This is one of the newest of the Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally had been more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff. However, starting during the war years these shorts began to have a narrator and purported to give a bit of background on the band leader.
The beginning of the film is interesting as it goes from seeing a supposedly young Savitt playing Bach to his later playing a big band version of Bach. I personally wished they'd stayed with more of this but it became more typical big band music--including the standard "Some Sunday Morning". Through the course of the film, you see lots of different acts--singers, dancers and even some young acrobats (this is a bizarre addition and didn't at all fit with the film). Overall, despite a promising beginning, the music and short are very average with nothing more to distinguish them. where's the theme?!
The beginning of the film is interesting as it goes from seeing a supposedly young Savitt playing Bach to his later playing a big band version of Bach. I personally wished they'd stayed with more of this but it became more typical big band music--including the standard "Some Sunday Morning". Through the course of the film, you see lots of different acts--singers, dancers and even some young acrobats (this is a bizarre addition and didn't at all fit with the film). Overall, despite a promising beginning, the music and short are very average with nothing more to distinguish them. where's the theme?!