Sweet and Low-Down (1944)

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to move on to their next engagement at a military camp, when a kid, Tony Birch, ... See full summary »

Director:

Archie Mayo

Writers:

Richard English (screen play), Richard English (original story),

Stars:

Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Benny Goodman and His Orchestra	...	(as Benny Goodman and His Band)
Linda Darnell	...	Trudy Wilson
Jack Oakie	...	Popsy
Lynn Bari	...	Pat Stirling
James Cardwell	...	Johnny Birch
Allyn Joslyn	...	Lester Barnes
John Campbell	...	Dixie Zang
Roy Benson	...	Skeets McCormick
Dickie Moore	...	Military Cadet General 'Mogie' Cramichael
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Benny Goodman	...	Leader of His Band

Storyline

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to move on to their next engagement at a military camp, when a kid, Tony Birch, steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to hear his brother, Johnny Birch, play the trombone. Goodman offers him a job, over Popsie's protest, with the band. Aboard the train, Johnny accidentally enters the compartment of the band's singer, Pat Sterling, and gets his face slapped. At the military camp, which turns out to be a boy's military academy (which accounts for juvenile players such as Dickie Moore and Harry McKin running around with such titles as General and Major), Goodman finds a real audience in the jive-mad, jitterbug kids. Masquerading as a sweet, 16-year-old girl friend of one of the cadets who is, in reality, her nephew, Trudy Wilson meets her old friend Goodman who introduces her to Johnny, whose music she admired. However, ...

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Plot Keywords:

trombone | tenement | singer | train | clarinet | 

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Genres:

Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 January 1945 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Benny kommer till stan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hollywood Reporter production charts listed June Haver in the cast, but she did not appear in the movie.

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Soundtracks

"Let's Dance"
(1935) (uncredited)
Written by Fanny Baldridge, Josef Bonime and Gregory Stone
Performed by the Benny Goodman Orchestra

User Reviews

Good music by a Master.

Benny Goodman's music is what makes this film. Bad plot, but it somehow must have impressed Woody Allen to have him rework it into a 1999 film. The trombone playing was dubbed by Bill Harris, then playing in Benny Goodman's band. Harris is considered one of the outstanding jazz and swing trombone players of all time. Too bad he wasn't on screen in a talking part, but he is seen in the action shots of the band playing. He would have bested Benny Goodman in acting.