Best Music Movies of 1935

Duke Ellington plays his symphonic jazz piece ('A Rhapsody of Negro Life') with his orchestra against slice-of-life background scenes. The four movements: 1) The Laborers, 2) A Triangle: Dance, Jealousy, Blues, 3) A Hymn of Sorrow, 4) Harlem Rhythm.

Ginger and Dixie are process servers for goofy lawyer Homer Bronson. The two friends want to quit, but they're offered a thousand dollars to serve four subpoenas in a breach of promise suit against rich C. Richard Courtney. Little does Ginger realize, C. Richard Courtney and her mysterious park bench boyfriend 'Carter' are one and the same.

Cab Calloway performs at the Cotton Club before he takes his friends down to Harlem for a jitterbug party.

A young Iowa woman inherits her late estranged father's New York business, but the dead man's crooked associates think they can outwit the naive heir and seize control.

An entertainer impersonates a look-alike banker, causing comic confusion for wife and girlfriend.

At a Mexican resort, a fast-talking magazine editor woos the dancer he's trashed in print.

In this musical comedy, the trouble begins when a carefree playboy steals the virtue of a young French maiden and is forced to marry her when her angry father, a financier finds out. The playboy is flat broke, but does the honorable thing. The newlyweds then board a ship and sail off to the States. They are accompanied by the girl's ex-fiance. The plan was for the young marrieds to get a divorce as soon as possible, but then the groom realizes that he really does love the girl. Happiness ensues

A Chinese emperor is gladdened by the song of the nightingale and is moved to play his own song. One day the Japanese send a music box with a mechanical bird; the nightingale feels rejected and leaves. Soon the clockwork breaks down, and the emperor dispatches his crow to go look for the songbird. The emperor, meanwhile, grows sicker with the passing months.

In this MGM Colortone Musical short, a department store custodian who overindulges in drink sees the mannequins in the store's display windows come to life.