Not to be confused with "Top Hat", "High Hat" is a light-hearted 1930s musical about a pretentious female singer who wants a job at a radio station. She, however, ruins her first show with her rather cloyingly "high class" singing style. Meanwhile, she falls in love with the son of the station owner, and problems ensue when another woman who wants a job at the station hires some people to beat him up! The whole thing ends happily with a singer-songwriter friend of the singer convinces her to sing in a more accessible way. As such, the movie ends with several catchy 1930s song performances of various styles from jazz to crooner to novelty featuring a wide range of great talent. Though by no means a great movie, it's not bad for a B-musical and it's short running time, quick pacing help it a lot.
3 Reviews
Mediocrity
boblipton15 April 2021
Dorothy Dare has had some success in opera, but it has gone to her head. She has alienated enough people so she is out of a job. Friends get her a job singing on the radio, but she looks down on popular music, despite everything that the station's popular crooner, Frank Luther, can do.
It's an attempt to see if Luther could become a movie star for Universal. He was mostly known for western songs, but here, as writer of most of the songs, and those given a big orchestral patina, he was in command of his own fate.... and he didn't appear in another movie until 1965.
This one has not aged well. Watching Franklin Pangborn sing without pants is good for a few seconds, but this goes on for a couple of minutes. Clarence Muse is credited with staging the number he appears in, "I Go Congo".
Mostly though, it's an inexpensive Universal programmer that has not aged well.
It's an attempt to see if Luther could become a movie star for Universal. He was mostly known for western songs, but here, as writer of most of the songs, and those given a big orchestral patina, he was in command of his own fate.... and he didn't appear in another movie until 1965.
This one has not aged well. Watching Franklin Pangborn sing without pants is good for a few seconds, but this goes on for a couple of minutes. Clarence Muse is credited with staging the number he appears in, "I Go Congo".
Mostly though, it's an inexpensive Universal programmer that has not aged well.
Wonderful singing by Frank Luther and Dorothy Dare Make This Vintage Musical a Pleasure to View
LeCarpentier30 September 2022
Frank Luther, a popular tenor on 1930s radio programs and an incredibly prolific recording artist who sang on hundreds of phonograph records, covering literally every genre then in existence, was the lead performer in a number of 1-reel and 2-reel short subjects filmed in New York before going to California in the latter part of 1936 to star in "High Hat." The feature, released by Imperial Pictures and based on a novel by the prolific Alma Sioux Scarberry, deals with radio - a major competitor for the attention of potential theater patrons in the 1930s - and presents Luther as Suwanee Collyer, an admired singer of pop music, who tries to persuade lovely Elanda Lee (Dorothy Dare) to cease her efforts to perform highbrow music and to give the public the swingy tunes of the era.
Lona Andre, Gavin Gordon, Ferdinand Munier, Harry Harvey, Franklin Pangborn, Esther Muir, and Clarence Muse perform supporting roles effectively, but the focus is on the radio station and the presentation of programs geared to the public's taste. Frank Luther's excellent singing and the dancing/singing of lovely Dorothy Dare are well worth the admission price, and for those unaware of how big an attraction radio was in those pre-television days of the Depression, "High Hat" pleasantly takes the viewer back to an era never to be again.
Luther went on to literally dominate the field of children's recordings in the 1930s and '40s, and appeared on both radio and television as an entertainer specializing in performances for young audiences through the 1960s, recording new material in stereo through the 1970s. He richly deserves the star bearing his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After "High Hat," however, he made no other theatrical film.
Lona Andre, Gavin Gordon, Ferdinand Munier, Harry Harvey, Franklin Pangborn, Esther Muir, and Clarence Muse perform supporting roles effectively, but the focus is on the radio station and the presentation of programs geared to the public's taste. Frank Luther's excellent singing and the dancing/singing of lovely Dorothy Dare are well worth the admission price, and for those unaware of how big an attraction radio was in those pre-television days of the Depression, "High Hat" pleasantly takes the viewer back to an era never to be again.
Luther went on to literally dominate the field of children's recordings in the 1930s and '40s, and appeared on both radio and television as an entertainer specializing in performances for young audiences through the 1960s, recording new material in stereo through the 1970s. He richly deserves the star bearing his name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After "High Hat," however, he made no other theatrical film.
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