Swing High (1930)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Fantastic!

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

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A fairly ambitious Pathe musical from 1930, set in a traveling circus of the 1880s, this one's no neglected masterpiece, but it does show how quickly the talkies were learning to tell stories with, and through, song. A barely-singing Helen Twelvetrees is the put-upon heroine, wooed by nice-but-weak Fred Scott, and threatened by an unscrupulous Dorothy Burgess, who played this kind of part over and over, and well. The emphasis is on how the circus is a real community, an extended family, with good guys and bad guys, and on the strong woman/weak man pairing, and Helen's Cap'n Andy-like protector. I'm guessing Pathe had Show Boat in mind quite a lot when they made this. The songs aren't Kern quality, but they're OK, and there's at least a passing relationship between some of them and the plot. It's more than capably directed by Joseph Santley, nicely shot, and has some fun supporting players, including Stepin Fetchit, who's alternately delightful and cringe-inducing. There's an exciting if predictable climax, and Scott, who later became both a singing cowboy and an opera star, while goofy-looking, partners well with the delicate Ms. Twelvetrees. Among forgotten musicals of 1930, and there are many, this is one of the more impressive.

There's jealousy amongst the lovely trapeze ladies in this circus musical melodrama which is very similar in nature to the same year's "Dangerous Curves", starring Clara Bow, Richard Arlen and Kay Francis. Romantic duets and Negro spirituals (as they were called back then) interrupt the drama every five minutes in this story of the vixen (Dorothy Burgess) who threatens to come between circus sweethearts Helen Twelvetrees and Fred Scott, as well as the mystery of who has been embezzling from the coffers. While the romantic duets may threaten your ability to stay awake, a production number (with the black servants putting together the circus tent while singing) is spectacularly staged. I found Stepin Fetchit's slow drawl difficult to understand at times (and slightly off-putting) but other character performers were rich in characterization. The finale where the villain is confronted is spectacularly suspenseful and makes up for the slow spots. But for a low budget film this early in the sound era, it is surprisingly lavish and overstocked with extras in the key circus scenes.

SYNOPSIS: Uninvited, a medicine show tags along with a traveling carnival and draws customers away, much to the displeasure of the carnival's ringmaster, who threatens the medicine show with violence. However, Maryan, the daughter of the carnival's owner, persuades her father to offer the medicine show people (Doc May and his wife, plus Garry, a singer) a role in the carnival instead. Needless to say, romance soon blossoms between Maryan and Garry, but Trixie – Maryan's partner in an aerial act – also has eyes for Garry and decides to sabotage this love affair.COMMENT: Exuberantly produced on a budget which seems to have no limits, director, Joseph Santley does wonders with the first reel of this movie and for a while there, it seems we are in for a real treat. Our expectations are savaged, however, right at the beginning of the second reel when the camera focuses on, of all people, that disgrace to the entire acting profession, that squirmingly unfunny "comedian", Stepin Fetchit. In the space of one or two minutes, Mr Fetchit manages to efface all the goodwill inspired by the first reel. The movie never recovers, even though there are some good scenes ahead with both Fred Scott and Little Billy.For some reason, the normally super-lovely, super-lively Dorothy Burgess is somewhat muted here, even though she has a main role to carry. No doubt producer and director were bending themselves double to "protect" Helen Twelvetrees, who looks old and haggard, and whose acting is more reminiscent of a silent photoplay than a sound film. A rather hammy and unlikely turn of the screw in the plot at the climax doesn't help either.The movie still has its moments, but never regains the heights of that first tuneful, crowded with extras, slyly satirical first reel.AVAILABLE on a middling DVD from Grapevine. The all-important first reel, most fortunately, is great, but quality tends to trickle downhill from there. Also the movie has been cut from 92 minutes to a mere 75. But maybe this is our good fortune. I suspect that more than a few of those missing minutes featured Mr Fetchit, who is given a tiresomely long-winded introductory scene but then virtually disappears. Also short-changed is Ben Turpin who "enjoys" a couple of fleeting close-ups -- and that's all!

GREETINGS & SALUTATIONS! "Swing High," (1930) is about a circus aerialist who fights to keep her lover out of the hands of a scheming woman. It stars Chester Conklin, Stepin Fetchit, Helen Twelvetrees, and Ben Turpin. However, it is Stepin Fetchit who breathes life into this musical. Stepin Fetchit was born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Albert Perry in Key West, Florida sometime between 1892 and 1902; the son of a cigar maker. He left home in 1914 to pursue a show business career, joining the Royal American Shows plantation revues. Years later he is said to have taken his stage name from a Baltimore racehorse that had inspired him to write a routine for himself and his stage partner of the time, Ed Lee. They billed themselves as "Step 'n' Fetchit: Two Dancing Fools from Dixie." After splitting with his partner, Fetchit kept the name for himself as he spent long, arduous years in the vaudeville circuit. He provided comic relief in many films during the Depression years. Respectfully yours, Sarge Booker