Sunday Night at the Trocadero

Just watched this rarity on the A Night at the Opera DVD. It takes place at the title nightclub with many celebrities in attendance. One of them was Groucho Marx, here with then-wife Ruth Johnson, who's seen without his trademark greasepaint mustache and eyebrows. There are also much enjoyable music and dancing depicted. Connee Boswell provides an enjoyable number and then when The Brian Sisters develop stagefright, she also does a nice teaming with them. Unfortunately, there's also an unfunny impressionist and I mean unfunny both in who he impersonates and what lines he gives. Actually, many reviewers here also complained about how low the volume seemed to be so maybe that was my problem as well. Anyway, Sunday Night at the Trocadero is worth a look for the rare chance to see Groucho on film as he really looked off-screen during this period.

Here's one of those "Hollywood stars" shorts. While some studios had specialty series like this -- particularly Columbia with its "Screen Snapshots", most studios dabbled, and when they dabbled in the 1930s, they called Lou Lewyn. He had cut his teeth on "Screen Snapshots", followed through with "The Voice of Hollywood" for Tiffany-Stahl, and then Paramount's "Hollywood on Parade." After that he went independent, with stars and aspiring players from every studio and rank.... and a couple of people of particular interest to fans of old movies, like Gaylord Carter, for decades the dean of silent film organists.

Anyway, it's some good music, some nice production numbers, and some stars in mufti. See if you recognize Groucho Marx without his painted-on eyebrows and mustache.

A vintage short from the 1930's, Sunday Night at the Trocadero is far from anything special. A typical short musical / comedy with no big stars to the cast. A handful of 30's eye candy is showcased at the fictional dinning club called the Trocadero. A group of well to do producers and self made men have dinner and share conversation as the room around them is alive. A group of girls sing and dance throughout the hall to gain attention. A struggling bell boy / wanna-be actor performs every five minutes to get hired on the Big Producer's next movie. Everyone in the cast seems to be working for food, let alone a pay check. For 21 minutes, the short provides beautiful musical numbers and quick "no so funny" one liners that really isn't worth watching for an audience member in the 21st century. To appreciate this movie, you need to be from the generation or know one of the actors in the film. All in all, an interesting vintage short that is like most short musicals of its time. Quick, simple, and worth the price of admission for its time, which was 10 cents.

Sunday Night at the Trocadero (1937)

*** (out of 4)

MGM short has Reginald Denny hosting three musical acts including Louis & Celeste, The Three Brian Sisters and Medina & Mimosa. The acts are singing inside the Trocadero, which has many famous faces including George Hamilton, Groucho Marx, Frank Morgan, Frank McHugh, Robert Benchley and Dick Foran. If you're a fan of any of these actors then you might want to check this out if you must see everything they've done but there are a lot of weaknesses here. For starters, the sound quality is very poor and I don't think this is an issue with the print shown on TCM. It really appears that the sound was recorded poorly and this leads to the issues. Another problem is that the comedy is just downright bad. The musical numbers are certainly worth listening to as are seeing the famous faces.

This short is one of 34 which are featured on Warner Archives Classical Musical Shorts From The Dream Factory.I am very puzzled by many of the reviews of the shorts.They don't seem to appreciate that in many instances an exhibitor would not be charged for these items which were gimme fillers.The fact that they had no or silly stories is entirely irrelevant.These films were often had one major purpose to promote the studio stars.Yes some of the films were what would now be considered racist or sexist,certainly UN pc.However you can't really project 21st century attitudes on to shorts which are now around 80 years old.If you are easily offended just turn off.These shorts are of their time and should be appreciated accordingly.