Product Details

• Actors: Mack Gordon, Jack Oakie, LeRoy Prinz, Harry Revel, Lyda Roberti
• Format: Black & White, Compilation, NTSC
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kino Video
• VHS Release Date: March 10, 1998
• Run Time: 78 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304557094
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #70,780 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > African American Cinema > African American Heritage > Black Music's Legacy

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Musical shorts in the early years of sound film were often surprisingly imaginative productions - and, before the coming of the Production Code in 1934, they could be fairly racy as well. This fourth volume of Kino on Video's Paramount Musical Shorts collections features some of the legends of stage and screen in eight oddball mini-musicals shot at Paramount's New York studio in Astoria, Queens. Cary Grant makes his film debut as a sailor cruising the Far East in Search of whoopee in Singapore Sue. In Rhapsody in Black and Blue, Louis Armstrong dons outlandish leopard-skin attire to stand knee-deep in soap bubbles, where he trumpets and sings, "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You," while in Insurance, a manic Eddie Cantor undergoes a balmy medical exam. Another medical check-up, by Dr. Rudy Vallee and Nurse Mae Questel in Musical Doctor, finds musical deficiencies to be the root of all ills. Also on top: serenades both operatic (tenor Nino Martini in Moonlight and Romance)and hayseed (All for the Band's Eddie Younger and His Mountaineers), and, in two 1931 shorts (Be Like Me and Old Man Blues), Ethel Merman showing the sweeter and more vulnerable side of her brassy personality.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Four Volume Set, January 6, 2001

By	Ibochild (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Melodies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you're not ready to roll out the bucks for the complete fourvolume set of HOLLYWOOD RHYTHM, this is the one to buy first. The mainreason is for the first short in this volume -- "Symphony inBlack." This marvelous short features Duke Ellington at the pianocomposing a new work. Intercut between those scenes are vignettesrepresenting the different movenents of the piece. One of whichfeatures a young (and uncredited) Billie Holiday as the scorned woman.Another features the provocative dancing of (also uncredited) Earl"Snake Hips" Tucker. Contemporary music video directorscould learn a lot from this piece with its stylish use of black &white photography and wonderful art direction.

Another reason tobuy this video is to see Bessie Smith's only film appearance in theshort "St. Louis Blues." Her power as a vocalist is evidentin this piece, which is also about a woman abandoned by a lover.Jimmy Morcedai is cold-blooded in another rare film appearance. Hisdancing is not half-bad either.

The other shorts don't quite rise upto the level of these two shorts. Some also feature some verystereotypical images, which were typical of this period. However,don't let that stop you from buying this video. "Symphony inBlack" alone is worth the price. It is an absolute masterpiece

4.0 out of 5 stars The Jazziest Blues., July 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Melodies [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I think this video is a must have for your blues and jazz collection. The short musical movies, are well put together. I especially like Duke Ellington's Bundle of blues, I didn't know the song stormy weather, was writen and sung before the 1940's. Ivie Anderson sung the song different or as good as Lena Horne. And the dance team right after, was very good. They did dances back then in the 1930's, the way ethnic nightclubs do now. The women were thin, but looked healthy. This video is a must see, some of the vidoes were a little boring, but the rest will make up for it.