Swing Banditry (1936)
*** (out of 4)
MGM short once again shows up a nice musician who is pretty much all but forgotten today. Georgie Stoll and His Orchestra show up at a radio show wanting an audition and pretty much take the host hostage so that they can play for him. By complete accident they end up on the radio show after another band is arrested and thrown in jail. "My Blue Heaven" and Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing" are the songs here and the band really nails both of them. THe Prima song is a terrific version as I'm sure most people have either heard the original or at least some sort of version of it. The song here really contains some great energy and its transformation to this type of swing was very well done. Stoll ended up staying at MGM for many years doing various jobs but I thought he did pretty good here in front of the camera. He has a laid back charm that really worked well and there's also some nice comic touches thrown in. Best of all is of course the music and that's the main reason to check this out.