Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . but I assume that Warner Bros. is making every effort to insure that such a thing is as unpleasant as it sounds. The "pepper pot" in question is formally titled HARRY WARREN: AMERICA'S FOREMOST COMPOSER. Hopefully, this is meant to be as tongue-in-cheek as it sounds, as the slicked-back greaser geezer presented here as Warren can scarcely be taken seriously. Ditto for the mixed company warbling his ditties. I can picture this dinner party as occupying the Fifth or Sixth Circle of Warren's Personal Hell, as a sad-sack crew of mealy-mouthed losers mangle, mumble, and otherwise masticate the lyrics to Warren's tunes. The infantile-voiced blonde is particularly grating, guaranteed to jangle a composer's last nerve. But this just HAS to be some sort of Warner's Roast (perhaps taken ten steps too far), as the camera pans in on a Mixologist loudly shaking a drink in the middle of a soft and now unintelligible love ode. As another soloist delivers one of Harry's hallmark hymns slumped over in her easy chair, cigarette smoke and booze fumes wafting everywhere, it's pretty clear that Mr. Warren's goose is pretty thoroughly cooked.
Michael_Elliott
Harry Warren: America's Foremost Composer (1933) *** (out of 4) Warner promotional short for their 42ND STREET has composer Harry Warren being asked to say a speech but he informs everyone that he's too shy so instead he does a few songs. You and Healthy, I Found a Million Dollar Baby, Would You Like to Take a Walk?, Have a Little Faith in Me and Forty-Second Street are just a few of the songs performed here. Yes, this is just a promotional piece but it's actually a very entertaining one and it thankfully doesn't just show clips from the motion picture. I really enjoyed how much life these songs were given not only by Warren but those dancing everything out. The film runs a brief 8-minutes but it's packed with great music, some nice visuals and enough action for two movies. I think most music experts would say Warren wasn't the "foremost composer" but it seems time has remembered him a lot better and he's been given a lot more credit than he was when this was originally released.
kidboots
A short subject featuring Harry Warren at the piano and other performers singing and dancing to a medley of his songs. A word of warning - the short I saw was obviously cut and Hal LeRoy (even though he was listed in the credits as "LeRoy") was not featured in the "Young and Healthy" number. There was also some dancing featured in "Shadow Waltz" but again he was not among the dancers.Okay, Harry Warren may not have been "America's Foremost Composer" but he was certainly among them and oh those songs. "The Shadow Waltz", "Young and Healthy", "Ooh That Kiss", "42nd Street", "Have a Little Faith in Me", "Crying for the Carolines", "Would You Like To Take a Walk" and "Cheerful Little Earful" are his songs featured in the short.
theowinthrop
This short was shown on Turner Classic Film Network at 7:40 P.M. today, and I watched it. It is not so unusual from other shorts from other studios. MASTER OF MELODY was a short from Paramount in 1930 starring Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. But Harry Warren is intriguing. He is now recognized as the equal (as a master song writer) to Herbert, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart (and Hammerstein), Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, Youmans, Weill, Styne, Bernstein, Sondheim, Lerner and Loewe , and a handful of others. Was he America's foremost composer? Not really - Gershwin had made a mark in serious music that Warren never did. In fact, Gershwin, Ives, Coplan, Hanson, and a few other composers of serious music have better claim to the title "America's Foremost Composer.Still it is a nice little film, with Warren playing his popular films (from the Warner Brothers musicals - like WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE A WALK or I FOUND A MILLION DOLLAR BABY (IN A FIVE AND TEN CENT STORE). Frequently new words are added to make the song fit the party atmosphere of the film (Warren is seated at a piano playing for his guests). The film ends with part of the FORTY SECOND STREET finale as a coming attraction. It was a good film short, and a glimpse of things to come in the next big film musical hit.
AD
