Music Hath Charms: A total mess, but a fun one

Is it worth it?

If you have a soft spot for weird, forgotten 1930s British oddities, you’ll probably find something to love here. If you need a coherent plot or, you know, actual pacing, stay far away. It feels less like a movie and more like a collection of radio skits held together by sheer willpower and Henry Hall’s band.

The whole thing is built around the idea that music has some kind of mystical power to fix problems. Spoiler: it mostly just annoys people or makes them dance until they collapse. It’s a very 1930s way of looking at the world, I guess.

The vignettes are all over the place

The transition from the BBC studio to a jungle cabin is just… jarring. One minute you are watching a formal band performance, and the next, two guys are trapped in a hut acting like they’ve never seen a wireless set before. The jump in tone is so sharp it almost gave me whiplash.

There is a court case scene that goes on for about five minutes too long. You can tell the director really loved the set design, but nobody told the actors when to stop shouting. It’s loud, it’s frantic, and I honestly stopped caring who won the argument about the loud radio.

Specific weird moment: The mountaineering couple. Why are they there? They show up for two minutes, look confused at the sky, and then disappear. It’s like they were in a completely different film entirely, maybe something more like Berge in Flammen, but they took a wrong turn at the production office.

Small observations

• The band members look incredibly bored whenever they aren't playing their instruments.
• The luxury liner set is clearly just a few wooden planks and a painted backdrop. It’s charming in a 'please don't touch the walls' sort of way.
• Some of the extras in the background of the studio scenes are clearly looking directly into the camera. It happens at least three times.
• The audio mix is... well, it’s a film from the 30s. Don't expect crisp surround sound.

It reminds me a bit of The Band Beautiful in how it tries to shove as much music into the frame as possible. The difference is that this one feels like it’s constantly on the verge of falling apart. The script feels like it was written on napkins during a lunch break.

I can't say it’s a 'good' movie by any standard metric. But it has a pulse. It’s trying to be funny, and even when it fails, it fails with such confidence that you can't help but grin. Sometimes that’s enough. 🎺