Spreadin' the Jam (1945)

Simply Perfect

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

When the story begins, a lady cannot afford to pay her rent, so her friends organize a 'rent party' and try to drum up money for the landlord. It's the sort of thing that is reminiscent of films like "Babes in Arms"...where someone has a barn and they let the kids borrow it so they can put on a very professional Broadway style review....complete with music that appears from out of no where as well as many talented singers and dancers!So is it any good? Well, the quality of the singing and dancing is good...which isn't surprising consider it's made by MGM. The lyrics are also pretty catchy....with plenty of jive lingo from the era. Also, the bald little leading man is pretty good...too bad Ben Lessy didn't make a lot more films. An interesting curio from long ago that folks might enjoy if they like swing music.

Unable to pay her rent, young singer Jan Clayton is evicted by her landlady, Helen Boyce, and ends up in a jam session with fellow musicians from the boarding house who are swingin' the jam around when the nasty landlady invades. Will she be swayed by the swing? Or will she reveal herself to be the old fuddy duddy she seems to be, and evict everybody else for disturbing her peace? Practically all sung in dialogue with rhythm, this one reel short is truly an entertaining mix a song and dance and is very reminiscent of some of the more inventive early musicals where plot was developed through song, disguised as poetry to music. Jan Clayton would go onto Broadway success with both Carousel and a revival of Show Boat, but this is a rare chance to see her on screen. Boyce, however steals the scene as the seemingly nasty landlady and really seems to be having a lot of fun. A forgotten gem of a musical short from MGM, this is one of the better musical shorts to come out of the swing years.

Very nice dancing, music, and ebullient atmosphere in a kind of renter's fairy tale.I thought of the wonderful "Parapluies de Cherbourg" while watching this lively romp...could this trifle have inspired the sublime jazz opera? I like the joyousness of this short but wondered how everyone could be so darn gleeful just months after the end of the Holocaust. The juxtaposition felt a little uncomfortable.Maybe we have a glimpse here of a world that was to change radically soon after...with the beginning of rock and roll and the dizzying, nascent trajectory of technology.In sum, a bit of old-fashioned fun.