Carolina Blues (Full Screen)

Ann Miller plays the ingenue who steps into the role of vocalist when Kay Kyser's band comes to town. Kyser, who's ready for a holiday, is roped into putting on a show for defense plant workers by his publicist (Jeff Donnell). But Georgia Carroll, Kyser's vocalist, is already set to leave the band to get married. The conflicts are the typical plot points of the "show-must-go-on" Hollywood musical, but the performances are the central feature of the film. Ann Miller's dancing, the on-stage antics of Kyser's orchestra (including stalwarts Harry Babbitt, Sully Mason, and Ish Kabibble), Harold Nicholas, and a variety of other specialty numbers fill out the bill, not to forget Victor Moore, who has several turns as various members of the Carver clan. Newly remastered.

In his final starring film, bandleader Kay Kyser is cast as bandleader Kay Kyser. Picking up where Kyser's previous RKO Radio film AROUND THE WORLD left off, Columbia's CAROLINA BLUES finds Kay and his band returning to America after a worldwide USO tour. Phineas J. Carver (Victor Moore), the woebegone "black sheep"scion of a powerful family of industrialists, poses as one of his wealthier relatives to persuade Kyser to perform at a defense plant. When Kyser's regular vocalist Georgia Carroll quits the band to get married, Carver's talented daughter Julie (Ann Miller) steps in as replacement. Naturally, Julie is a hit, and equally naturally, she lands Kyser as a husband. Outside of the expected musical numbers (which, in addtion to Kyser's aggregation, feature such artists as The Step Brothers and the Nicholas Brothers) CAROLINA BLUES is highlighted by the bravura performance of Victor Moore, who essays five roles in all. Ironically, singer Georgia Carroll did retire from show business in real life to get married-to Kay Kyser!

Love | Singers

Genre:

• Musicals & The Arts

Product Series:

• Sony Screen Classics by Request