Hold That Tiger (1940) User Reviews

Poor Kitty Cat

[boblipton · 7/10 · 17 July 2023]

Victor Young leads his orchestra in a very lively version of the jazz classic in this early soundie.

Soundies were short films, about three minutes in length. The were meant to be played on a machine called a Mills Panoram, a video jukebox that was typically to be found in bars, lounges, and similar venues. You put a dime in and got a performance from the ten on the machine. The movies would be changed weekly, and from 1940 through 1946, Mills and other companies produced more than two thousand soundies.

Young was born in Chicago, but studied music at the conservatory in Warsaw in Poland. Trapped by the First World War, he made a living there fore a while, before returning to the US. His career led him to compose for the movies, where he amassed a total of 22 Oscar nominations. He died in 1956 at the age of 57, and after that, won his first Oscar for the score to AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS.

Scorching Jazz Short Made by a Film Composer

[DLewis · 8/10 · 24 May 2013]

Victor Young did not lead a touring big band, nor did he play dances or other public kinds of engagements. After a stint with the Russo-Fio Rito Orchestra in the 1920s and some time spent as a freelance arranger Young went straight into the recording studios, and on radio, as a leader. Young had been based in Hollywood some years at the time "Hold That Tiger" was made by Soundies Distributing Corp. and was already scoring motion pictures -- one of his last scores, for "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956) would ultimately win him immortality, and not a minute too soon. That's one among several reasons that "Hold That Tiger" is surprising; the band, and Young's chart, is on fire, but the band itself never played a ballroom. These fellows were strictly radio broadcast musicians and also provided backups to singers on records made in Decca's West Coast studio. This short was directed by Reginald Le Borg who put his best effort into it; the rapid cutting and specific camera angles and movements used almost references Soviet montage, but it is all clearly keyed to the instrumental detail in Young's arrangement. The piece itself is designed for visual effect as much as musical; the film is meant to be as visually "hot" as the music, even though intended for viewing on a tiny Panoram screen. In short, "Hold That Tiger" didn't need to be as good as it is; Young and Le Borg did their homework to make it so.