Say It with Music: A Perfectly Fine Way to Kill an Hour

Should you watch Say It with Music? If you are the kind of person who enjoys a good vintage musical and doesn't mind a plot that feels like it was written on a napkin during lunch, sure. It’s light, it’s fluffy, and it is definitely not going to change your life. If you hate people spontaneously breaking into song or need high-stakes drama to keep your eyes open, you’ll probably find this thing a total snooze.

It’s a strange little relic. The whole production has this dusty, attic-smelling quality to it. You can almost see the stage lights flickering in the background if you squint hard enough. 🎬

Freddy Schweitzer does his best, but there is this one scene where he’s trying to look pensive near a window, and the background painting is clearly just a flat piece of cardboard. It’s distracting in the best way possible.

The musical numbers are... well, they are there. They happen. Sometimes they feel like they were stitched on from a different movie entirely, like a mismatched sleeve on a coat. Sybil Summerfield is clearly having the time of her life, though. She’s the only one who seems to realize this isn't Shakespeare.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Say It with Music (1932) through its definitive frames.

I found myself thinking about Campus Romeos halfway through. That movie had way more energy, but maybe less charm. It’s hard to say. Sometimes these old films just blur together into one big pile of black-and-white static.

There is a moment—blink and you’ll miss it—where a background actor almost trips over a prop. They don't even cut it. It stays in the final edit. I love that. It makes the whole thing feel like a living, breathing mistake.

Notes from the couch:

• The lighting is incredibly harsh, which makes everyone look like they are sweating under a thousand suns.
• The dialogue sounds like it was barked at the microphone from three rooms away.
• William Hartnell is in this, looking much younger than you’re used to if you’ve seen him in anything else.

The pacing is all over the map. One minute we are in the middle of a massive dance sequence, and the next we are stuck in a slow conversation about nothing in particular. It’s like the editor just got bored and started making random cuts. 🤷‍♂️

If you have a soft spot for this era, you’ll find enough to like. If not, it’s probably best to just keep scrolling. It’s not essential viewing, but it’s not an insult to the medium, either. It’s just... a movie. And sometimes, that’s all you really need on a Tuesday.