Syncopation

The historic first film released by RKO Radio Pictures! This early musical tells the story of Benny and Flo, a struggling husband and wife team of vaudeville performers. Benny is quite satisfied with their humble lifestyle, but Flo thinks she’s “got the face and figure to be somebody!” Things start looking up when they are hired by millionaire playboy Alexander Winston to perform at his ritzy Broadway nightclub. Winston, however, is much more intrigued by Flo’s figure than how well she can do the Charleston. Though their act becomes a hit on Broadway, Flo, emboldened by Winston’s attentions, grows tired of Benny and his uncouth vaudeville pals. She starts divorce proceedings while Winston looks for a suitable replacement for Benny. When her new dance partner proves to have two left feet, Flo realizes she has made an awful mistake and reconciles with Benny.

Though Street Girl was the first film made by RKO Radio Pictures, its release was delayed until August 1929, which meant that Syncopation became the studio’s initial release on March 24, 1929. Shot in New York, Syncopation made use of the unproven RCA Photophone sound-on-film process (different from the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system that Warner Brothers had used for The Jazz Singer.) Syncopation’s box office success, bolstered by heavy promotion by Fred Waring and Morton Downey on their respective radio programs, would justify RCA’s substantial investment in the fledgling movie studio. Leading lady Barbara Bennett was the lesser-known sister of actresses Constance and Joan Bennett. Barbara never took to the movie industry as well as her sisters, however, and she made only one more film after Syncopation. She married fellow Syncoptation actor, singer Morton Downey, but their marriage ended in divorce in 1941. Their son, Morton Downey Jr., became a controversial TV talk show host in the 1980s. Co-star Bobby Watson later made a career out of portraying Hitler in films made during WWII. These include Hitler - Dead or Alive (1942), Natzy Nuisance (1943) and The Hitler Gang (1944). (Watson has played Hitler more often than any other actor.) After seeing her in Syncopation, comedian Bert Wheeler insisted leggy Dorothy Lee be the female foil in the comedies he did with Robert Woolsey, such as Half Shot at Sunrise (1930) Hook, Line, and Sinker (1930). British character actor Ian Hunter played Dr. Watson in The Sign of Four (1932) with Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes, and appeared in the recurring role of Sir Richard of Lea on ITV’s The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-1959). Director Bert Glennon would go on to great success as a cinematographer on dozens of classic films, including Stagecoach (1939), Rio Grande (1950), and House of Wax (1953).