A bizarro musical revue that's ostensibly about the history of jazz but doesn't actually feature any jazz music.
There's a musical number late in the movie that sings about how jazz is a melting pot of music from around the world, and we see Scots, Irish, Germans, Americans, and any number of people from other countries get lowered into a gigantic cauldron to presumably be boiled into some sort of musical stew, but there's not a single black person among them. There are lots of completely forgettable musical numbers led by people like a young Bing Crosby, and one dazzling number featuring a limber woman being tossed around like a rag doll. There are some terrible little interludes containing jokes I didn't even understand (had to be alive then, I guess), and a couple that are actually really funny. The film is interesting for a little while as a bit of film history, entertaining for a bit longer to make fun of, but then just tiresome as it overstays its welcome by a good half hour.
Herman Rosse won the Academy Award for art direction for this film, and no wonder. Not only are the impressive sets one of the film's biggest selling points, but they're in color no less. It might be rudimentary color, but still.
Grade: C.
There's a musical number late in the movie that sings about how jazz is a melting pot of music from around the world, and we see Scots, Irish, Germans, Americans, and any number of people from other countries get lowered into a gigantic cauldron to presumably be boiled into some sort of musical stew, but there's not a single black person among them. There are lots of completely forgettable musical numbers led by people like a young Bing Crosby, and one dazzling number featuring a limber woman being tossed around like a rag doll. There are some terrible little interludes containing jokes I didn't even understand (had to be alive then, I guess), and a couple that are actually really funny. The film is interesting for a little while as a bit of film history, entertaining for a bit longer to make fun of, but then just tiresome as it overstays its welcome by a good half hour.
Herman Rosse won the Academy Award for art direction for this film, and no wonder. Not only are the impressive sets one of the film's biggest selling points, but they're in color no less. It might be rudimentary color, but still.
Grade: C.