Syncopation

1929
Passed
1h 23m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

This is RKO's first sound musical. It centers on a pair of vaudevillians who are quite close on and off the stage until a dashing millionaire comes around and begins wooing the female partne... Read allThis is RKO's first sound musical. It centers on a pair of vaudevillians who are quite close on and off the stage until a dashing millionaire comes around and begins wooing the female partner.This is RKO's first sound musical. It centers on a pair of vaudevillians who are quite close on and off the stage until a dashing millionaire comes around and begins wooing the female partner.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos6

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
This was RKO Radio's first release.

Quotes
Benny: Good Luck with your next batch of fudge!

Connections
Featured in Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie (2012)

Soundtracks
Do Something
(uncredited)
Music by Sam H. Stept
Lyrics by Bud Green
Performed by Dorothy Lee and Morton Downey

User reviews6

Review

Featured review

Early Backstage Musical

SYNCOPATION was produced under the FBO banner (Joe Kennedy) but released as the first RKO film. It's typical of the early talkies in that the actors muff lines but keep right on going. The musical numbers are surprisingly good and fit in nicely with the backstage theme.

The stars are a little awkward here. Bobby Watson plays Benny to Barbara Bennett's Flo. They are a dance team trying to hit the big time. After getting good reviews for a show that closes right away, they get an offer to appear at a swank nightclub run by Ian Hunter. Of course he steals Flo away, changes her name to Fleurette and opens a new club named for her and with a new leading man. The opening night is a disaster and the story resolves itself from there.

Watson (who played the diction coach in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN while Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor sing "Moses Supposes"), is only OK as the leading man here. Bennett (sister of the more famous and glamorous Constance and Joan) isn't bad at all but she sure seems nervous. Hunter is solid as the cad.

Co-stars include the perky Dorothy Lee, the ear-piercing Morton Downey, Osgood Perkins, Verree Teasdale, Mackenzie Ward, and Fred Waring and his band. Waring does a good novelty number called "Tin Pan Parade" and Downey and Lee had a nice number in "Do Do Something."