Syncopated City

Umpire straight buldg Hal proposes review using staff of building--works as mayor's assistant hal le roy songs and singing isn't very good laziest tapdance ever girl fire dept--with dance on ladder bit weird

In the early days of the Vitaphone shorts, the musical acts were very stilted and there was little, if any story. Generally, the band or performer just stood or sat stiffly in front of the camera and played or sang a song. A few years later, they decided to make little stories instead of these stagy performances...which led to an oddball film like "Syncopated City". It's hard to love nor hate this film. On one hand, the singing isn't very good and most of the songs aren't very impressive. But on the other, the story was so bizarre that it makes up for the sub-par singing.

The story is about some mayor and his assistant who works at the new Umpire Straight Building. The assistant (Hal Le Roy) convinces the mayor to have a variety show (huh??) but somehow things get all messed up...but in a good way. Along the way, you see some strange lady firefighters sing and dance...why? I have no idea. In fact, much of the film makes little sense...but it is somehow still cute and engaging.

Art deco folks, women dancing in white gowns with sequins trim; men in tuxedos with long ties, a city employee sitting down and tap dancing, women nurses singing to a patient with the lovely voices often heard in 1930's cartoons. And then the most bizarre sequence: some women running a fire station in tops and boots, but they've forgotten their pants as they slide down the pole.

Next is some art deco dance with women wearing hats in the shape of the top of the Empire State Building, which I guess they were constructing back then.

The get in the fire truck but when they arrive on the scene, they just dance on the stairs. One can't help but notice how chunky their thighs are, back in the era on the heels of flapper girls who were known to be rail thin. A bizarre sight, all these chunky thighs and 0 cellulite. I guess they didn't have collagen-destroying food additives back when!

A bizarre symphony but good to be immersed in the art deco era and see what the entertainment was like back then. Silly and weird but not bad at all, for what it is.

A bunch of sidewalk supervisors are watching a construction site. Since Hal Leroy has an appointment with the mayor, he'll suggest a fuller entertainment program. Next thing you know, there's a chorus line kicking up their heels, while Hal and Dorothy Dare are doing some ballroom dancing, earning the applause of the people sitting at their tables. So it's on to a singing tax collection agency in this Vitaphone short subject.

Leroy was a teenaged dancing sensation. He parlayed this into a Broadway career, the starring role in the movie version of HAROLD TEEN, and about a dozen and a half short subjects in the 1930s. He worked on Broadway at least through 1942, then in vaudeville and summer stock for the rest of his career. He died in 1985, Aged 71.

In Manhattan, people have gathered to watch a building under construction. Hal Le Roy has an idea and goes to the Mayor. He puts on a lavish production at the construction site. After some more convincing with the mayor, he starts performing dance numbers for the various departments in city government.

The fire fighter dance is pretty fun and the girls are in short shorts. The other departments could use better dance numbers. Hal can't be sitting down to do that tap. The skyscraper hats in the final performance remind me of Gremlins 2 and it's more ridiculous. This is fine for a nothing short.