On the Air

On the Air (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Leith Stevens and The Saturday Night Swing Club get top-billing on this Warner short that clocks in right around nine minutes. As with many of these type of shorts, this one here clearly has a low budget and this hampers the visual quality of the film as the camera pretty much just sits there and records the music. With that said, the visual style isn't what draws people to these films, it's the music and that there is quite good. Stevens and his Club do the supporting work for a few other musicians including a nice "It Had to Be You" with Les Lieber using a whistle. "The Swing Session Is Called to Order" is a catchy little number by Stevens and we also get a good "The Jazz Me Blues" by Bobby Hackett and His Band. "Tea for Two" features everyone together and sends the short out on a good note. Fans of music are certainly going to be the ones who get the most kick out of this as its nice seeing what type of entertainment was going around in 1939.

As a kid I remember Mel Allen quite well as the voice of the New York Yankees and I have to say this musical short subject from Warner Brothers is the first time I ever heard him in a non-sports setting. It was also interesting in that he seemed to be curbing his Alabama accent, probably at the behest of the producers. That accent got full range when he was announcing a Yankee game.

The bands of Leith Stevens and Bobby Hackett are featured in this short subject. So is singer Nan Wynn whom a lot of people would not recognize. She had a good voice, so good that among others she dubbed Rita Hayworth in a couple of films.

If you like the music of this era, you'll like On The Air.

I don't think I've ever heard of Leith Stevens, even though his IMDb credits show him with a lot of excellent credits, including music supervision on "Mannix" and "Mission Impossible" -- two TV shows with the most memorable music tracks outside of "Peter Gunn".

The short is simply set up and fairly typical for the music shorts of the era. The music shows a wide range of styles, including Big Band swing, a novelty version of "It Had to Be You" with a pennywhistle solo, a Dixie-style number, a ballad and a reprise of swing with "Tea for Two". The solos aren't much to write home about, but orchestration pulls out all the stops and the rapid cutting pushes it right along.