Phil Harris stars in SO THIS IS HARRIS, the winner of the 1933 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Subject. With Walter Catlett and James Finlayson. From an original 16mm print.
And a remarkable absence of petticoats under those transparent skirts. How prudish and stuffy Hollywood became when the mothers league of decency (or whatever they called themselves) heard about things and spoiled the fun by 1935 or 6 on.
Phil Harris moved to LA bc he wanted to break into movies. Residencies at the Beverly Wilshire and (as shown here) the Cocoanut Grove soon caught the eye of RKO, the new kid on the Hollywood block anxious to sign talent. This short was a hit and Harris quickly followed it with 'Melody Cruise', also written by Ben Holmes and Mark Sandrich. Production in late '32 accounts for the chorines' lines about presidential nominations: FDR had just won the New Deal race against Hoover. The title riffs on 'So This is Paris', a 1926 Silent by Lubitsch. Nice to see Jimmy Finlayson as the golf pro in plus fours. Scotland, disputably, was thought to be where the game began. Never fail to be amazed by the revolution in couture between the Silent flappers of the 1920s in their cloches and short skirts and the long hemlines and wide-brimmed hats that came in with talkies and the Depression. It was as if American women all grew six inches taller overnight.
I saw this just once on BBC television in 1986 and have been looking for it ever since. Thanks so much for putting this up. I'm not really a big fan of films but this is one of just a handful of films I love/like. Brilliant.
I’ve hard about this. It’s a short demonstrating for the first time synchronous playback for much more dimensional musical sequences. Up until then numbers were performed and in a continuous take with an orchestra n set. This new technique allowed them to patch together many takes shot at different times sewn together in one seamless number. Followed by the feature, Melody Cruise starring phil Harris. Gary Stuart
Co-written and directed by Mark Sandrich, when he was about to move up permanently from short subjects to features. He was a vital contributor to the style of RKO musicals starrring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, working with dance director Hermes Pan and Fred to shoot routines straight, with unobtrusive camera movement. He directed five Astaire-Rogers entries out of nine at Radio. Two years after this humdrum (albeit Oscar-winning) featurette, Sandrich would helm possibly the greatest 1930s musical- 'Top Hat'. And ten years after that, he worked himself to death at 44.
Jack Benny had a formula. Band Leader was just one piece. Singer was another just like announcer Don Wilson, Rochester and the rest of the cast. Harris had several shows as singer when they needed a "Phil in".
This is a rather racy and suggestive movie for it's time. Oh, our granparents in the day were quite risque. This was filmed before the Hollywood Production Code Authority was established in 1934.
