Amuse Yourself (1936) User Reviews

Unusual but entertaining short

[trimmerb1234 · 6/10 · 26 November 2016]

Jefferson Machamer was a talented illustrator best known for his cartoons featuring attractive well-dressed (and well undressed) young women comically always involved with an unattractive older man (said to be a self-portrait).

He starred in a series of film shorts - this one a pretext to bring on a bevvy of beauties and for him to do live sketches of them. This one also featured variety acts of different kinds - notably a young woman tap-dancer who concludes her act with 27 somersaults performed without stopping.

A 6.5 out of 10

Shown under the title "Glimpses" on Talking Pictures TV

Dated comic musical short

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 24 March 2017]

MELODIES OF THE MOMENT is an eventful little comedy short, dating back to 1936 and a vehicle for writer/star Jefferson Machamer, a comic strip artist with a fine line in drawing nubile young women. This is a broad fantasy piece in which Machamer, playing himself, fills a spare 20 minutes by drawing a series of beautiful women who proceed to come to life in order to enact some song-and-dance routines.

There's no more story to it than that, and it's fair to say that this production's over-the-top nature will be off-putting to a lot of modern viewers expecting something a little more sedate and realistic, particularly when confronted with the mugging performances of the opening scene. Still, the musical pieces aren't all too bad, and the female performers are certainly talented, the stand-out being a bit of tap-dancing followed by endless somersaulting.