Cult Flops - King of Jazz

Universal, 1930
Starring Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, The Rhythm Boys, John Boles, and Jeanette Loff
Directed by John Murray Anderson
Music by various

Color has been an integral part of musical films almost since they debuted. Two-strip Technicolor, so called because strips of red and green were cemented together, was used frequently for musicals as late as 1932. This process couldn't show the full range of color - no blues or blue-based colors, and yellows could come out muddy - but it could still come out striking in the right hands. Theater director John Murray Anderson was renown for staging massive spectacles for Ziegfeld shows and would seem like the right person to helm this huge undertaking. Does this revue revolving around the music of the then-popular Paul Whiteman Orchestra still resonate today? Let's start with the first-ever color cartoon and find out...

The Story: There isn't one. Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra appear in or accompany a series of musical numbers and short comedy skits, hung together with the thread of Whiteman paging through his scrapbook of memories.

The Animation: The first cartoon is color gives us a good glimpse at the rubber-hose style of the Walter Lanz Studio at that time. Other than the color, it's pretty typical of the wacky shenanigans that turned up in shorts from the early 30's, with lots of slapstick, native stereotypes swaying in time to the music, and even a dance bit from Lanz's first major star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

The Song and Dance: What a show! The difference between this and other static early talkie revues like The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is staggering. Anderson keeps everything moving as much as possible with the technology of the time, even managing some pre-Busby Berkeley overhead and colored kaleidoscope shots during the "Rhapsody In Blue" number. Some of the comedy shorts are actually pretty cute too, especially William Kent lamenting his lost goldfish in "Oh! Forevermore" and the All Quiet on the Western Front spoof. Producer and Universal studio head Carl Lammale threw everything the studio had into this one, and it shows, from the glittering ruffled costumes to the gigantic turquoise piano and tons and tons of extras.

Favorite Number: The opening credits and cartoon is accompanied by "Music Hath Charms," sung by none other than Bing Crosby. Crosby also joins the other Rhythm Boys for the jaunty "Mississippi Mud" and "When the Bluebirds and the Blackbirds Get Together." They get together with the Brox Sisters as one of the many couples who perform on "A Bench In a Park." John Boles goes romantic in the ballad "It Happened In Monterey" with lovely Spanish chorus dancers and rousing with a chorus of cowboys in "Song of the Dawn."

Soprano Jeanette Loff sings of her mother's "Bridal Veil" as beautifully bedecked brides and flower children of centuries past serenely glide past her, ending with her and her groom (Stanley Smith) showing off that massive veil on a wide staircase. "Ragamuffin Romeo" starts with singing street urchins Jeanne Lang and George Chiles and ends with amazingly limber dancers Don Rose and Marion Stadler as another urchin and his rag doll. Some incredibly rubber-limbed dancing, this time from Al Norman, also figures into the surreal and imaginative version of "Happy Feet," with women's heads singing from a shoe box.

The three big numbers all revolve around jazz or music history or making music. Whiteman appears to pull the members of his orchestra out of his pocket, then lets later-famous jazz men like Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang do their thing in brief solo bits. "Rhapsody In Blue" (or really in turquoise in the recent restoration) has Gershwin look-a-like Roy Bargy at the piano as dancer Jacques Cartier performs Hollywood's idea of a primitive native ritual, then joins lines of beauties with feather fans in a fanciful dance routine that ends with the fans becoming a kaleidoscope of turquoise. "The Melting Pot" is more problematic today, given how many European countries and their music are sited, complete with fanciful national costume and songs, but not one reference to jazz's start in African rhythms.

Trivia: This was originally going to a biography about Whiteman, then a linear backstage story. Whiteman and his band sat around for two months while Universal tries to think of a good plot to stuff his famous songs in. By the time they gave up and turned it into a plotless revue, Whiteman and his band had gone back east for other engagements and had to be coaxed back.

Anderson's work here did get good reviews, but he ran way over budget and feuded with Lammele. He was only called to Hollywood twice more, to devise water pageants for Esther Williams in her 1944 vehicle Bathing Beauty and three-ring glitter for Cecil B DeMille's Oscar-winning 1952 circus drama The Greatest Show On Earth.

Bing Crosby makes his film debut here. He was originally going to sing "Song of the Dawn," but got arrested for drunk driving shortly before shooting and was replaced by Boles.

Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra were one of the most popular groups of the 1920's. They were so huge at the time, Whiteman's nickname was "King of Jazz." Truthfully, Whiteman's style was more "20's pop music" rather than "jazz" as most people know it today. He was better known for being able to bring together genuinely talented musicians, like Lang, Bargy, Venuti, and Bix Beiderbecke. (The last-named had already left the outfit before they went west.)

The film was released at 105 minutes. Current restored prints run 99 minutes; most prior prints ran 93. It was cut to 65 minutes for a 1933 re-release, then returned to 93 minutes for home video. Older prints also "color correct" the "Rhapsody In Blue" number to accurately reflect the color blue.

What I Don't Like: Some of the more vaudeville-flavored routines are a little too goofy, especially Wilbur Hall playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever" with a bicycle pump and Jack White's "Oh, How I'd Love to Own a Fish Store." A few of the blackout sketches haven't dated well, either. There are also rare times when this being an early talkie does show, especially with many long shots of chorus girls doing high kicks that go on forever.

The biggest problem is that time has changed people's perception of who really made American music. The native stereotypes in the animated short and the "Rhapsody In Blue" dance (the dancer wasn't even black) may offend some folks today, as will the lack of references to the importance of African rhythms and chants to the creation of jazz and popular music as we know it in "The Melting Pot."

The Big Finale: While I wouldn't call it a "masterpiece" like some people online, it's definitely one of the more fascinating and beautiful early talkie revues and deserves a lot more love.

Home Media: The Criterion Collection put Universal's restored print on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2018. The DVD is out of print; the Blu-Ray is the one you'll want to look for.

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