Best Music Movies of 1931

Bimbo finds himself surrounded by a mysterious group of robed figures who invite him to become a member of their secret organisation. When he refuses, they fling him through a nightmarish sequence of terror and torture devices. Will our hapless hero make it out alive?

A simple wink, intended by Austrian palace guard Lt. Nikolaus von Preyn for girlfriend, Franzi, is accidentally intercepted -- and misread -- by the visiting Princess Anna. As a result, the soldier has no choice but to marry the royal lady and move with her to the neighboring kingdom of Flausenthurm. His girlfriend follows to continue the romance and, subversively, give Princess Anna tips on how to keep her husband satisfied.

Musical comedy antics in an art deco bakery (motto: "Glorifying the American Doughnut") with Eddie Cantor as an assistant to a phoney psychic, who is mistaken for an efficiency expert and placed in charge. Complications ensue when the psychic and his gang attempt to rub the payroll.

In this short, multiple acts perform before an audience in a town hall. Performers include The Aaron Sisters singing trio and the Mound City Blue Blowers musicians. Another act features a tap dancer whose shoes have extensions on them that allow him to balance on the ends as one might use stilts. In the finale, an "inebriated" dog in the audience performs tricks. The short's title refers to the curfew in the town.

A lady is rescued from a villain by a heroic young man, who then takes her for a spin in his Oldsmobile.

Mickey runs radio station ICU from his barn. His friends play various musical numbers. A cat wanders in and starts yowling (which sets Pluto, who was listing from his doghouse, off). Mickey puts it out, but it, and several kittens, keep coming back in, playing with the equipment, running through the musicians (chased by a broom-wielding Mickey, who does a great deal of damage himself), and generally making a mess of things.

John is a timid student who works at the University Book Store. He is studying to be a botanist and has a secret crush on the lovely Julia. One day, one of his letters gets accidentally mailed and Julia receives it. When the letter says that he is a fraternity man and a big track star, Julia rushes right over to see him. But John is neither and Spike, Julia's boyfriend, is a track star at a nearby College. John does not want to enter the track meet so Julia tries to use psychology on him. That and a good wrestling hold makes John timidly agree to enter the race, but Spike still scares him.

A short musical comedic romance starring Bing Crosby as ... Bing Crosby. This 2 reel short was directed by Mack Sennett.

An inventor and his lanky girlfriend set an altitude record in his winged contraption.

Delivery boy Mickey encounters Minnie washing clothes and singing. He stops for a quick song and dance with her. Meanwhile, Pluto gets tangled up in tar. Mickey sends a beehive flying; it lands on his mule, who kicks Mickey's instrument-filled wagon into the air. He plays a march or two on the piano with Minnie, with many animals playing along.

A woman sundered from her sweetheart sings the title song as a duet with a personified Old Man Blues, in fog-shrouded woodland.

An officer of the French Military is in love with a shop girl, but his aristocratic father wants him to marry in his class and convinces the girl that marriage would be a mistake. The officer goes off to war and she becomes an opera star.

Masked bandit Bimbo holds up a train carrying someone tougher… Betty Boop (with dog's ears), played by a different, deeper-voiced actress.

Sun bonneted Betty Boop takes a train to "Rudy Valley" where she gains weight and Rudy Vallee performs the title song with Bouncing Ball.

Mickey plays a bluesy tune on a piano on a stage. Minnie sings. Then an unseen band plays while both sing and dance. Mickey then leads the 9-piece band in an uptempo number, with Pluto on trombone, Horace on percussion, and Clarabelle on bass, among others. Mickey steps out for a clarinet solo.

Cop Foxy is trying to enforce the law in town, but dangerous drivers and gangsters who also kidnap his sweetheart are making this difficult.

In this first Merrie Melodie short, things are hopping at a certain Mexican café. And then Foxy walks in and the customers go really wild.

A woman believes her boyfriend died in the First World War, but he is now looking for her

Piggy picks up his girlfriend and takes her to a theater where a hot jazz orchestra is playing.

An ordinary fair, but run by animals.

A guilt-ridden U.S. Marine returns to Cuba to try to find the woman he promised to marry.

The old toymaker goes to sleep, and his toys immediately come to life and sing "Red-Headed Baby." A red-haired baby doll begins the song. She's soon joined by her sweetheart, a toy soldier named Napoleon. A spider briefly spoils the fun when he descends upon the toys and grabs the doll. It's up to Napoleon to save her.

A young Frenchwoman is determined to get into and stay in show business, no matter what. Then she's determined to win a recently divorced man's heart... again, no matter what.

An idealistic young man is torn between a sultry Chicago nightclub owner and a Scottish South Dakotan farmgirl.

Fleischer Studios giving "Please Go 'Way and Let Me Sleep" the 'Screen Song' bouncing ball treatment.

A boy dog walks down the train tracks singing "I Ain't Got Nobody," with a train coming. He looks at a photo of his girlfriend, and she razzes him. He lies down on the tracks, but the train bypasses the section of tracks that he's lying on! He jumps off a cliff, but a tree saves him. The ball bounces... we see him on the sidewalk, crying, and singing to passersby.

With a series of long takes and frontal camera set-ups, Michaeux provides a record of several cabaret acts, using intertitles to separate the individual numbers. This quietly outrageous film begins with the high-toned Heywood Choir singing "Watermelon time" and concludes with Amon David playing a preacher using heavy blackface. Amon Davus was known as "the Back Biting Comedian, Par Excellence", and his sermon is one of Michaeux's many notable send-ups of the clergy.

White boy and girl cats spoon at a desk. A black boy cat comes to call. She sends him away, but he tries to lure her with catnip on the end of a line. White "daddy" cat holds her back, and the black boy cat walks home. The ball bounces over lava lamp-like shapes. Cats dance on top of a wooden fence, then on the song lyrics. A black boy and girl cat spoon on top of a fence, and in a window.

The Aesop Sound Fables, while almost forgotten today, produced some of the strangest cartoons during the Depression with dream-like backgrounds, surreal imagery and some of the best cartoon scores.

In 1815, Tsar Alexander I romances a working-class glove seller, while his double takes his place at the Vienna Congress. English-language version of Der Kongreß tanzt.

After some slapstick mountain climbing, the title song is sung with the Bouncing Ball, then spoofed with humorous images. All animated.

A tourist guide in Naples is taken on by an English woman impressed by his singing, and who regards him as her protege.

Singer Ruth Eton is looking for some new songs to use in her act. Don Hopkins is a songwriter who wants to break into the business, but knows it is difficult to get music publishers to consider new talent. Don sees Ruth having dinner at a night club and asks for her help.

Impoverished aristocrat's daughter Tommy Tucker is in love with radio announcer Bill Coverdale, but he is engaged to her more glamorous sister Angela, who he does not love. Seeking escape from this hopeless situation, and her life of genteel poverty, Tommy flees abroad to Biarritz to become a nightclub singer.

The story of a crazy film company attempting to make the first 'talkie' in Australia. Two divas compete for the main role.

A dancer is jealous for her lover.

A boy dog walks down the train tracks singing "I Ain't Got Nobody," with a train coming. He looks at a photo of his girlfriend, and she razzes him. He lies down on the tracks, but the train bypasses the section of tracks that he's lying on! He jumps off a cliff, but a tree saves him. The ball bounces... we see him on the sidewalk, crying, and singing to passersby.

A musical film directed by Fred Paul

'Strong man dreams of bungalow honeymoon with revue star.' (British Film Catalogue)

Ethel runs a run down saloon in Nicaragua. Word arrives that the soldiers are pulling out, and most of the American miners and all of the women must ship out on a vessel bound for San Francisco, but her boyfriend has been ordered to remain.

A medicine show singer finds her love.

A short musical film directed by Fred Paul.

'The Glanhowy Singers perform several Irish songs to a backdrop of Irish country scenes and images. Songs include: Young May Noon, The Harp that Once Thro' Tara's Halls, Cruiskeen Lawn, Celtic Lament, Killarney, The Minstrel Boy.' (British Film Institute)

A musical film directed by Fred Paul.

A musical film directed by Geoffrey Benstead

Simultaneously filmed English language version of a period operetta, in which a Polish noblewoman is romantically linked with a revolutionary student activist.

Joe Penner, in this Vitaphone short (Vitaphon production number 1124)features his stock speech impediment acts sprinkled with some left-over "doughboy" comedy from World War One. He also gets some flirting bits with dancer Joan Carter Waddell.

An itinerant medicine salesman sells joy in bottles with the aid of his band.