King of Jazz (1930) on Netflix
A revue with no story to connect its parts: musical numbers, comic blackouts and staged tableaux follow one another. Early on, the band's virtuoso players and a vocal trio appear.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/101,966 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
The revue has no story continuity, only a run of musical numbers separated by short comedy sketches with abrupt punch lines, plus linking segments. The songs are chosen to please different ages in turn: a sentimental bridal number staged with a huge veil, a waltz-time tune crooned in a lush setting, a barn number with a chorus of ranch hands in red shirts, and a jazzy song aimed at the young. A dance band's virtuoso players get an early introduction, and a vocal trio is seen performing at home. Comedy ranges from the mildly risque to the silly, and one featured line of chorus girls dances while seated. The band's leader soothes a lion with a violin in an animated passage.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about King of Jazz (1930)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bing Crosby went on benders while filming King of Jazz, crashed his car on Hollywood Boulevard, nearly killing his female passenger, and was jailed for 60 days after wise-cracking to a judge; Paul Whiteman replaced him with John Boles on "The Song Of The Dawn".
- Paul Whiteman insisted his orchestra's numbers be pre-recorded, over Universal's objections, making King of Jazz the first feature-length film to use a mostly pre-recorded soundtrack made independently of the actual filming.
- Because Technicolor's green dye could only sometimes pass for blue, the "Rhapsody in Blue" number had art director Herman Rosse and production director John Murray Anderson test fabrics and pigments and use an all gray-and-silver background to set off the bluish aspect.
- King of Jazz marked the first film appearance of Bing Crosby, who was then a member of Whiteman's vocal trio, the Rhythm Boys.
- The film included the first Technicolor animated cartoon segment, made by animators Walter Lantz, later famous for Woody Woodpecker, and Bill Nolan.
- After King of Jazz cleared less than $900,000 and was nicknamed "Universal's Rhapsody in the Red", Paul Whiteman had to let ten band members go and cut the salaries of the rest by fifteen percent.
- During the 1930s the film found its best audience in Cape Town, South Africa, where it played seventeen return engagements.
