Streamlined Swing (1938)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Boring

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Buster Keaton, at a low point in his career, directed this short subject about a new kind of swing band that plays musical instruments without actually playing them. It's a novelty act that never really caught on and it's easy to understand why.No use discussing the plot. It's merely an excuse to show these "swing singers" doing their thing singing for their supper in a streamlined railroad "Dinah".The black band is talented enough but the script is worthless, Keaton's direction is uninspired and the whole thing falls apart before "The End" is flashed on the screen.Forget about it.

I just discovered this rare musical short from M-G-M on the TCM site. It's directed by comedian Buster Keaton at a low point in his life when the studio he worked for had no use for his physical talents. The stars are the musical group The Original Sing Band, a group of African-Americans who don't play instruments but instead use their mouths to sound like them while others sing the lyrics of which two of the performed songs were written by Louisiana native Leon Rene. Actually, one of them does play the guitar. The flimsy plot has them getting "sold" a railroad car by a "millionaire" who plans to retire on his "yacht". They take it off the tracks and turn it into a diner called "Dinah" (get the play on words?). While there's some embarrassing dialect here, this was mostly entertaining stuff courtesy of the singing. Since the Original Sing Band appeared in one other short, this was a real find for me. I highly recommend Streamlined Swing.

Streamlined Swing (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Buster Keaton directed this MGM short showcasing the original Sing Band. Keaton's direction is a tad bit dated and lazy as he doesn't really do much when filming the musical numbers, which just happen to be the best thing about the film. The story written around the musical numbers is also rather lazy and routine.It's a shame MGM let Buster's acting career go down the drain but I guess we can be happy that he was working at all.Turner Classic Movies shows this every once in a while.

Because of the hostility of MGM head L. B. Mayer, who had little use for comedians, and personal and alcohol problems, Buster Keaton's star career was in eclipse by 1938. He somehow got assigned to direct this film, which is a mixed bag - but distinctly a lesser effort of the Great Stone Face. He does not appear in this one, which all in all is just as well.Racially this film is offensive, even though there is an element in the story that suggests that better things were possible for African Americans if Caucasian Americans would assist them. Even that though does not really help: the African-Americans act like stereotypes, who mangle English, and have subservient jobs. They are the staff of a private railway car, and we see them entertaining the owner and two other men by doing the first of three skat numbers, where they sing and also pretend to be the instruments of the band. This is entertaining, but the effect in the second number is hurt by the members of the band playing instruments that include faking trumpets with toilet plungers.The band is rewarded by the owner of the private car - he is billionaire - and he is going (he says) to live on his private yacht for the rest of his life and does not need the car. So as a gift it is given to them - but as he does not own the railroad and it's tracks they have to remove it from the tracks and take it elsewhere. He leaves the band astounded at their good fortune - but they don't see him taken under the care of a German Psychiatrist. This billionaire is as crazy as a loon (and so he can't make gifts of his property).The members of the band somehow manage to get the diner (they call it a "Dinah") down Wiltshire Blvd. in L. A. and set it on some land - where they proceed to rebuild it as a diner. And here was the one positive point of the entire wasted short - they were quite industrious, and were intent on making their new business a success. It was a moment in the films of that era that one struggled to find usually - rare to see African-Americans striving to succeed in our capitalist system. But the moment is quickly shattered, when their hard work is threatened by two detectives (the men who accompanied the mad billionaire earlier) threaten to arrest them on their opening night. They tell the men that the billionaire was suffering from hallucinations. When the President of the Railroad shows up as a satisfied customer who will give them the car as a gift, they politely reject his offer. They don't trust gifts from billionaires anymore.It's a lame conclusion and a let-down on the one positive point of the film that I appreciated. Keaton's directing is adequate, but nothing more. It will never be one of his memorable classics, or even his good films - it is rather forgettable quickly. It illustrates how his career was wasted for so many years for stupid reasons.