Swing Fever

As an excuse to watch a group of highly talented musicians do what they do best, Swing Fever has some merit, as a film it’s a bottom of the barrel offering from MGM’s musical department. In-between scenes of Kay Kyser leading his orchestra through a series of pleasing numbers, frequently with Marilyn Maxwell’s commendable lead vocals, there’s a plot with absolutely no stakes or sense of momentum. Mercifully, it’s only about 80 minutes and we get from one number to another as quickly as possible. Whoever told Kyser he had potential as a comedic leading man was lying though, but in his defense they did fail to give him a decent script or surround him with better distractions to hide his lack of acting ability.

About thirty minutes into Swing Fever, Lena Horne finally shows up to perform “You’re So Indiff’rent.” Normally, her musical numbers are bright, fun, high-energy affairs, her occasional ballads are typically point-and-shoot, but “You’re So Indiff’rent” marries the high-energy stylization to a ballad that she nurtures into a bluesy gut-punch. The song is a lovely, aching ballad, it’s filmed in an evocative manner like what a German Expressionist musical might look like, complete with a great use of angles, shadows, and Horne’s pained vocals to stop the show. Nothing else in Swing Fever comes remotely close to matching this powerhouse moment. Like many of her specialty numbers before and after this one, Horne steals the movie outright in her limited screen time, shutting everything else down.