User Reviews

As sweet music moved into the swing era, Phil Spitalny managed to survive by converting to an all girl orchestra and it is what he is best known for today. The all girl orchestra isn't what you see here. Instead we've got a nice musical fantasy.

Vitagraph shorts such as you see here were produced almost as an afterthought by major studios. Doesn't mean however that no care went into their production. This was a major outlet for people like Spitalny to sell records or if they had radio shows to get folks to tune in.

Without a spoken word and the Spitalny orchestra used as background music, a young girl from the old country arrives in native costume and takes a musical tour of New York City. She's searching for the neighborhood she would fit in and she gets quite away uptown before she finds her people. Everything from The Bowery, O Sole Mio, 42nd Street, and Stormy Weather gets played.

As good as any music video today.

A VITAPHONE MELODY MASTER Short Subject.

A sweet Hungarian maiden has a musical BIG CITY FANTASY as she searches for her father's cousin in America's grandest metropolis.

This touching little film uses music most effectively to show the young woman's odyssey through the various sections of New York City--Jewish, Italian, African-American, etc. It is a fine example of what could be achieved in a very few minutes of screen time with skill on both sides of the camera.

That's a swing version of Liszt's 'Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2' which Phil Spitalny's Orchestra performs during the opening sequence of the film. Movie mavens will remember director Joseph Henabery for his moving performance as Abraham Lincoln in D. W. Griffith's monumental THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915).

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

I was very surprised when this short began. I noticed in Phil Spitalny's orchestra that there were two women playing as well--a guitarist and an accordianist. Such things were pretty much unknown back in the day and the only women you saw with these swing bands were the singers...some of which were women. And, you also had a few all-girl bands...but I cannot recall another Vitaphone short with actual members of the band being men AND women. In addition to applauding Spitalny for this, you have also admire the music--and the tunes are very lively, well orchestrated and quite moving.

Much of the short is a vignette of a woman immigrating to America in the days of Ellis Island--and she's played by the band's guitarist. So, scenes of her new life in New York City are interspersed with shots of the band as they perform and sing a variety of tunes. Ultimately the immigrant sings a lovely tune--and what a voice! It's an unusual Vitaphone short--and has a real cinematic quality about it.

Among the songs you hear, you'll hear "42nd Street" and "Stormy Weather"--complete with a few clips of the famous Cotton Club. There also is a lot of ethnic music--such as Romani and Jewish tunes.

Overall, this short took me by surprise and turns out to be one of the best I've seen from Vitaphone...an amazingly well made short.

Big City Fantasy (1934)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent Musical from Warner about a Hungarian woman who travels to New York City trying to locate her father's cousin. As she tours various parts of the city (Harlem, the Bowery, Hester Street) she learns about the various music types that often depend on ethics. This Vitaphone production certainly isn't anything ground breaking and you're not going to find it on any lists of the greatest films ever made but if you've got 9-minutes to kill then it's worthy entertainment. The film starts off with Phil Spitalny and His Orchestra doing a fine number and from here on out we get songs from Al Dubin, Eduardo Di Capua and Percy Gaunt. None of the songs are terrific or ones that you'll be singing over and over but they're all rather catchy and mix in with the story nicely. I thought the way the film showed off the various styles was an interesting one and director Henabery keeps things moving at a nice pace.