhat shocking that this was the first to feature a woman leading the band. I'm not sure how many female artists were around during this era and I'm not sure how many Warner filmed but this here is a pretty fast and good entry in the series. Carroll starts off by showing her vocal range with 'When I Swing My Stick', which isn't the greatest written number out there but I thought the lyrics were catchy enough. 'Coquette' follows right before one of the highlights of the film in 'Snake Charmer'. This number not only features Carroll and her band but it puts the spotlight on drummer Viola Smith who does an impressive little solo. We get two more numbers with the show closing with 'Jitterbug Jump', which is done with a high octane power that really impresses. Looking at IMDb it appears this was the only bit of footage shot with Carroll, which is a shame because while it's not the greatest out there it's at least entertaining and worthy of your time.

If you catch this film short on Turner Classic Movies you won't be sorry, you will treasure this great musical short. I happen to catch it on Turner Classic Movies one morning, and I love and treasure this. Girl Bands and Orchestra were very popular in the 1940s, when the men were serving in the War, women bands were put together to keep the swinging going. Frances Carroll is beautiful she looks like a movie star, she really can dance while singing and leading the band, she has some great hand movements with that stick. Viola Smith the drummer of the band really is "getting down", she play the drums better then the men drummer. Eunice Healey tap dances also in this short with the band playing behind her. The Coquettes is a great band, great loud, clear sound, their really swinging. They made me want to get up and dance, and I'm sure they'll make you wanna get up and dance. They play 5 numbers in just 10 minutes. But its very fulfilled. Well, bands like Frances Carroll and The Coquettes sure proved they had what it tooked and they could make the world swing just as good as the men bands, bands like these were very much in demand. But, sadly today Women Bands don't get much recognition and honor as much as the men musicians, and the women worked just as hard as the men. But people today are becoming interested in women bands of that time. Frances Carroll and The Coquettes, International Sweethearts of Rhythm, and others were great and had beauty, class, and talent, and their finally getting their recognition and honor. If you wanna read about female bands of the 1930s and 1940s there's a very informative book out by Sherrie Tucker called Swing Shift: All Girls Bands of the 1940s.

This is one of the later Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally were more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff.

"Frances Carroll & 'The Coquettes'" is a very unusual short because it's the only one I've seen featuring an all-girl band. I am sure Vitaphone might have made more films like this, it's not the only one in the mega-set (with 11 hours of their musical shorts) with a ladies' band--there's also "Rita Rio and Her Orchestra"--one that is later on this same disc.

The short features singing and dancing by the elegant Carroll, a wild drum solo and some tap dancing that was fused with ballet by Eunice Healy. It's interesting that unlike her male counterparts, Carroll seemed to be selling sex, as the way she danced about while the band played was nothing like what you'd see the guys doing with their bands. But, even without this, her band was quite good--and very intense. I liked their fast swing style--it was very catchy and toe-tapping.

Roy Mack shoots this Vitaphone band number in the same way that had become standard with the earliest efforts at the studio: orchestra on a raised stage, leader in front, an almost immobile camera, although it does dolly forward at the beginning and out at the end. While there is a dance interlude, the camera does move to keep the dancer in focus at all times. However, besides these moments, interest is maintained by a fairly rapid cutting rate and middling odd point of view shots.

The music is fairly good swing from the era, with a lot of speed and decent bounce, particularly in the solo numbers. Miss Frances also seems to be swinging a bigger stick than any other orchestra leader I've seen, but maybe that's my masculine pride being buffeted.