Buster Keaton, at a low point in his career, directed this short subject about a new kind of swing band that plays musical instruments without actually playing them. It's a novelty act that never really caught on and it's easy to understand why.No use discussing the plot. It's merely an excuse to show these "swing singers" doing their thing singing for their supper in a streamlined railroad "Dinah".The black band is talented enough but the script is worthless, Keaton's direction is uninspired and the whole thing falls apart before "The End" is flashed on the screen.Forget about it.

I just discovered this rare musical short from M-G-M on the TCM site. It's directed by comedian Buster Keaton at a low point in his life when the studio he worked for had no use for his physical talents. The stars are the musical group The Original Sing Band, a group of African-Americans who don't play instruments but instead use their mouths to sound like them while others sing the lyrics of which two of the performed songs were written by Louisiana native Leon Rene. Actually, one of them does play the guitar. The flimsy plot has them getting "sold" a railroad car by a "millionaire" who plans to retire on his "yacht". They take it off the tracks and turn it into a diner called "Dinah" (get the play on words?). While there's some embarrassing dialect here, this was mostly entertaining stuff courtesy of the singing. Since the Original Sing Band appeared in one other short, this was a real find for me. I highly recommend Streamlined Swing.

While I was not originally going to watch this musical short since I usually hate musical shorts, I decided to see it when I saw that it was directed by none other than Buster Keaton!! It was obvious looking at Keaton's career that MGM had absolutely no idea how to use his many talents. Starting in the sound era, MGM did practically everything they could to unintentionally waste his talents. The first was pairing the visual comic with the loud, brash and pretty obnoxious Jimmy Durante. Their styles had absolutely nothing in common and Keaton just looked lost in the films--and worst of all, they weren't funny. It was so bad that by the late 1930s, he all but disappeared from the screen except in bit roles. MGM didn't know what to do with this contracted player, so they assigned him to direct some shorts. And the short, overall, is good and achieves what it intended--a short and amiable musical interlude before or between features. However, fans looking for a short that transcends this limited goal (such as Keaton's silent shorts) will be disappointed.In addition, the film is in some ways uncomfortable to watch here in the 21st century and is an important history lesson. The singing group in the film is made up of some talented Black men who, at times, act pretty stereotypical for the time period. Blacks were not often seen in mainstream films of the era, but when they did they were usually servants or child-like "boys" who could sing and dance. The singing is excellent and catchy, but you can't help but feel that the film is patronizing and these men are allowed to act within very prescribed limits--the characters can't have depth or anguish--they must enjoy being exactly who they are and nothing more. However, don't throw away the film because of this--it is a very important time-capsule and important to our history.This film begins with the men working as waiters on a train. They THINK they bought a used train car to convert into a restaurant, but it turns out the owner of the railroad is actually NOT the owner but an insane person! How this is all resolved in kind of cute and at least it's nice to see that in the end the men are rewarded for their decency and hard work--exactly the sort of "good Negro" image that White audiences of the time would accept.Overall, this is an interesting film but is hindered by the age in which it was made. It's a real shame that the singers were unable to do much more with their many talents.

Warning: Spoilers ahead! Created in 1938 when America seems like a different world to a viewer in 2006, this short film about a group of African American singers who are apparently given a railroad dining car named "Dinah" by a crazy man; they believe him and innocently "steal" the dining car and set it up on a Hollywood street corner as one of the early RR car diners, and use it as a means of income and as a showcase for their musical talents. The police appear and tell them the car has been stolen, and then the President of the railroad appears and tells them they can truly have the diner. No longer trusting the word of the white men who keep giving them the car, the band politely declines the offer and the film ends. Certainly not one of Director Buster Keaton's best, but it's cute and watchable.