Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

ksf-2 ... so what's in those missing 10 minutes that were so horrible they had to cut them out from the original film? We were three years into the film production code... Barbara Stanwyck had starred in the original play, but here, Carole Lombard plays Maggie King. Co star Fred MacMurray is probably best known for "Double Indemnity", with Stanwyck, as well as his hit TV show "My Three Sons". Keep an eye out for a young Dorothy Lamour (Bob Hope movies) and the too-fabulous Franklin Pangborn, who spiced up just about every film put on tape. Of course, he works in the beauty salon on the ship! Add the sublime Charles Butterworth and Anthony Quinn. Good timing and clever banter at the beginning. Maggie's buddy Ella is played by Jean Dixon, who was the best friend in "Holiday" and "My Man Godfrey". In "Swing High", Maggie the tourist meets a soldier who is leaving the army. Maggie misses her boat when it leaves port and gets tangled up with the soldier. The dashing 20-something Quinn has a small scene at the local bar in Panama where Johnson (MacMurray) has been playing the trumpet. Maggie, Harry (Butterworth), and Skid band together and try to figure out how to get back to the States. Some good singing by Lamour. Good (but brief) acting performance by Cecil Cunningham as "Murph", the wise, helpful owner of the local saloon in Panama. While others have lamented at how bad it is, it wasn't so awful, and is even a little exotic, with the fake Central America locale setting for the first half of the film.

theowinthrop I first came across this film when I read a book (written in the 1970s) about the career of Mitchell Leisin. I have to admit that over the years I have watched many of his films and find his best work really high quality. SWING HIGH, SWING LOW was supposed to be one of his best. While it did not bore me, it did not impress me as much as HOLD BACK THE DAWN, DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY, KITTY, or even GOLDEN EARINGS. I suspect it just dates too much now to be well liked.Working at Paramount Leisin had a problem in those films that he did which were musicals. Most of the scores he worked with were fairly mediocre. It's true that twice standards appeared in his films, but they were really rare cases: "Cocktales for Two" appeared in MURDER AT THE VANITIES, and "Mona Lisa" came out of CAPTAIN CAREY, U.S.A. But the rest of the score for MURDER AT THE VANITIES was forgettable. "Mona Lisa" was the only tune in CAPTAIN CAREY. It shouldn't have been this way - Leisin's studio had Rogers and Hart working for it in the early 1930s. Why couldn't he have been assigned to a project with them? The score for SWING HIGH, SWING LOW, is pleasant but forgettable. Unfortunately, the movie is centered in the entertainment world, as Fred Macmurray demonstrates great talents as a trumpet player (he even works Carole Lombard into his act by looping his arms around her when he blows his trumpet). The song (sung by Lombard) about how her lover's playing thrills her, is important to the plot. It works in the film, but it would have been better if the song was more memorable.There is a picaresque style to the film - it begins on an ocean liner that Lombard works on, as a manicurist. She is constantly being bullied by her boss Franklin Pangborn (the ship's barber). Then the ship is entering into the Panama Canal, and we see MacMurray as a soldier, who's enlistment is ending shortly. Their first scene together has a nice Leisin touch in it: MacMurray is talking to Lombard, she on the deck of the boat and he on the edge of the wall of the lock. Nice way to keep the action going while the dialog hits a dull bit.The film follows the rise and fall of the Skid Johnson (MacMurray) as he meets Lombard, and begins his reputation as a trumpet player, but meets the "other woman" in the film, Dorothy Lamore. The best moments in the film deal with the collapse of the relationship with Lombard, and his collapse as a jazz trumpeter (his appearance and need for alcohol is very untypical for a MacMurray character - even his darker figures like Walter Neff or Mr. Sheldrake or the naval officer who pushes the Caine Mutiny did not demonstrate a reliance on alcohol.Lombard is good as the woman loved but wronged by MacMurray. Lamore has little to really do - possibly the film had more scenes with her in it, but one stands out is her attempt to get MacMurray onto the wagon again. In his opening bit Pangborn is fine. Rarely noticed in films, small part actor Carl Judels is effective as a fair weather fan/friend of MacMurray, who drops him as he goes under (though he gives him a hand-out).Charles Butterworth is as trivial in this film as usual, but he does have one moment when he looks sheepishly at his hands on the keyboard of a piano in the rooms he, his girlfriend, MacMurray, and Lombard share - his red faced appearance is due to embarrassment about a lie that MacMurray is insisting is true. It was a nice, subtle moment. If only his subtlety had been in his acting rather than his moments of diffident humor.

MartinHafer I am a big fan of Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard. And, in addition to them, Charles Butterworth (a very enjoyable supporting actor) was in this film,...so why didn't I particularly enjoy it?! Well, despite a good cast, this is one of the poorest written and most clichéd "A pictures" I have ever seen. Given the talent and money spent to make this film, it is shocking how slip-shod the writing was. I knew the film would be tedious when time after time early in the film I found myself predicting EXACTLY what would happen next--and I was always right! And this isn't because I am some sort of "movie savant", but was because almost no imagination or effort went into it. In fact, it seemed almost as if the film was just a long string of clichés all strung together! Also, I found it a bit irritating that Fred mistreated Carole so bad throughout the film and yet, true to convention, she came running to him in the end. Uggh! There is MORE suspense in a Lassie film ("will he bring people to rescue Timmy or will the rope he is dangling from break?").Despite the very, very tired and clichéd script, there were a few positives about the film. It was pretty cool seeing Fred look like a broken lush at the end of the film--it was pretty believable and he looked like he hadn't eaten, shaved or slept in days. Also, Charles Butterworth's "prattle" did provide a few mildly humorous moments. But all this just wasn't enough to make this film look any different than a "B movie". It's a shame,...it could have been so much better.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre 'Swing High, Swing Low' is a semi-musical, based on a Broadway play (not a musical) called 'Burlesque' which was originally filmed as 'The Dance of Life' when censors wouldn't approve the original title. The play and the original film took place in vaudeville and burlesque: this remake, surprisingly, spends most of its time in Panama City (well away from the Keith-Orpheum circuit). About all that remains of the original is the male anti-hero's name: Skid Johnson. In the original story, the nickname 'Skid' made sense because he was an eccentric dancer. In this remake, Skid Johnson is a jazz trumpeter ... so why is he cried 'Skid'?Fred MacMurray got typecast as nice guys, but just occasionally he got a chance to show his acting ability in nastier roles. He gives an excellent performance as Skid Johnson: brash, bragging, conceited, yet nagged by self-doubts. But in this version, some of Skid's motivations are highly contrived. When Skid first meets unemployed singer Maggie (Carole Lombard, less impressive), he straight away starts bragging about what a wonderful guy he is. Oddly, he trumpets himself constantly yet he never says a word about his abilities as a trumpeter. There's an extremely contrived scene in a Panama nightclub, when MacMurray casually picks up the trumpeter's horn and blows a few licks. (Yes, professional musicians always leave their instruments lying about so the customers can have a go.) It turns out that Skid Johnson is a brilliant jazz trumpeter. So, why is this braggart so very modest about his one genuine talent?There's a soap-opera plot line when Skid becomes 'The King of Trumpeters' in Manhattan while Maggie is growing Spanish moss in Panama. One of the cast members of the Broadway drama 'Burlesque' was Oscar Levant, who got to play piano onstage and fire off a few wisecracks. Levant repeated his stage role in the film 'The Dance of Life', but his part was seriously cut. In this remake, Levant's role is expanded again, but regrettably not played by Levant this time. Charles Butterworth plays Skid's pianist buddy Harry. I've never liked Butterworth, whose screen roles usually include some very contrived business to make Butterworth a 'character'. In this movie, he wears winter clothing during a Panama heat wave. Very credible, I don't think.Maggie is courted by Harvey Dexter, a self-made millionaire who sincerely loves her. But this is one of those annoying movies in which the gal gives up the steady level-headed guy in favour of the unreliable bum who's handsome and charming, and we're supposed to approve her choice. There are bad motivations elsewhere, too. In the first scene, MacMurray is a soldier who talks on sentry duty ... because it's his last day in the army, so they can't fire him. (No, but they can extend his hitch while they give him a nice long sentence in the stockade.) For all its faults and forgettable songs, 'Swing High' features some extremely impressive montage sequences: the best I've ever seen in a Paramount film. (Though not up to the standard of Warners.) Franklin Pangborn appears very briefly, playing his usual cissy role, but he gives here one of his most energetic performances: he twirls frenetically, he taps his fingertips together impatiently. This is one of Pangborn's very best performances, buried in an obscure film. Dorothy Lamour sings pleasantly here but wears a very harsh makeup. Fred MacMurray gives Anthony Quinn a punch in the nose. Any movie where Anthony Quinn gets punched in the nose is fine with me.There's a good performance by Jean Dixon as Lombard's 'seen it all, dearie' pal. Dixon wisecracked her way through several major Broadway roles, but never caught on in film. There's also a good performance by an actress with the mannish name Cecil Cunningham, who plays a nightclub landlord known only by the mannish name Murphy. Cunningham was the ex-wife of vaudevillain Jean Havez, who wrote Groucho Marx's song 'Everybody Works But Father'. That song would have livened up this movie. I'll rate 'Swing High, Swing Low' 5 points out of 10.