Underneath the Broadway Moon

For anyone like me, accustomed to how the Vitaphone shorts division in Brooklyn shot their musical shorts during the 1930s, this musical short from Fred Waller at Paramount is fascinating: varying and telling camera angles, unusual wipes (in which songs are introduced by the turning leaves of sheet music, an effect I've noticed before only in Raoul Walsh's WILD GIRL) and sequences in which we see little fantasies based on the song.

Isham Jones was one of the two top dance band leaders of this period -- the other was Paul Whiteman -- and the energy and verve of his band show why. The best number is a swing version of Liszt's Second Hugarian Rhapsody. The worst is the Eton Boys' version of the Jimmy Durante standard, "Inka Dinka Do" in which they do imitations of various singers doing the song. Still, the music is excellent and the visuals are first rate.