Rhythmitis (1936) User Reviews (6)

A Pipperoo Production

[boblipton · 6/10 · 7 August 2019]

Hal Le Roy dances and Toby Wing smiles. That's all you needed in 1936 to make a good musical short subject. Well, that, about fifteen dancers, Roy Mack and the facilities of Warner's Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn.

Hal was an eccentric dancer who stole the show of the 1931 Ziegeld Follies, and wound up with career, encompassing stage and movies. Miss Wing was a favorite Busby Berkley chorine from those spectacular production numbers; it was she who Dick Powell sang "I'm Young and Healthy" to in 42ND STREET, and she did well enough to get up to the lead of a second feature or twoo before she decided to get married.

There's a song sung by someone else, and a stilt dancer, but that's about it. When people want to be entertained, you just have to make sure you don't muck it up.

One pill and you're Fred Astaire

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 7 August 2019]

Toby Wing whose face and figure were made famous to the movie going public and dancer Hal LeRoy star in this Warner Brothers Vitagraph short subject. This one is no exception, a short silly plot to hang a few numbers on

Dr. Hugh Cameron invents a pill that causes you to dance. And I mean you're out making moves like Fred Astaire. So a star is born, but then the pills are lost.

Rhythmitis is some entertaining nonsense you certainly can enjoy. I would have loved to have taken pills like that when I was younger.

The same year REEFER MADNESS made the pot market crash . . .

[cricket30 · 6/10 · 16 March 2014]

. . . Warner Bros. tried to take advantage (perhaps in an under-the-radar coordinated effort) by bringing out this 20-minute short (RHYTHMITIS) to promote Methamphetamine ("speed") abuse. Though it is a little late in the day to try to trace the possibly labyrinthine connections between the so-called home of the gangster movie and the actual American speed kingpins in 1936, there are tons of doctoral candidates in history, film studies, and criminal justice just dying for a dissertation topic, so perhaps a few of them would like to tackle this mystery. Warner Bros., likely sensing a vulnerability under the new production code, ends RHYTHMITIS with the classic "it was all a dream" disclaimer, distancing itself from the first 95% of this film. Perhaps they HAD to do this to win MPAA approval #0922. If I were doing this doctoral research myself, the MPAA archives (which I believe are in the Vatican catacombs) is the first place I'd go. (Rome is supposed to be nice in the Springtime.) The "dreamer" in this tawdry tale, Hal Le Roy, is most famous for suing his dad a year before this film was made for "stealing" his bonus money (just as MLB first baseman Prince Fielder later litigated against HIS day, Cecil, for the same thing). I do not know enough about the the current Prince or the late Hal to speculate whether their lawsuits reflected in part a need for speed. But "Dr. Hyple" never gets the Come-Uppance in RHYTHMITIS you'd expect the censors would have required for such an unscrupulous pill pusher. Maybe some of the payola went to Italy. As "Mr. Allison" was told, only Heaven knows.

Silly, but Fun

[chris-48 · 22 September 1998]

While the plot is silly, this musical short is light and fun. Hal LeRoy performs some snappy tap steps and Toby Wing is awfully cute. (Even if her dumb blonde routine is tiresome.) The music is mundane, but there is one incredible dance routine involving a tuxedo-clad man on stilts.

This musical short seems to be disrespectful toward Far North Americans . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 14 May 2021]

. . . (sometimes disparaged by the E-word, which precedes "Pies" in the trade name for a frozen confection on a stick). Pill pusher Dr. Hype states midway through RHYTHMITIS that he's going to Alaska to hook the natives on his designer drug. South of the Canadian border, Native Americans have been dissed historically by being characterized as "Drunken I-words." The last thing that America needs is for the "humorous" invention of a parallel scourge affecting the original inhabitants of our northern-most state. Such shameless exploitation of a neglected and vulnerable population for the sake of a few (if any) yuks illustrates corporate money-grubbing at its worse.

A Few Decent Moments

[Michael_Elliott · 8 June 2016]

Rhythmitis (1936)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Decent Musical short from Warner has Hal Le Roy basically playing himself. Here he's a young man who takes a magical pill that turns him into a great dancer when he's discovered by Lola (Toby Wing). Soon he is recruited for an act but when he loses the pills he doesn't know what to do. If you're looking for some great, smart or funny then you're not going to find it here but for the most part this is an innocent enough short that's at least slightly entertaining. The biggest problem is that there's really nothing here that's "good" but instead everything is just decent. The songs are mildly entertaining at best and while some of Le Roy's steps are very good, there's just nothing to really show them off. The filmmaking is also decent at best but fans who enjoy these type of shorts will still want to check it out.