User Reviews

I'm truly dating myself but back in the swing days there was a bandleader named Sammy Kaye who used that as his band's slogan. Otherwise my title would have been the tag line for this film.

It was only seven years earlier that the original film, Ball of Fire also came from the Sam Goldwyn Studio. In that one Gary Cooper was one of several professors who were putting together an encyclopedia. His specialty was linguistics and he selected Barbara Stanwyck to help in learn new slang terms.

Here it's a musical encyclopedia and Virginia Mayo stumbles into the lives of the sheltered professors putting this history together. They've led such a cloistered existence that the whole jazz era has passed them by. So Kaye in the Cooper role and another professor played by Benny Goodman with Mayo get some of the best to help them along.

A Song is Born is a pleasant although a previous reviewer is correct in saying that Danny Kaye is far more subdued than usual in this film. But anytime you can get Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, and Mel Powell together for a jam session, the film automatically becomes worthwhile.

This is for every fan of jazz in the world.

Howard Hawks remake of his 1941 comedy "Ball of Fire" was a vehicle for Danny Kaye, who was popular at the time. This film is based on a story by Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe, which had also been the basis of the original film. The movie was shot in Technicolor, something that must have been one of the stipulations of its star, Danny Kaye.

By changing the original premise from learning about slang to learning about the new popular rhythms that had come out during the thirties and forties, the creators thought they were updating the basic idea, and they succeed, at times. The best thing in this film is the array of talent we see. Some of the giants in popular music of that time, are seen at their best in musical numbers that are clever and that reminds the viewer how classic compositions could relate to the new expressions.

The central story is just a pretext to present Danny Kaye, who is the nerdy professor Frisbee, and his co-star, Virginia Mayo, a night club singer, Honey Swanson. Professor Frisbee gets in hot water because unknown to him, Honey is involved with a gangster, Tony Crow, who doesn't want to let go of his beautiful girlfriend. Besides the two stars, Steve Cochran puts in an appearance as Tony.

Some of the best known popular musicians of that era are seen doing wonderful music together. Tommy Dorsey, Mel Powell, Buck and Bubbles, Charlie Barnett, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and Benny Goodman, who plays one of the professors.

The film, while not as original as its model, is worth watching for the music alone. Music fans are in for a treat thanks to Mr. Hawks.

This movie (a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire") is an entertaining movie. But if you like swing or JAZZ, you have got to see this! Most Danny Kaye movies have good musical scores, but this one has Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong and a number of other greats performing. Not as good a movie as "The Five Pennies", but well worth seeing for the music and for Danny Kaye. Recommended to anyone who likes Jazz and/or Swing.

"A Song is Born" was made in 1948. This was a remake of 1941's "Ball of Fire" with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

A group of dull music professors are studying the history of music. Two window cleaners urge Danny Kaye, a music professor, to go out and hear music around him.

In Damon Runyan-like atmosphere, he accidentally gets involved with gangsters and their moll-Virginia Mayo.

She hides out by Kaye and his other professors as she is wanted for questioning regarding a murder that her guy-Steve Cochran-may have committed. Remember Cochran and Mayo two years earlier in the Oscar-winning "The Best Years of Our Lives?"

When she hides out, she brings an assortment of musicians with her to join the professors and all belt out music. Thanks to Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey, the music shines. Benny Goodman is unrecognizable as one of the corny music professors.

The hostage situation at film's end is hilarious at best.

A musical treat; funny and memorable when Kaye pops the question. Lots of good fun.

I have this on a vhs and watch it from time to time. Apart from the musical sequences, the story pleases me because Danny Kaye is taken for an idiot by the young lady but in the end she falls in love with him ! It is a pleasure to watch the way her attitude changes. There are not many films with this kind of story, so when I see one I like to treasure it ! In addition to this the musical sequences are memorable with well-known stars. Hopefully they will put it onto Dvd but unfortunately the DVD industry seems to have forgotten about Danny Kaye !

Gregg Toland, the great director of photography of CITIZEN KANE, WUTHERING HEIGHTS and THE GRAPES OF WRATH was said to be the highest paid D.P. in America, as well as perhaps the finest B&W lighting cameraman the major Hollywood studio system ever produced. Under long- term contract to producer Sam Goldwyn, he died at the early age of forty-four in 1948, the same year this film was made for his boss. A SONG IS BORN is one of his few Technicolor films. For a man of visual genius, the photography here is surprisingly routine—flatly lit and uninspired compared to the more adventurous color work being done about the same time by Harold Rosson and Joe Rutenberg at the MGM studios. Perhaps Toland was too ill at the time to pay much attention to this project, no more motivated to do his best than was the film's director, the usually brilliant Howard Hawks who had directed BALL OF FIRE, an earlier version of the same story. The film is also flawed by garish makeup for the gorgeous Virginia Mayo. On the plus side, jazz lovers get a few brief moments of pleasure: a rare chance to hear America's prime band leaders of the time—Armstrong, Dorsey, Goodman, Hampton, Louis Armstrong—jamming together with sidemen Mel Powell and Louie Bellson. (Fletcher Henderson probably did the band arrangements) There is absolutely no comparison between this insipidly silly remake and the charming earlier B&W version which starred the incomparable Barbara Stanwyck as the bad/good girl and Gary Cooper in the role Danny Kaye assays with only moderate success.

Where else can you see a jam session with Louie Armstrong on trumpet, Charlie Barnet on saxophone, Benny Goodman on clarinet, and Tommy Dorsey on trombone? Four major swing band leaders jamming out, and they do it more than once on this film. The movie is sufficiently entertaining to watch, but the real treat is the music jam sessions. Some of you may not know Charlie Barnet. Barnet was from a wealthy family, and his bands were more freewheeling than most traditional swing bands. He was the first white band leader to integrate his bands, and he gave Lena Horne her first gig with a major orchestra.

The true big band aficionado will recognize some of the other musicians, but I will not list them here as I might spoil someone's fun.

Annoying intro bit with bookish Kaye and the dopey song opening is VERY similar to "Ball of Fire"--and with subpoenaed boyfriend--awfully soon for a remake. strong focus on black musical acts of the day--including Louis Armstrong and Lionel Hampton is that Mayo singing? If so, nice voice liked the music but it did make the film meander a lot--which is bad, as the original film was about the same length WITHOUT the music very multi ethnic

"Ball of Fire" is a fantastic classic film. In my review, I gave this one a 9--but nearly gave it a 10 because it was THAT good. The film is a very clever reworking of the Snow White story--set today and with gangsters!! It is an adorable film from start to finish. "A Song is Born" is a remake, and, like too many remakes during this era, it came out not all that long after the original. Now considering that the original was just about perfect and starred Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, what sane person thought this Danny Kaye remake was a good idea?! Sure, it's pleasant enough--but not nearly as good as the real thing.

Both films have plots that are just about identical. A gangster's moll (Virginia Mayo) is hiding out from the police because they are trying to make her testify against her scum-bag boyfriend (Steve Cochran). On a lark, she moves in with a group of professors. In the original, they were working on an encyclopedia--here they are music professors cataloging music. One of them, the youngest (Danny Kaye) eventually falls for this lady--which is a severe problem since her boyfriend is a nut! How does it all work out--see the film.

Because this film is less a comedy and more a musical, the film has guest appearances by some pretty amazing musical talent--such as Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman! It was also impressive because this was a very multiracial cast who interacted like old friends--something unheard of in 1948. The problem with this, however, is that because there is so much music, there is far less time with comedy--and the adorable old professors were far less adorable and lovable here. The only major plus of this ensemble cast of professors was Danny Kaye. While he was not nearly as good as Cooper, it was sure nice to see Kaye in a MUCH more understated and subtle role than usual. Overall, I'd give this one a 6 (which might be a bit generous--my wife thinks it only earns a 3). It is entertaining but is so unoriginal and unfunny that I say just watch the original and be done with it.

Someone said Danny Kaye was a bit subdued for this film, yes, I think Hawks reigned him in a bit. What is surprising is that Kaye does NOT do any of his regular vocal onslaughts: And this film basically a musical too- Well not really a musical, but having music in it. "Wonder Man" was also not a musical, but Kaye does his usual vocal debauchery in it. In this film, we just have his comedic talents, which are just as good to watch.

This film is an almost frame by frame remake of "Ball of Fire" - And so, fans of "Ball of Fire" who compare the two will see how well this is done, even with the major thematic changes made. Some would call this a musical, but it is not really. It is just a film that happens to have music in it. And the music is good, because it it not your usual music written for musicals, with bellowing singers and 150 dancers on a stage set the size of a small aircraft carrier, it is actually something that you can envision happening in a small room in an institution which is pretty much what happens in this film... No big stage productions or fantasy sequences, just plain kick-arse JAZZ.

Some of the really funny gags from the original are missing: Mostly the ones that are based on 1941 Slang. What was important to the story, was kept in, and surprisingly it still fit.

What makes this one of the most interesting films ever made is the assemblage of Jazz Greats, including the incredible Louis Armstrong.

The song "A Song is Born" is about the best song in any "musical" I have heard.

Billy Wilder's story 'From A-Z' which had already been filmed in 1941 as the excellent 'Ball of Fire' with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck gets a musical makeover in this 1948 remake of a group of professors writing an Encyclopedia of music and a gangster's moll hiding out in their foundation.

Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran are reunited yet again after appearing together in 1945's 'Wonder Man' and 1946's 'The Kid from Brooklyn' and this was the fourth and final pairing of Kaye and Mayo, (the other being 1947's 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty). However, Kaye is no Gary Cooper, Mayo is no Barbara Stanwyck and Cochran is no Dana Andrews.

The main screenplay for the most part remains unaltered and is basically a word for word copy, except of course in this movie the professors are writing a musical Encyclopedia and not one on general knowledge so these aspects have been changed to fit this change.

Sadly this version lacks the spark that made the original so great and instead of a ball of fire, we get a hot water bottle at best.

However, we are treated to some great 1940's swing, big band and Jazz talent in the form of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Mel Powell, Charlie Barnet and Lionel Hampton, all masters of their craft and it's these musical interludes that are the ONLY reasons to watch this instead of the 1941 version as they are brilliant and fun to watch and will have your toes a'tappin.

Mayo's singing voice was dubbed by the ultra talented, yet sadly uncredited Jeni Sullavan and some Sullavan's other vocal recordings are well worth checking out.

However, Kaye doesn't have a single song in the movie, which is sad given that comedy songs and zany musical numbers were his main stock in trade. This was because he had recently split from his wife Sylvia Fine who was also the composer of all of his songs and she refused to write write for him and he didn't want anyone else composing for him. Thankfully, the split was only temporary and they reconciled soon after.

Howard Hawks who had directed the original returns to direct here, but he found this version difficult and disliked the finish product. Mary Field is the only returning performer from 'Ball of Fire' as the socialite Miss Totten , the same role she had played seven years before.

Not a bad film, but If you're in it for the plot and plot alone, watch the original. However, if you have a penchant for 1940's jazz and swing music, then give this one a try, those parts will give you a thrill at least even if nothing else does.

Enjoy!

This is a movie for anyone who loves music, not only is it a great comically entertaining film, it draws you into the world of jazz at its contemporary beginning, This movie does for jazz what "Amadeus" (1984) did for Mozart and Classical music, it gives a great understanding and appreciation of all aspects of music, no matter what type of music you like, and what a great way to start your appreciation then with some of the greatest artist in jazz history; Benny Goodman,Lionel Hampton,Louis Armstrong, and Tommy Dorsey to name some of the jazz musicians in this wonderful and most entertaining film.. Just sit back and enjoy, you won't be disappointed, I promise

A decent Danny Kaye vehicle. The humor is delicate and the music is memorable. Kaye isn't as funny as Gary Cooper was in the original -- "Ball of Fire", also directed by Howard Hawks. I know that's hard to believe but the character of Professor Hobart Frisbee is supposed to be pawky, professionally precise, and socially clumsy. Kaye is his usual stuttering self, whereas Cooper WAS the character. And Virginia Mayo, delicious as she is, doesn't have the sassy talent of Barbara Stanwyk, who could throw away laugh lines and still get smiles. Mayo seems earnest as all get out.

Still, nice technicolor photography, almost lurid. And the musicians do their thing, which is pretty good, in fact. How could they not? Tommy Dorsey, Satchmo, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Mel Powell, and a supporting role for Benny Goodman. I don't know if you have to realize what a musical technician Goodman was to appreciate the scene in which, as a fuddy-duddy musicologist, he is invited to take a crack at playing swing music. I think there's a recording of his playing Mozart's clarinet quintet too. Many of those once-household names, I imagine, have already disappeared from popular consciousness. A good thing they didn't hire Charlie Parker or somebody. It wouldn't have a prayer of striking a resonant chord.

Howard Hawks repeated himself a lot, especially through the 30s, but this is his first outright remake of an earlier film he made. Based on the same Billy Wilder story that led to the script for Ball of Fire, A Song is Born recasts the literary main character played by Gary Cooper into a musical historian played by Danny Kaye. For a while, this remolding of the material from literary to musical feels like a strong step in the right direction with a livelier field of study to dramatize in cinematic form, but then everything just ends up feeling tired by the end. The injection of life in the early parts fall apart, helped none at all by Danny Kaye, noted singer, not singing at all because he was going through a divorce with his songwriter wife, Sylvia Fine, who refused to write him anything for the film. It hurt as well that Hawks showed up purely because of the paycheck, later calling the experience an awful one.

Seven (not eight) professors have locked themselves in a mansion in the middle of New York for nine years to write the definitive encyclopedia of music. When some window washers come in asking for help on a radio quiz about music, Professor Hobart Frisbee (Kaye), who specializes in folk, realizes that in the nine years he's been hermetically sealed off from the world music has changed dramatically and left him behind. This allows for him to wander the streets of New York, going into different music clubs to hear snippets from famous musicians of the day up to and including Louis Armstrong. He invites them all to the institute for study, ending with Virginia Mayo's Honey Swanson. Apparently Mayo was told to study Barbara Stanwyck's performance as Sugarpuss in Ball of Fire, and here she comes across as another version of Stanwyck rather than anything else. She's fine, but she doesn't have the kind of presence that helped Stanwyck steal the show to a certain extent in the earlier film.

The first hour or so is really dominated by the music. The professors play classically together in order to record albums that will accompany the encyclopedia. The music clubs are all hoppin'. However, it's when Frisbee gets everyone into the institute and they demonstrate the evolution of music from African tribal music to contemporary jazz where the movie works best. It's obvious that this is where Hawks had the most fun because the sequence may be overlong, but it's really energetic and fun as we watch and listen to the music evolve. This is freewheeling musical madness, and it's infectious.

The problem is that all of that comes to and end at about the hour point. The music stops, and the movie works to catch up with the actual plot. An interesting difference between this and the earlier film is that Honey's boyfriend, the gangster Tony Crow, doesn't appear until over an hour into the movie. He's represented solely by his two goons who tells Honey what to do, moving her from the club to the institute and finally giving her the large diamond ring Tony uses to propose to her to keep her from having to testify against him in court. None of this gangster stuff seems to matter through the first half, occasionally getting mentioned here and there but definitely falling to the wayside for extended periods in favor of the music. However, once the plot actually asserts itself, the plot moves without any real conviction.

The casting of Danny Kaye was, I think, a good idea. I think he was better cast as the befuddled introvert in a comedy than Gary Cooper was, but little gets done with Kaye that justifies it. He's surprisingly morose and unfunny through it, unlike other key performances from his career like in The Court Jester. This supposedly had everything to do with his real life divorce, but whatever the reason it negatively affects the film, especially when it suddenly demands an emotionally attachment between Frisbee and Honey. His infatuation with her doesn't feel terribly convincing. So, I think Kaye was better cast than Cooper, but Cooper gave a better performance.

Anyway, the problems in the final forty minutes or so extend beyond the lack of real chemistry between Kaye and Mayo. None of the small details seem to matter anymore. The elimination of one of the eight professors to get the total number down to seven does no favors in trying to actually individualize them. They feel even less distinct than in Ball of Fire. Frisbee buys Honey an engagement ring, the best he can afford, which is a small nothing compared to the large rock that Tony got her, and it just gets forgotten where, in the original, the two rings became an important driver for Cooper's motivations going into the climax. Here, it's nothing. A lot gets condensed in order to fit everything into a smaller timeframe, but there is one moment that works better here than in Ball of Fire and, of course, it deals with music.

In Ball of Fire the professors had to escape a pair of gangster goons holding them up while Sugarpuss was forced to marry her boyfriend. They used their wits and academic code to organize and effect the cutting of a cord with sunlight. It was amusing and one of the best uses of the professors. In A Song is Born, something similar happens. They have to play music in a certain way to get a circular drum on display above a gangster's head to fall down onto his head and knock him out. The drum's propensity to fall during the academic jam sessions had been established early, so it's a nice payoff to see it come into play in the climax as Kaye works hard to communicate with everyone in the room to play different ways trying to get the drum to go one way instead of the other.

However, it's a small part of the movie's ending that works despite everything else around it feeling rather flat. I was really ready to actually think more of this than Ball of Fire after about forty-five minutes, but then the half-hearted love story took center stage and I grew progressively disengaged from the film until it finally ended. That's a sad way to end a film that felt like it was a well-approached remake.

This is a musical remake of the 1940 classic "Ball of Fire". The plot is almost the same, a gangster's moll crashes the residence of a bunch of professors who are writing an encyclopedia, and falls in love the the youngest one. This time they're a musical encyclopedia rather than a generalized one, which allows for a lot of musical numbers, some of them pretty enjoyable. It's a lively, superficial, colorful musical with some laughs to it, if you haven't seen "Ball of Fire" you'll probably have quite a good time.

But the film and especially the performances are vastly inferior to the original. Virginia Mayo is the same as she always was in musical comedies, a sort of generic leading lady/straight man. Danny Kaye is limited by his role, he's playing an uptight nerd and can't use his fabulous manic energy at all for most of the film (Gary Cooper was absolutely hilarious as the uptight nerd in the original, he was one good actor). The supporting performances are all pretty cartoonish, none stand out, but there are appearances by Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, and Lionel Hampton which you might want to catch.

After two minutes you will spot the obvious similarity with "Ball of Fire" (1941). Swap Gary Cooper with Danny Kaye and Barbara Stanwyck with Virginia Mayo then add some fantastic musicianship from the likes of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Sonny Burke et al, and we have a gently amusing story of a professor (of music this time) who falls for the gangster's moll. "Honey" (Mayo) takes refuge from the pursuing FBI with a bunch of dithery professors creating an over budget dictionary of music and soon the hapless "Prof. Frisbee" (Kaye) is eating out of her hand. The gangster elements of the plot are just a little too contrived: her boyfriend "Crow" (Steve Cochran) maintains this new situation to keep her from testifying against him - until, that is - he can make arrangements to marry her, but in the meantime might she start to fall for poor old "Frisbee"? Neither lead are on great form here, Kaye seems oddly distracted from his role and Mayo always was quite a sterile performer, but there is still enough chemistry between them and, alongside a fun effort from Esther Dale as their somewhat puritanical housekeeper "Miss Bragg" this works ok. Essentially, it's an excuse for some great toe-tappers with a gently simmering romance and some slightly slapstick humour. It's fun to watch and to listen to, and though I still preferred the original it is diverse enough from that to stand well enough on it's own.

While there is a decent plot and Danny Kaye does a good job, the best parts are the music scenes with Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey and many others. It is a great collection of popular artists of the 40's and earlier.

There are surprises in the plot, especially if you don't recognize some of the actors until they perform.

Danny Kaye's form of humor is not fully appreciated now, but in his time he drew a large following. This movie is a good example of his artistry. His best movie was probably "Hans Christian Anderson." I watched it as a kid and I can still remember the song "Beautiful, Beautiful Copenhagen."

I fell in love with this movie first viewing it as a kid several years ago. I am surprised TCM does not air it more often. Danny Kaye plays a stuffed shirt music professor who lives with 5 other elder professors.Kaye sets out to document the history of Jazz music visiting clubs and inviting the musicians he has heard to several daily "jam" sessions to record music for a jazz library. He invites a lounge singer he meets,who is involved with a mob boss, and she winds up hiding out from the law at the professors house jamming with these musicians. This film is excellent for one good reason: the musicians invited are some of the best jazz players that ever lived. Clarinet player BennyGoodman, trombonist Tommy Dorsey, Vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, Pianist Mel Powell, and the great Louis Armstrong. There are also two vocal groups, guitarists and percussionists. If you ever had a dream group of musicians you wanted to see play together, you won't be disappointed with this film.One of the remarkable features of this film is not just that so many jazz greats were in it but that they were able to play together in the first place. This movie was made in 1948 when segregation was very much in force. Many of the great white jazz musicians of this time could not play on stage with the black musicians. The clubs white musicians played at did not allow blacks in them or they had to enter through the back door. Most of the time it simply was not allowed. So many great white jazz players who admired Armstrong and Hampton could never play with them because of this. Watch this film though, every jam session you see all the musicians present, black and white, are so engulfed in the music, no one even notices black, white or whatever. Just great music and a lot of fun! The back story is a little silly with Mayo on the lamb from the DA and hiding out at Kaye's residence. Kaye falls for her , playing naive and clueless to her motives. But of course they will wind up together in the end. Mayo looked beautiful in this film,great body! But the real draw is all the musicians. If you're a lover of jazz or even just music, this is a true gem to watch.

This is an incrediable movie full laughs and wit and humor that never stops!It's Danny Kaye at his best with some of the most incrediable musicians of our time alongside! A must see for the whole family!

Okay so this is basically Sister Act meets Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but much more racist and much more boring.

Honey Swanson finds out that her gangster boyfriend is under investigation by the police, she hides out at a musical research institute run by Professor Hobart Frisbee. The institute is run purely by bachelors, and the arrival of Honey turns heads in more ways than one, especially the affable Frisbee.

Howard Hawks remakes his 1941 film Ball of Fire, only where that film had the main protagonists learning about slang, A Song Is Born is a musical based around delightful swing and jazz. As many of the other users here have pointed out, this is a must for music fans, the music is quite simply brilliant, boasting the talents of Louis Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Mel Powell and Lionel Hampton, it's no small wonder that the film is an immense foot tapper from the top draw.

However, not much is said as regards the other good stuff available in the picture, for instance those who have an aversion to Danny Kaye need not worry here, he has been reigned in by Hawks to give a very subtle comedy performance, yes, a little trade mark pratfall here and there exists, but it's a highly effective and charming turn from him. Rarely mentioned, also, is the sultry and pleasing turn from Viriginia Mayo, she looks fab and some of her scenes are a joy to observe, witness her first sequence at the institute, where the old boys get hot under the collar as she whirls her sexuality, I know how they feel, because I was feeling it too!

This is a smashing film, one that had me grinning all the way through, a big foot tapper with heart and smiles, well that will do for me.

"Ever since that woman crossed this threshold, a prairie fire of orgiastic events has swept thru this house" 8/10

A Song is Born may be seventy (70) years old now but the song remains the same. This is a romance disguised as a mobster movie, The sexy nightclub singer Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo) finds her very own Prince Charming in the form of Professor Hobart Frisbee (Danny Kaye) when she takes the Professor up on his offer to assist him in documenting the history of this new musical discovery from the United Sates called "jazz music".

So Honey Swanson needs to find a place to lay low to avoid the federal investigators from subpoenaing her so she hides out at Professor Hobart Frisbee's academic school of music where the two lovebirds fall madly in love. The wicked witch is played by mobster Tony Crow (Steve Cochran) who sends for his dame Honey Swanson so that he can marry her so as his wife, she can't squeal to the Feds on a murder rap that they have targeted Tony Crow for committing.

Virginia Mayo's beauty as Honey Swanson is not animated as in the Disney classic as she is a true beauty of the silver screen age. Danny Kaye who can't help but fall in love with Honey hears the music playing constantly in his head once he sets eyes first on Honey.

The film has great jazz music, the comedy of Danny Kaye and his seven (7) stooges who are all his fellow music professors who have to find a way to save their princess Honey Swanson, and a barrage of cameo appearances by many of the great jazz legends of the time.

This comedy/romance/musical is sure to rock your world! I give it a solid 9 out of 10 rating.

Best Movie with History of Music and such incredible talent! Goodman, Golden Gate Quartet, Louis Armstrong, T. Dorsey, C. Barnett, Louis Belson (drummer), Mel Powell, Hampton.

laughs, songs, hysterical characters like Monty and Joe with their accents and their slang..

I have seen movie about 10 x and never tire of it!!

we need to value this era with the intro of jazz, jump, jive, swing and re bop!

Any student of Music should view this film to hear and appreciate the classic music styles and their introduction into our culture.