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ComedyMusic

Swingtime in the Movies

User Score12 votes
59%5.9/10
Release1938
Runtime0H 20M
LanguageEnglish
StatusReleased

Synopsis

In this musical short, a waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary gets her big break.

Principal Cast8

Full Cast & Crew (34)

Media4

Backdrops

Swingtime in the Movies backdrop 1
Swingtime in the Movies backdrop 2

Posters

Swingtime in the Movies poster 1
Swingtime in the Movies poster 2

Director

Crane Wilbur

Crane Wilbur

Director →

Certification

NR

Keywords

short film

External Links

Reviews1

CinemaSerf6/10

I bet there were quite a few Hollywood directors who might have seen a bit of themselves in the “Nitvitch” character amiably portrayed here by Fritz Feld. He has a musical in the pipe called “Texas Tornado” and is struggling to find a leading lady who can speak with a Texican accent. Then, as luck would have it, a visit to a staff canteen full of real-life stars supping their 1930s equivalent of a kale smoothie and aspiring actresses who fawn at him, he discovers waitress “Joan” (Kathryn Kane) who has just the voice he’s been seeking. Thing is, though, can she act, or sing, or learn lines? It’s fair to say that his film is really just a portmanteau of themes from the western genre, so we have plenty of opportunity for her to show off her skills on stage and off whilst we take a pop at the vanity of the industry and the pomposity of directors who do that daft thing with their eyes through the square of their fingers. It’s all very predictable, but I think that’s part of the joke. How many movies did we ever sit down to watch and not know just what was going to happen at the end after five minutes? It pings the world of shallow characterisations, derivative writing and is actually quite an entertaining little twenty minutes. It is almost certainly not what you’d expect, given it’s title, so give it a go.

Jul 13, 2025

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Countries:United States of America
Production:Warner Bros. PicturesThe Vitaphone Corporation