Syncopation (1942)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Valentine Davies (story)
Philip Yordan (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 May 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | History | Music | Romance

Tagline:

Presenting THE ALL-AMERICAN DANCE BAND...Selected from among Readers in the SATURDAY EVENING POST POLL (original poster)

Plot:

Covering a quarter-century of American 'syncopated" music (Ragtime, Jazz, Swing, Blues, Boogie Woogie)from prior to WWI through prohibition...

Plot Keywords:

Singer | WWI | Jazz | Ragtime | WWII

US TV Schedule:

Wed. July 15

11:15 AM

TCM

Cast

Adolphe Menjou	...	George Latimer
Jackie Cooper	...	Johnny Schumacher
Bonita Granville	...	Kit Latimer
George Bancroft	...	Steve Porter
Robert Benchley	...	Doakes (scenes deleted)
Walter Catlett	...	Spelvin (scenes deleted)
Ted North	...	Paul Porter
Todd Duncan	...	Rex Tearbone
Connee Boswell	...	Herself, Connee Boswell
Frank Jenks	...	Smiley Jackson
Jessica Grayson	...	Ella Tearbone (as Jessie Grayson)
Mona Barrie	...	Lillian
Lindy Wade	...	Paul Porter - as a Child
Peggy McIntyre	...	Kit Latimer - as a Child
Charlie Barnet	...	Himself, Charlie Barnet

Runtime:

USA:88 min | USA:76 min (re-release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Soundtrack:

You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)

A delightful spectacle of various jazz's classic gems

The merits of this pictures lay rather in the execution of the great jazz scores than the plot itself - lacking and predictable, in a latest account. Starting by a little chronicle about the jazz development, from its African origins up 'till its further evolving into the New Orleans and Chicago style, the story approaches the career's flourish of a young trumpeter Cooper, who falls for a "stride" piano player during the Great War - portraying also the noble stratum's refractory and prejudicial attitudes against jazz valued as a 'vulgar' genre. A movie that certainly will apply the classic jazz lovers, with locations in Basin street and, at the end, a very special featuring of the most hot jazz players of the early 40's as Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Jack Jenny, Joe Venuti, and Alvino Rey, not forgetting the special appearance of Connie Boswell singing "under a falling star". As against another movies as "Alfie", "anatomy of murder" or "Ball of fire" which conciliate good scripts with good music (Sonnie Rollins, Duke Ellington and Roy Eldridge respectively), Syncopation, even unprovided of a consistent story, still is a delicious option in order to evoke one of the most fruitful music period in this century.