Gus Arnhein and His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra (1928) 

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Early Vitaphone/Warner short has, as the title suggests, Gus Arnheim and his orchestra doing four numbers including Irving Berlin's I Can't Do Without You. As with many of these early musical shorts, this one here really doesn't feature too much "direction" or style as the camera is pretty much set up in front of the stage where the musicians are and they play. That's pretty much it with the exception of a handful of edits where the filmmaker gives us a close-up of one of the instrument playing. As you'd expect, this type of film is going to have a very limited appeal so it's mainly for those who enjoy this era of music or film buffs you want to check out all the early talking pictures. I was a little surprised to see how good the music sounded as many of these early sound films suffer from poor audio. Everything was quite crisp sounding and just by listening you'd never expect this to have come out so early in the game. The four numbers are certainly above average with I Can't Do Without You really stealing the picture.

The music genre features stories showcasing musical performances, music-related documentaries and recordings of live concerts and music festivals.

Prince and Apollonia Kotero in Purple Rain (1984)

The short form refers to creative works characterized by their brevity and concise storytelling. Unlike full-length feature films, short films have a running time of less than 45 minutes, while TV shorts have a running time of less than 22 minutes.

Benedict Cumberbatch in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (2023)

Gus Arnheim and His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra

A performance film showing Arnheim and his tuxedo-clad musicians playing their instruments, facing the viewer. Two cameras are used, one taking a long view of the band, the other, medium close ups of the men as they do their various solos.

Gus Arnheim and His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra (1928)

Get a closer look at some of Hollywood's perfect pairs.

Hollywood Power Couples

Get a closer look at some of Hollywood&#39;s perfect pairs.

See which big screen releases you can watch from the comfort of your couch.

Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

Get a closer look at these actors from their many TV and streaming series roles.

Streaming Stars, Then and Now

Gus Arnheim and His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra 'Favorite Orchestra of the Motion Picture Colony'

Gus Arnheim and His Cocoanut Grove Orchestra

Photos1

Top Cast5

User reviews4

Related interests

Storyline

Did you know

Top picks

Details

Tech specs

Contribute to this page

More to explore

Recently viewed