Sweet and Low-Down

The Benny Goodman Band is playing in Chicago when a kid is spotted stealing Benny's clarinet. He's trailed by the King of Swing himself Jack Oakie one of the band members. The young thief has a brother who plays a mean trombone and is played by James Cardwell.

Socialite Linda Darnell also takes a liking to Cardwell. But he has a chip on his shoulder about just everything.

But this film is about the music of Benny Goodman and you get a lot of that. Goodman is no actor, then again Cardwell comes across as churlish and stiff.

This one is for those who love their WW2 era swing.

Plot-- A blue-collar trombone player joins Goodman's orchestra but lets it go to his head. So he has to learn humility before he can be a real success.

The movie is typical of the musical programmers turned out during the war. It's Goodman's name and his swing band that's intended as the draw. Among the leads, Bari and Darnell look enough alike to be sisters-- same hair-do, same coloring, same features. In fact, I got them mixed up, at times. Seems unusual to find two such look-alikes in the same movie, but they're sure a lot of eye candy. Then there's poor Cardwell, who's got all the charisma of dried cement, which doesn't help. Good thing his trombone playing is well dubbed. Good thing too that Oakie's on board to supply comedy relief.

The sequence at the military school is the funniest, and the music and dancing the movie's best. Most of the numbers I didn't recognize, but that's okay since it's the trademark Goodman sound. Anyway, TCF was obviously counting on the big band name to put this slender B-production over to wartime audiences who doubtless could use some musical uplift.

Benny Goodman's music is what makes this film. Bad plot, but it somehow must have impressed Woody Allen to have him rework it into a 1999 film. The trombone playing was dubbed by Bill Harris, then playing in Benny Goodman's band. Harris is considered one of the outstanding jazz and swing trombone players of all time. Too bad he wasn't on screen in a talking part, but he is seen in the action shots of the band playing. He would have bested Benny Goodman in acting.

Benny Goodman is the star of this wartime film and he's a rotten actor - but who cares? This is all about his music and it's very good. The plot is nowhere, the ending very silly and the performers attractive but bland - except for Dickie Moore who is hilarious as an uppity cadet. See it to hear it and forget the rest.

Paper thin plot but what great music!! James Cardwell was attractive but the star presence just was not there which shows whenever another actor that has it like Linda Darnell or Jack Oakie is on screen, he just disappears. Lynn Bari and Allyn Joslyn add nice touches of spice throughout. Benny Goodman was no actor but it doesn't matter when the music starts. Linda Darnell is fantastically beautiful even able to carry off some of the elaborate hairstyles of the period that swamped many women. This is the kind of part that 20th Century Fox wasted her in through her years at the studio. To get a glimpse at what a great actress she could be catch "Summer Storm" her next film after this where she shows given the chance that she was capable of brilliant things.