I admit that I selected this not because of the amazing Jimmy Stewart at his bumbling best. Nor for Paulette, presumably Hollywood's greatest charm of the period.
No, I was drawn by Horace Heidt, the real life bandleader who stars under his own name here and carries his band with him. For some reason unfathomable to me, his bands always seemed to come out on the second tier of music history while lesser groups are remembered fondly. Ah well, I guess that's the music business, and he did well enough before he left it to be a professional investor.
I met the man in 1964, a time closer to this movie than to now. He said a few things to me about music that I have never heard as intelligently since. From anyone. About any art.
The story here is a well built one: a food magnate with a cannon in his plant (to puff rice) has a feud going with the boarding house next door which houses Horace's band. The businessman's nephew comes to town and falls in love with the innkeeper's daughter.
The device of the show is a radio show that Steward takes over and which hosts the band.
Its a musical and true to the form at the time, has no consistency to how the music finds an excuse to appear. Sometimes it is a show within the show. (Even then, there's some strangeness. A big number is for a radio audience, but morphs into an elaborately costumed dance stage routine.)
Sometimes it is somewhat real, with the band-members just breaking into song and that developing into a number. And sometimes its strangely internal, where the thing stops being real and itself becomes a show. I think this was not deliberate but a simple affirmation of what they thought the audience would accept. Much of the music (except the big stage number) is more musically exciting than what you normally find in movie musicals. I'd recommend it on that basis.
And there are some nifty cinematic jokes, too, a few quite clever mixed in with the corny ones.
The radio show in the movie was based on a real radio show of the same name and gimmick featuring Horace Heidt, so there's yet another fold for the show within the show.
If you don't care about the movie and its story (and few folks seem to with musicals) and you think of musical numbers more in terms of musical than big dance numbers, you will like this. You will.
Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
