Ain't Misbehavin'

Intriguing collage of cinematic ephemera from the early part of the 20th century: newsreels, blue films, fashion shorts, What the Butler Saw material, and glimpses of Fats Waller, George Formby, Nat King Cole, Sophie Tucker and other performers. Some of the material is fascinating, and put together in such a way that it brings home how little there is to distinguish between respectable Hollywood and its underbelly. When the film goes out for laughs, on the other hand, the results are dire in the extreme. In its way the movie porn of the '30s and '40s is as much a revelation as reading about Victorian England via the author of My Secret Life. It doesn't need amplification.