Words & Music: A quiet, dusty look at old-school songwriting

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, if you have a soft spot for pre-code era atmosphere and you don't mind a movie that feels like it was put together with a bit of spit and polish, sure. It’s a low-pressure watch. If you need tight pacing or explosive drama, skip it. You will absolutely hate this if you get bored by people talking in clubs about sheet music for ten minutes straight.

I caught this the other night while half-asleep, and it has this weird, sleepy charm to it. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel. It just wants to show you how hard it is to get a song published when you aren't already a household name. Ruth Etting is honestly the whole show here—she carries the scenes just by standing there looking like she’s actually heard these songs before.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Words & Music (1931) through its definitive frames.

There’s a moment where Don tries to pitch his song, and the look on the publisher’s face is just... perfectly bored. We've all seen that look. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in McFadden's Flats where everything feels just a little bit too loud for the room it's in.

Some random observations:

• The lighting in the club scene is super moody, even if you can tell they were trying to hide the cheap sets.
• I really wanted to see more of the band in the background. They just stand there!
• The dialogue is snappy, but sometimes it sounds like they’re reading off cards taped to the camera lens.
• It's got that same vibe as So This Is College, where everyone is just trying to make it big and being slightly annoying about it.

The middle of the film drags a bit. You can feel the director realizing they need to stretch the runtime. It’s not necessarily bad, just kind of... there. It’s like waiting for a bus that’s five minutes late.

Still, there’s a sincerity to the whole thing that you don't really see anymore. It’s not trying to be a masterpiece. It’s just a movie about music, and for that, I’ll give it a pass. 🎶