Swingtime in the Movies (1938)

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.