Evening star., 1948-07-22
Disney Song Cycle at Keith's;
Little Has TChaikovsky
By Joy Cormody

MELODY TIME" an RKO Picture of
@ Wed Jsefson os fasss
Erdman Penner,. Harry Reeves, Homer
Rnsld Art @ scott BIZ cottre BOB ssass Moore
Jesse Marsh. John Walbridge and Hardie
Grsmatky; songs by Kim Cannon. Walter
Wrubel, Bobby Worth, Benny BENJAMIN
and George Weiss EHn At H.gs Kfith's.
the Andrews Sisters. Fred waring and his
Pennsylvanians; Freddy Martin. Frances
Nolan and the Sons Of the Pioneers. the
Dinning Sisters, Bobby Driscoll and Luana
Patten.
Walt Disney has worked out a
modification of his trick of blending
humans and his animated fauna in
Melody Time" Keith's new feature.
The former, a collection of big name
musical performers, are confined
largely to the sound track. In this
position, they put less restriction
upon Disney's imagination which is
always to the advantage of his
cinema creations.
Melody Time" is not thereby
elevated to greatness but it is a
colorful, listenable piece of enter
tainment which an audience COM
posed of several generations can
hardly fail to appreciate. 1t Is a
variety musical revue which covers
such popular musical territory as
that controlled by Roy Rogers, the
Andrews Sisters, Fred Warnings
choir, Dennis Day, Buddy Clark,
Ethel Smith, Freddy Martin. and
Frances Langford. Rogers horse,
Trigger, also is present and the
reception he gets from the younger
portion of the audience makes 1t
clear Disney never showed sounder
Judgment of his customers.
Although it will not be remem-
bered as long as the harrassed bee
in Flight of the Bundle Bee" or
Little Toot," the juvenile delln-
quent tugboat in another musical
fnterlude, the dramatically best
thing about the newest Disney is
its Johnny Appleseed sequence. The
legend has been reworked into a
melodic narrative of which Dennis
Day and Disney's animators make a
superbly imagined passage.
Melody Time" reaches its comedy
peak in the tuneful story of the
lrrepressible junior tugboat. Little
Toot" whose story is sung by the
Andrews girls is the freshest crea-
ton in the picture, a small, impish
craft who is the bad boy OF New
York harbor until he rescues
crippled liner In storm.
Another blithe comedy bit is the
opening, I'm the Good Old Winter
time" in which Miss Langford's
voice backs up the antics of Disneys
standard menagerie. plus the blue
birds whose erstWhile gentleness
gives way here to some lusty lr-
reverence. This sequence, together
with that illustrating Joyce kllmers
Trees" as sung by Warnings choir,
is among the most beautiful areas
of animation in the film. 1t has a
few touches of the masters melo-
dramatization in the drawings, but
Yesterdays first audience OF chill
dren certainly seemed to take 1t IN
stride.
Cowboy Rogers, Trigger, and the
Sons of the Pioneers, all of whom
get their pictures in Melody Time,'
provide the singing background for
another exciting bit of Americana.
This is the legend of Pecos Bill, the
southwest's most renowned cowboy
who was nourished through child
hood by maternal coyote and who
grew into adulthood as Texas most
useful citizen. This usefulness was
marred by a romantic interlude in
which Pecos Bill falls for a beauty
named Slewfoot Sue, but everything
comes out all right in the end.
Donald Duck, still the topliner
among Disney's creations, plays
subordinate role in Melody Time"
but his appearance in the Samba
interlude played by Miss Smith on
the organ leaves no doubt OF the
security of his place.
Keith's should surely be the CEN
ter of juvenile popularity around
town for as long as Melody Time
can hold it's booking.