Second Chorus (1940)
Danny and Hank, two trumpet-playing perpetual college students who keep flunking on purpose to hold onto their profitable campus dance band, both fall for their sharp new manager, Ellen. When she goes to work for Artie Shaw, the rivals scheme against each other for a chair in his celebrated orchestra.
A modestly budgeted independent musical, Second Chorus is the film Fred Astaire later flatly called the worst he ever made; he dances only briefly and mimes a trumpet solo actually played by Bobby Hackett. Bandleader Artie Shaw appears as himself, and the picture drew an Academy Award nomination for the Johnny Mercer song “Love of My Life.”
Background
Second Chorus was directed by H. C. Potter and starred Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard and Burgess Meredith, with bandleader Artie Shaw playing himself. Astaire and Meredith play two trumpet-playing students who keep failing their courses so they can hold on to a campus dance band that earns them money. When Goddard’s character takes a job managing Shaw’s orchestra, the two rivals begin scheming against each other for a place in it. The film was released in 1940 and is a useful record of the swing bands that were popular at the time.
What to watch for
Pay attention to the sequences built around Shaw’s orchestra, where the arrangements carry the story as much as the dialogue does. Much of the comedy comes from the two rivals’ schemes and from the way Goddard’s manager character handles them. Astaire’s dancing is staged within the conventions of a studio musical, so the numbers stay tied to the plot rather than standing apart from it. The picture is a clear example of how Hollywood folded working jazz musicians into musical comedy around 1940.
