Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

07 October 2020

King of Jazz (1930)

This old film is interesting for a million reasons. It's a color film from 1930 using the old two-color system. It's also a gigantic musical revue with incredible set and costume design. There are some superb numbers, as well, including delightful bits by Bing Crosby. The highlights, though, are Al Norman, who does his rubberlegs routine as part of the Happy Feet number, and Marion Stadler, who does a genius acrobatic-dance number in Ragamuffin Romeo.

One of the hilarious things about King of Jazz is that its centerpiece is "Rhapsody in Blue", but the two-color system doesn't include blue. The film doesn't suffer, though. Whatever shade of green is used is blue enough to round out the effect.

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