My Grandfather's Clock

This is a murder mystery sung all the way through. The two heroes are Vance & Holmes. After the murder is committed, Franklin Pangborn answers the call to the detective agency and sings his answers ( in a good tenor--who knew he could sing?). The main detective is in a nightclub, and when informed of events, he sings his goodbye, and then the nightclub employees and patrons all troop out to help solve the mystery (nobody forgets their drinks!). I won't say anymore so I don't spoil it, but the entire thing is well worth watching. Enjoy trying to identify the music- MGM's orchestra was good at mysteries!

When a murder is committed at Phwitterby-on-Thames, Franklin Pangborn (Dr. Watkins) summons Charles Judels (Philo Holmes) from a bevy of chorus girls to find the evil-doer, with much singing, dancing, two-strip Technicolor and recitiative.

When you're dealing with MGM musical shorts in this period, you're dealing with pretty much lunatic film-making, and this is a fine example of the sort of abstract burlesque you were likely to get, with lots of contemporary references and over-the-top production values. MGM looked upon their shorts department as a place for trying out trainees, and the more outrageous the production, the makers thought, the more likely they would be to be promoted.

The writer-director of this short, Felix Feist, was of this frame of mind. Born in 1910, he came to MGM doing uncredited writing on RED-HEADED WOMAN, directed shorts, and moved into MGM programmers. He closed out his career directing TV shows like VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and producing TV's PEYTON PLACE. He died in 1965.

A great little musical short which shows how incredibly versatile an actor Franklin Pangborn was.

Pangborn is probably best known for appearing with W.C. Fields in The Bank Dick. He also appeared in several Hal Roach produced comedies in the 1930s, most notably as photographer "Otto Phocus" in the Our Gang comedy, "Wild Poses" in 1933.

Probably the only place you can see this particular film is on one of those "short/filler" slots on the Turner Classic Movies channel, but if you do catch it, consider yourself truly lucky!

What also struck me as quite interesting was that, unlike in later musicals, the actors were not lip syncing to a previously recorded musical and vocal track. It's their own voices, captured on the soundtrack live as the cameras rolled.

In the 1930s, MGM made a string of so-called 'Colortone Musicals' and the ones I have seen are among the strangest and most watchable films of the era. The weirdest are among the best, such as "The Devil's Cabaret" as well as "What Price Jazz?"...but even the slightly less weird ones like "My Grandfather's Clock" are enjoyable...albeit strange!!

This entire film is told through song. Most of the songs are very familiar public domain tunes and the lyrics are occasionally pretty funny. It begins with the murder of an old man...as the killer was hiding inside the grandfather clock! So, they phoned for Philo Holmes and Dr. Watkins and they come to investigate...and sing!

This is a film that doesn't work completely. It's a bit more conventional than the really weird ones...but still keeps your interest. What also kept my interest was the color. While the films in this series were all made with the two-color process (producing a somewhat limited array of colors), this one looks MUCH better than I would ever expect. In particular, the blues you don't see in Cinecolor and Two-Color Technicolor are actually very blue. The purples are also very nice...so nice I actually think this IS an early form of Technicolor using the three-strip process. I had no idea any of the Colortones were truly full-color...but it sure seems more colorful than usual.

I caught this nutty little film by chance twice on Turner Classic Movies. The lyrics are hilarious so listen carefully. The ending is not only a "surprise" but just as silly as the rest of the film. The last couple of lines that begin with "Oh Grandpa, no..." are not to be missed. More than just amusing, it is funny.