Director:
John Murray Anderson
Year: 1930
Rating: 7.5
The restored version of this film from Criterion is so pristine and sharp
with colors so gorgeous that it will take your breath away. This for a 1930
film shot in two-color Technicolor. There is no story here - just a musical
revue led by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra with many songs and a few comedy
skits. Produced by Universal, they initially tried to write up a real script
but after many bad ideas they just said screw it - just do music. The songs
are very hit and miss for a modern audience - some so old fashioned I expected
my grandfather to climb out of his grave and sing along - but some are knockouts
- big productions that hint at what is to come with Busby Berkeley just ahead.
One of the most colorfully eye-popping numbers is a rendition of Rhapsody
in Blue. Whiteman had commissioned George Gershwin to compose this back in
1924. Another standout is a song called Happy Feet that begins with the vocal
group The Rhythm Boys, then jumps to two surrealistic female talking heads,
then to a dancer who looks to be a human rubber band to a finale with a line-up
of female dancers tap dancing. You may recognize one of the singing Rhythm
Boys in his first film appearance - Bing Crosby - before he went solo and
went big. At the time of the film he was actually in jail for drunk driving
doing a 40-day sentence but being let out in the day to work on the film.
But most of these performers are long forgotten, even Paul Whiteman to a
large degree. But there was no band leader more popular back in the early
20's to the mid-30's than Whiteman. He was making over a million dollars
a year. His orchestra played all sorts of songs but he was given the moniker
The King of Jazz which may seem more than a bit ironic today considering
his name - white man - and his being in fact very white. He comes across
as a cherubic chubby man-child with the smallest moustache in the world.
But he was a brilliant orchestrator and band leader. But still, The King
of Jazz in a musical genre that was clearly created by blacks with many great
performers back then. But that was the power of being white in being able
to appropriate black music and call it your own. But that is being unfair
to Whiteman. He tried to bring on black musicians, used black composers and
arrangers and helped many young black musicians. But he was basically told
that he could not use black musicians and perform publicly. And so this film
is as white as a Christmas Day in New England. And none other than the Duke
said Whiteman deserved that nickname more than anyone else.