Freddie Rich and His Orchestra

This is a short from Vitaphone and it can be found on the "Warner Brothers Big Band, Jazz & Swing" DVD collection. This set consists of six DVDs and almost 11 hours of shorts! "Freddie Rich and His Orchestra" is a very typical sort of short. It consists of Freddie Rich and his band playing a few tunes. And apart from a guitarist wanting to do a number, it's all VERY conventional. It's simply music and no story or hook to excite the viewer. And, I know opinions will differ, but I found this music amazingly dull and uneventful. Now I must admit that I am not a huge fan of big band, but even for this sort the film is pretty limp. The short lacks humor and especially energy. As a result, it's a below average film compared the most of the rest of the set.

This is a good musical short that I caught just in time and recorded from Turner Classic Movies. This great Big Band short is rarely seen, but when seen you'll watch it over and over. 10 mins long but its very full. Great Band, Great Female Singers. Nan Wynn is what you call a Big Band Singer, she got that sweet, clear voice, and The Three Symphonettes are one of the many great girl singers of the time. This is music wihtout the nudity and cursing, that tells what love is really all about. If you can catch this short, your lucky.

This is a great swing jazz short featuring the Freddie Rich Orchestra. The main highlight is the lovely Nan Wynn and the Three Symphonettes singing "The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond" (WOW!! Nan Wynne makes me wonder how anybody could love today's singers — her voice is so pure, so sweet) Watching the expressions on her face while she's singing is mesmerizing. The short is capped off by amazing guitar fretwork by Joe Sodja on "Chinatown, My Chinatown." His playing is similar to Les Paul, and he's absolutely smokin'! The guitarwork is extremely fast and equally impressive. There are also nice cutaway shots of Freddie Rich's band members. This short is one I truly wish I had recorded in some format — I'd love to see it again.

Well sung, well performed, well shot. This is a marvelous representation of a band orchestra at play with sweet female singers on songs with catchy tunes. See it and see it again!!

Freddie Rich & His Orchestra (1938)

*** (out of 4)

This group probably isn't remembered by many today but those who see this short will certainly enjoy it. Freddie Rich does a terrific job with his band doing a handful of numbers and all of them will have you feet twitching with entertainment. The highlight of the short is probably 'You're an Education', which features Freddie Rich and his group doing the music while The Three Symphonettes do the singing. The song is up-tempo and the voices and music go so well together that it's nearly impossible not to get moving to it. Another good number is 'Chinatown My Chinatown' which seemed to be a popular number for these Warner/Vitaphone shorts as I've caught it used in a few other shorts. If you a fan of these Big Band groups then you should enjoy this one. Rich is quite energetic and he certainly knows how to play up to the camera as I'm sure many women were quite happy to see him on a large screen. The rest still have some great music to enjoy.