Musical Justice (1931) User Reviews

This sweet early sound short has real charm in a minor key, I've seen it twice and it's really starting to grow on me.

[larry41onEbay · 7/10 · 6 January 2005]

SPOILERS: With high production values this musical short has laid back, 20's crooner Rudy Vallee as the "Judge of Musical Discretion" presiding over the "Court of Musical Justice." With the assistance of a jury of musicians, Vallee hears three separate cases. The first involves Rev. Yass Indeed of the Congregation of Exquisite Peace in the River Jordan vs. Choirmaster Henry Whitewash. As the Rev. Indeed tells it, he instructed his "lazy choir leader to give us a song" and he immediately swung into "something that upsets the dignity of my congregation." Whitewash claims that the Rev. spoke snappishly to him, so he sung snappily back. The jury, after retiring to the jury room and arguing through instrumental phrases, finds in favor of the Rev, and Vallee sentences Whitewash to "sing forever through a megaphone." Vallee quickly dispenses with the next case, a divorce, urging the couple to forget their quarrels through "A Little Kiss Each Morning, A Little Kiss Each Night." The final case is the State vs. Betty, in which the judge tells Betty Boop (in the person of Mae Questel) that "she has broken every law of music. . .this boop-boop-a-dooping must stop!" However, Boop's rendition of "Don't Take Away My Boop-Boop-a-Doop Away" results in a verdict of not guilty, and even an animated version of the statue of Justice gets into the act, dancing until her dress falls away. At first I gave it a 7, but it's almost an 8!

The People Vs. Betty Boop

[HarlowMGM · 7/10 · 23 October 2009]

This musical short may "star" Rudy Vallee, one of the most popular "crooners" of the era but it's main interest for many will be the chance to see actress Mae Questel, who did the voice of Betty Boop in most of the classic cartoon shorts, play Betty as a flesh-and-blood character. This ten-minute film has Vallee as the judge of "Musical Court" where he hears cases put before him. It's pretty much a trial itself for the audience to have to sit through the first two cases, number one being a feud between a black preacher and choir member that smacks of stereotypes, the second a lame divorce suit that is thrown out with a corny love song sung by Vallee. Finally bringing some much needed entertainment - and boop - into the proceedings is Ms. Betty Boop who is threatened with having her boop-boop-a-doop taken away due to her "assaults" against music. The irony of the film is that Mae Questel's number is by far the most delightful bit in the film and she has a music sensibility far more appealing to latter day audiences than erstwhile superstar Vallee.

I couldn't imagine liking this film without the Mae Questel segment and she alone is the reason for my rating of seven. It's a real treat to see the young Ms. Questel who in her old age became a fairly familiar character actress with appearances in Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen films and her long stint as "Aunt Bluebell" in television commercials for Scott Towels in the 1970's.

Puttin' some sport into court.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 28 November 2016]

There's a little more variety to be had in this energetic one reel short where Vallee uses his band in his trying of three cases-one featuring a black singing group where, horror of horrors, the defendant is doomed to sing with a megaphone, the next a divorce case where Vallee sings a love song to reconcile the couple. Finally, there's a live action version of Betty Boop, played here with zest by Mae Questel, not Helen Kane, singing a jazzy duet with Vallee called, "Don't take my boop boop a doop away". That's the highlight of this fast moving one reel short which ends with some very racy animation. Questel's presence adds more historical value considering that she would continue to boob boop a doop up until the late 1980's with her brief appearance in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"