Kiddie Revue

There is a gimmick to this film that is not at all obvious unless you know something about early sound films. The whole purpose of this short film was to spoof the Hollywood Revue of 1929 made a few months before this short. That film had Jack Benny - he wasn't even 39 yet - introducing various acts in the style of a vaudeville show to prove that MGM had the talent that could perform in talking pictures. The kid emceeing this short is supposed to be imitating Jack Benny as he performed in that film. That is the reason for his strange speech and behavior. Even the art deco style of the Hollywood Revue is being copied.

The film has all child actors, and I'm not sure what the reason is for the sepia tone. They had two strip Technicolor at the time. Maybe they were aiming for something between the high cost of Technicolor and plain old black and white. At any rate, if you love the experimental nature of those old shorts, I'd say give this one a try. It certainly is not boring.

WE KNOW THAT the big studios used their short subjects departments in order to try out some new ideas, players, directors or anything that would be considered Avant Gaade. In this manner, the studio honchos could at once recoup some of the $$$$ expended while at the same time assure that the short would be screened by the public as part of the regular playbill at their local movie house.

WELL, WE SURELY hope that this is so.

THIS SHORT IS one done to showcase the talents of a group of young would-be performers, most of which were gifted in either song or dance. It was sort of like an early version of the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB, sans the MOUSKETEER EARS. We can only surmise these assertions, but we'd be glad to wager that there was a whole slough of Stage Mothers on hand, waiting in the wings. You wanna bet, Schultz!

ALTHOUGH THIS WAS filmed in that early 2 Strip Technicolor process, the color, such as it is, seems to have run together and blurred into a pinkish coral look. And we all know how painful that can be! For what survives, that old practice of using Sepia tone on B & W film would have done just as well or even better.

THIS PRIMORDIAL SOUND track is faint, scratchy in sometimes nearly inaudible; which is how my family says I have become in my "Middle Age."

Kiddie Revue (1930)

** (out of 4)

MGM short is certainly a product of its time and in the end only works as an interesting note in history. A partial remake of Hollywood REVUE OF 1929, the film has a young boy introducing various musical acts, all with children of course. I must say watching this thing was rather painful because of how dull it was. The musical numbers are quite lame and the lackluster direction doesn't help matters because the camera just stays in one place without any cutting or excitement. This was probably due to the early sound era but a little more could have been done. The musical acts really aren't anything special and come across as something you'd see at any elementary school. It's interesting to note that some of the music was written by George Waggner who would later go onto direct several Universal horror movies including THE WOLF MAN, HORROR ISLAND and MAN MADE MONSTER.

Caught The Kiddie Revue on TMC, which plays it as a One Reel Wonder. This is a really fun short. The tuxedoed tyke who introduces the acts looks like a tiny adult and has real style. The highlight is a group of four girls who sing the 'Poop-a-Doop' song, which is amazingly cute, adorable and hilarious, and let me say, those gals really sing it well. There's dance acts and various weirdness, like a tap-dancing contortionist, and some of it's kinda dull, but it all ends in a rousing finale where almost all the little kiddies dance and belt out the catchy 'Poop-a-Doop.'

The film is sepia tone and seems to have been reconstructed, since there are several frame drop-outs which may indicate a re-splicing. I'm glad this one was saved. It's well worth the ten or fifteen minute investment of your time.

Douglas Scott acts as master of ceremonies for this series of stage acts for younger-than-adult performers. Sctt is a small child himself, but a practiced performer. This was his tenth movie.

Most of it is staged by Gus Edwards. Although child performers have fallen from favor in the almost a century since this was made, they made up a sizable portion of the performing world. Edwards was the leading show man of this sort of performance, leading many a troupe, writing many of songs (among them "School Days") and finding many a child performer. The ones here, ranging, I'd guess, from 5 to 14, are actually pretty good. If nowadays people think that's a bit freakish, bear in mind that if you decide to become a ballet dancer at the age of 19, you're at least ten years too old. I'll agree the tap-dancing contortionist is weird, but that act would be weird at any age.