Johnny Green & His Orchestra (1935)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Joseph Henabery

Release Date:

12 October 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Short | Music

Plot:

In a vacation resort setting, Johnny Green and His Orchestra, as well as unidentified guest acts, perform several popular songs. |

Plot Keywords:

Ampersand In Title | Punctuation In Title | Character Name In Title

Cast

Johnny Green	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Johnny Green and His Orchestra	...	Themselves

Runtime:

11 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Trivia:

Vitaphone production reel #1867.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Elmer calls his friend "Ray" (the performer's real name). A bit later, Zeke calls him "Marvin."

Soundtrack:

You're Mine, You!

Pardon the pun, but the "corn is Green"...

The JOHNNY GREEN that I know is the musician who did the wonderful score for MGM's RAINTREE COUNTY in the '50s, but here he's the leader of a swing band encouraged to play music to liven up some dull college atmosphere at a resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Unfortunately, none of the music--neither swing nor ballads nor country--includes anything memorable enough to sustain much interest and, believe me, "the corn is Green". It's hard sometimes to fathom what passed for reality in the good old days (a band appears out of nowhere to accompany the piano playing Green), and the hillbilly mountain music is a bit of a bore as performed by a western trio. None of the music is representative of the kind of musician Johnny Green became later on at MGM where he often conducted the studio orchestra.

The singers of the slow ballads have no charisma and the songs themselves are instantly forgettable. This is one musical short that falls far short of the mark for entertainment value alone. In other words, it's totally resistable.