"Swing High" is a bit of a musical, or I'll say that there are a couple of musical numbers in it. "Swing High" is the very epitome of what a bad musical is: a guy or gal with a terrible voice belting out tunes.
The vocal criminal in this movie was Gary (Fred Scott). Boy, was his singing awful. Yet, he kept on singing. And for some reason his singing had Maryan Garner (Helen Twelvetrees) swooning. He sang some offkey notes and she'd fall more and more in love.
The two of them worked for Garner's Circus run by Maryan's father, Pop (George Fawcett). The biggest drama was between Maryan and Gary as they pussyfooted around trying to drop subtle hints about their feelings for one another. Then Trixie (Dorothy Burgess) entered the circus.
Trixie was a partner of Ringmaster Joe (Bryant Washburn). She joined the Garner Circus and right away she was a problem. She was flirty with Gary and mean to Major Tiny ('Little Billy' Rhodes), a small person, until she realized he had money.
Maryan caught her crush Gary kissing Trixie while the two were playing a game of cards. He was paying up on a bet, but Maryan saw what she saw. It was a silly situation that was very contrived, but here we were with a heartbroken Maryan and an oblivious Gary. Maryan was so broken up over it she fell from a trapeze which reminded me of the movie "Polly of the Circus" when Polly (Marion Davies) was about to end her life via trapeze if she couldn't be with her lover, Rev. John Hartley (Clark Gable).
Maryan got off very lucky after her fall and only suffered a mildly injured arm. She was put into a sling, but she tore that sling off (ala Dwayne Johnson in Fast and Furious 20) after a couple of days and was back on the trapeze in order to force some information out of Trixie.
Gary was mixed up in a situation that Trixie knew about. While Maryan was recovering from her injury and miffed at Gary, Gary was accused of stealing from Pop Garner. He was entrusted to deposit a couple bags of money and a bag came up missing. He was the only one with the opportunity to steal it so he was arrested for theft.
Soon after, Trixie came waltzing into the circus with a brand new dress. Furthermore she was back to being mean to Major Tiny, which meant she no longer needed his gifts. Maryan put two and two together and concluded that Trixie had stolen the money. To force the information out of her she went on the trapeze with Trixie and held her aloft in one of their stunts until Trixie came clean. It was as contrived as the kiss between Trixie and Gary.
"Swing High" was desperate for drama and didn't know how to go about creating it in a reasonable manner so we got this clunky mess. There was nothing captivating or even interesting about this movie. It was so basic and uncreative it strained the dulled senses.
Of note in the movie was Stepin Fetchit. This was a name that I'd heard for years and it was never accompanied by anything good to say with it. Stepin Fetchit had always been synonymous with Sambo or Uncle Tom. After watching him in "Swing High" I know why. He was an embarrassment. He spoke like someone who'd been kicked in the head by a horse. His mouth barely moved and his voice was whiny, making him very hard to understand. So a movie that was painfully dull added painfully offensive to it as well.
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The vocal criminal in this movie was Gary (Fred Scott). Boy, was his singing awful. Yet, he kept on singing. And for some reason his singing had Maryan Garner (Helen Twelvetrees) swooning. He sang some offkey notes and she'd fall more and more in love.
The two of them worked for Garner's Circus run by Maryan's father, Pop (George Fawcett). The biggest drama was between Maryan and Gary as they pussyfooted around trying to drop subtle hints about their feelings for one another. Then Trixie (Dorothy Burgess) entered the circus.
Trixie was a partner of Ringmaster Joe (Bryant Washburn). She joined the Garner Circus and right away she was a problem. She was flirty with Gary and mean to Major Tiny ('Little Billy' Rhodes), a small person, until she realized he had money.
Maryan caught her crush Gary kissing Trixie while the two were playing a game of cards. He was paying up on a bet, but Maryan saw what she saw. It was a silly situation that was very contrived, but here we were with a heartbroken Maryan and an oblivious Gary. Maryan was so broken up over it she fell from a trapeze which reminded me of the movie "Polly of the Circus" when Polly (Marion Davies) was about to end her life via trapeze if she couldn't be with her lover, Rev. John Hartley (Clark Gable).
Maryan got off very lucky after her fall and only suffered a mildly injured arm. She was put into a sling, but she tore that sling off (ala Dwayne Johnson in Fast and Furious 20) after a couple of days and was back on the trapeze in order to force some information out of Trixie.
Gary was mixed up in a situation that Trixie knew about. While Maryan was recovering from her injury and miffed at Gary, Gary was accused of stealing from Pop Garner. He was entrusted to deposit a couple bags of money and a bag came up missing. He was the only one with the opportunity to steal it so he was arrested for theft.
Soon after, Trixie came waltzing into the circus with a brand new dress. Furthermore she was back to being mean to Major Tiny, which meant she no longer needed his gifts. Maryan put two and two together and concluded that Trixie had stolen the money. To force the information out of her she went on the trapeze with Trixie and held her aloft in one of their stunts until Trixie came clean. It was as contrived as the kiss between Trixie and Gary.
"Swing High" was desperate for drama and didn't know how to go about creating it in a reasonable manner so we got this clunky mess. There was nothing captivating or even interesting about this movie. It was so basic and uncreative it strained the dulled senses.
Of note in the movie was Stepin Fetchit. This was a name that I'd heard for years and it was never accompanied by anything good to say with it. Stepin Fetchit had always been synonymous with Sambo or Uncle Tom. After watching him in "Swing High" I know why. He was an embarrassment. He spoke like someone who'd been kicked in the head by a horse. His mouth barely moved and his voice was whiny, making him very hard to understand. So a movie that was painfully dull added painfully offensive to it as well.
Free on Odnoklassniki.