This unusual RKO musical comedy stars Glenn Vernon as a young jazzbo whose inability to read and write music almost loses him a lucrative gig at Sunrise Studios, one of the top movie makers in Hollywood. He's hired by dotty music department head Felix Brussart, whose Old World musical compositions are no longer sufficiently hip for the studio bosses. Young Marcy McGuire introduces him to Ding Dong, whose Gershwin-like stylings would seem to be just what the producers ordered--until they learn the young prodigy is a musical illiterate. Bearing a 1945 copyright date, Ding Dong Williams is the earliest film I've seen that incorporates the colloquialism 'groovy' in its dialogue. Filled with interesting character actors and odd cameos (including future Hideous Sun Demon Robert Clarke and real life musical director Bakaleinikoff), this is a mildly diverting oddity that will mostly appeal to fans of second features.
Review of Ding Dong Williams
