2hotFeature one of my absolute favorites!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

atlasmb A lackluster plot surrounds some lukewarm musical entertainment in this mid-war production. The best parts of the film are the musical acts in the nightclub, but the producers do their best to sabotage them. As is typical, there are the obligatory salutes to the boys in uniform and a whole lot of hokum, everything from comic acts that are totally unfunny to juggling and faux magic tricks. The movie is called Swing Fever, so you might think the action is hot. It is for those few moments when the band or the swing dancers are allowed to go at it. but most of the "action" is like watching The Lawrence Welk Show, corn and all.Cameos are jammed in, as was the custom, but they are random and flat. Kay Kyser is his usual cornball self. And of course they include the usual nods to the wartime mythology of soldiers and sailors getting the beautiful canteen girl, who might be a star.Particularly painful are the "comic" stylings of the band member with bangs who recites "poetry" and otherwise annoys.The word swing in the title also refers to the boxing plot. A number of real boxers are in the film. We know what great actors they are.

marcslope Columbia, RKO,and Republic, among others, turned out escapist wartime musicals by the dozens, and their lack of availability is probably a blessing; this one, from MGM, has sleeker production values but is similarly impoverished of imagination. It's a mishmash involving boxing, swing, hypnosis, Marilyn Maxwell twitching cutely, the unwatchable Ish Kabibble, Nat Pendleton still playing a punch-drunk heavyweight over a decade after "Horse Feathers," and lots of pulchritude to please the boys overseas. (Even Ava Gardner has an unbilled bit.) Kay Kyser could swing it, all right, but he was no actor, and it's almost painful to watch him go through these contrived paces. There's one good number -- no, check that, there's one not-very-good number made bearable by Lena Horne and some good production design -- among lots of trivial swing, and lots of camera trickery in the production numbers, presumably to disguise the paucity of invention. Tommy Dorsey and Harry James show up briefly; they look like they visited the set on lunch hour from other, better movies.

t1z2f From the contrarian viewpoint, this is the only Kay Kyser film I've seen yet that I've found watchable. Kyser plays a character other than his usual "Kay Kyser, goofy band leader" -- not a complete change, but just different enough to make him tolerable. And, while it's Kyser's band, someone else has apparently arranged the music so it actually swings and has some oomph for a change.The script is as thin as usual for this sort of musical, but passable. Marilyn Maxwell's part doesn't require much acting, but she's a treat when she's on screen. And her singing, which is excellent, is a hoot for the vintage musicals connoisseur to watch - one song she does Mae West, later she puts on a bit of Ginger Rogers.Lena Horne's "You're So Indifferent" is a pleasure - in a minimalist bluesy mode, unlike so much of what she did at MGM.

yessdanc It's a shame Kay Kyser's 5 picture deal w/ RKO ended with AROUND THE WORLD('43), because when MGM signed him for this one film, they dropped the ball big time. It's a poor story that barely features Kyser's great band, and has an overlong production number, MISSISSIPPI DREAMBOAT. I think this is the first onscreen appearance of Lena Horne, who sings a song then disappears, but i could be mistaken about that. Blonde and sexy Marilyn Maxwell plays Kyser's love interest, which seemed a bit far-fetched until Kyser's real life widow, Georgia Carroll, informed me Kay and Marilyn dated seriously in real life! THERE IS A CLASSIC VISUAL GAG where Kyser's rehearsing his band and identifies a couple of strangers playing along. Kyser (as Lowell Blackford) doesn't recognize them, but tells them they can't play his music very well. The camera pans over to TOMMY DORSEY and HARRY JAMES who leave the bandstand, complaining " No one can play this music. This guy'll never get anywhere. Besides, he looks too much like KAY KYSER!!" Best line in the film! In conclusion, SWING FEVER never reaches fever pitch, and the dummies at MGM never tried again w/ Kyser, who, by the way was a big big star at this time. Good posters, though!!