Borrah Minnevitch and His Rascals play popular songs on their harmonicas.Borrah Minnevitch and His Rascals play popular songs on their harmonicas.Borrah Minnevitch and His Rascals play popular songs on their harmonicas.
Photos
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIncluded as a theatrical short with the film Desperate Journey in 1942.
- SoundtracksAlways in My Heart
(uncredited)
Written by Ernesto Lecuona (song "Siempre en mi corazón")
English lyrics by Kim Gannon
Performed by Borrah Minevitch and His Rascals
Sung during the ping pong ball bit and after the ballet
Featured review
Not quite as memorable as the earlier shorts with Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals
This is one of the newest of the Vitaphone shorts--known as a "Melody Master". These later musical shorts generally had been more straight forward and had simpler sets and no real story to tie it all together--just a famous band of the day doing their stuff. However, starting during the war years these shorts began to have a narrator and purported to give a bit of background on the band leader.
Of all the Vitaphone musical shorts I have seen, perhaps my favorite was made in the mid-1930s and it featured Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals. It was so peppy, funny and weird that I was longing to see more. Fortunately, the DVD set "Warner Brothers Big Band, Jazz & Swing Short Subject Collection" DID have another Borrah Minevitch short, though this time he's billed not with his Harmonica Rascals but with his Harmonica School. And, having seen the two films only a day apart, it was obvious that the band was completely different. While there was STILL a black man and a midget (yes, a midget), the members appeared all-new and younger. This worked with the short because it was supposed to be set in a school--and so old guys would have made no sense if they were supposed to be students.
As far as the cast goes, once again, Minevitch was the king of inclusion. Whether or not he was trying to exploit the vertically challenged, he did feature overweight characters, the young and, in some cases, the not particularly attractive. This is NOT a complaint--actually I loved how the film did not feature the typical clone-like actors or singers. All in all, a lot of fun and it is wild having this much sound coming out of such an amazing array of harmonicas!
Of all the Vitaphone musical shorts I have seen, perhaps my favorite was made in the mid-1930s and it featured Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals. It was so peppy, funny and weird that I was longing to see more. Fortunately, the DVD set "Warner Brothers Big Band, Jazz & Swing Short Subject Collection" DID have another Borrah Minevitch short, though this time he's billed not with his Harmonica Rascals but with his Harmonica School. And, having seen the two films only a day apart, it was obvious that the band was completely different. While there was STILL a black man and a midget (yes, a midget), the members appeared all-new and younger. This worked with the short because it was supposed to be set in a school--and so old guys would have made no sense if they were supposed to be students.
As far as the cast goes, once again, Minevitch was the king of inclusion. Whether or not he was trying to exploit the vertically challenged, he did feature overweight characters, the young and, in some cases, the not particularly attractive. This is NOT a complaint--actually I loved how the film did not feature the typical clone-like actors or singers. All in all, a lot of fun and it is wild having this much sound coming out of such an amazing array of harmonicas!
helpful•10
- planktonrules
- Aug 28, 2011
Details
- Runtime10 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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