The Fabulous Dorseys ** (1947, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Janet Blair, Paul Whiteman, William Lundigan, Sara Allgood, Arthur Shields) – Classic Movie Review 13,292

Big band brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey plus Paul Whiteman play themselves in the 1947 American musical biopic film The Fabulous Dorseys that shows them spending most of their off-stage time fighting. 

Director Alfred E Green’s 1947 American musical film The Fabulous Dorseys stars Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Janet Blair, Paul Whiteman, William Lundigan, Sara Allgood, Arthur Shields, and Dave Willock. It is written by Art Arthur and Curtis Kenyon, based on the 1946 story The Battling Brothers Dorsey in The Saturday Evening Post by Richard English.

Big band brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey plus Paul Whiteman play themselves in this modestly titled biopic that shows them spending most of their off-stage time fighting. from their boyhood in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, to their rise, breakup and reunion. Indeed, the film was also released as The Fighting Dorseys.

Fans of the Dorsey-sound will find it fascinating, but there’s no character insight or driving plot; the story just happens while the brothers argue and use their instruments (trombone and sax) like musical duellists. Allgood and Shields jolly things up as Mrs. and Mr. Dorsey.

Tunes include ‘Art’s Blues’, ‘Green Eyes’. ‘To Me’, ‘I’m Getting Sentimenal Over You’, ‘Dorsey Concerto’ and ‘Waiting at the Gate for Katy’.

The cast are Tommy Dorsey as himself, Jimmy Dorsey as himself, Janet Blair as Jane Howard, Paul Whiteman as himself, William Lundigan as Bob Burton, Sara Allgood as Mrs. Dorsey, Arthur Shields as Tommy Dorsey Sr, Dave Willock as Foggy, William Bakewell as Eddie, James Flavin as Gorman, Charlie Barnet as himself, Bob Eberly as himself, Henry Busse as Bandleader, Helen O’Connell as herself, Mike Pingitore as Musician, and Art Tatum as himself, Ziggy Elman, Stuart Foster, Ray Bauduc, Anne O’Neal, Andrew Tombes, Bess Flowers, Ann Carter, Bobby Warde, Jack Roper, Tom Dugan, Edward Clark, Buz Buckley, Hal K Dawson, Jackie Searl, Sherry Sherwood, and James Taggart.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,292

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