Swing Parade of 1946 (1946)

Fearing his father will have his nightclub closed down, club owner and singer Danny Warren (Phil Regan) goes to extremes to ensure no one is able to serve papers on him. In an effort to have the papers served, Papa Warren hires an attractive young woman named Carol Lawrence (Gale Storm) who might have more luck getting close to Danny. But Carol's more interested in pursuing her music – and love – than any old papers.Deathly dull, Swing Parade of 1946 isn't so much a movie as it is a series of set-pieces and musical numbers held together by the most minimal plot thread imaginable. What little plot there is wouldn't fill 10 minutes of the movie's runtime. Instead, the film goes something like this – a little plot followed a bit from the Three Stooges followed by an excruciating, painfully long music number. Just repeat this pattern for 74 minutes. The Stooges are wasted and out-of-place repeating bits most fans will have seen a number of times previous. Regan and Storm are both too uninteresting to carry the film themselves. I know that, at least in the case of Gale Storm, she would go on to have a long career in entertainment, but it's difficult to imagine that after watching this movie. I never thought I would say this, but Edward Brophy actually comes out of Swing Parade of 1946 looking better than anyone else – well, anyone other than Louis Jordan. Jordan and his band are the film's real highlight. As for the rest, it's all 'lowlights". Unless you're just a fan of really bad musicals from the mid-1940s, I'd say skip this one altogether.

"Swing Parade of 1946" is a Monogram musical. Have you heard enough yet? Actually, it's not that bad a movie, with better production values than you would suspect. It's even in color, which is a definite plus. They gathered several 'B' list actors and some fairly good musical talent, and even some cute chorus girls. They just didn't get a good enough story to go with the rest of the production.The Three Stooges are billed near the top of the ticket but their screen time is only about 6-8 minutes, which will be a disappointment to Stooges fans. Gale Storm is pretty, can sing and dance a little but I always felt her acting tended towards ham, and a little of Gale goes a long way. Louis Jordan and his Tympani Five are on hand, and they do "Caldonia", which livens up matters but the rest of the score consists of several forgettable songs. The dance routines are fair-to-middling.I would have given this picture a rating of 4 but for the presence of the aforementioned Stooges - I confess I am a fan of their mayhem/ humor. I ended up with a 5 despite the uninspired storyline.

I had never seen this until it came out on DVD in 2007. It's an undiscovered piece of Three Stooges history. It's been out of print for ages, except on VHS.The DVD company that this is re-released by make it sound like it is a movie 'starring The Three Stooges', but it's really not. Moe, Larry and Curly are co-stars with Gale Storm and Phil Regan. It's so cool to see Louis Jordan and his band! For those commenting here who say that this is a 'mediocre film', well....it's basically a typical 1940's musical comedy. Hollywood cranked out hundreds of musical comedies in the 1930's and 1940's and this was just another in the long line.It's NOT mediocre, and if you're a Three Stooges fan like me I have a question for you. Do you like it? Cointenly! Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk.ALSO: I have a huge beef with the DVD company though. Why must there be any old movies colorized in this day and age? They were made in black and white for a reason! At least this DVD gives you the option of watching the restored version in its original BLACK AND WHITE glory!Give this one a chance. Plus it has extra bonus stuff on it, too!

It is a bit of a stretch to call this a film, that is to say, a narrative complete with characters, plot, conflict, a beginning, an end, etc.It seems more to be a collection of random musical material, actors, scenery, and costumes that Monogram pictures had lying around. The three stooges occasionally pop in with their antics to be browbeaten by a character named "Moose", and the female lead threatens the physically inferior male lead with a champagne bottle, but that's about it for genuine entertainment value. A flimsy premise of somebody's dad trying to close his night club (which, despite being on the brink of bankruptcy, can afford massive sets, tuxedos, lavish meals, and neon-fitted instruments) is relentlessly padded out with long dull repetitive musical numbers. In said music numbers, overused songs, costumes, choreography, and sets all gyrate madly about with no relation to each other.This movie might have "historical interest". An ancient cracked Greek cup dug out of the ground might have historical interest, but that doesn't mean you want to drink from it. Likewise, I suggest that you do not attempt to actually watch Swing Parade, which contains neither swing, nor parades. What it does contain is musical dullness with a touch of surreality, people with oddly shaped faces, process servers, and equine blindness anxiety.