DECONSTRUCTING DAD: THE MUSIC, MACHINES, AND MYSTERY OF RAYMOND SCOTT (B-minus) - Playing tonight and Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Guild Cinema.
This one was difficult to grade. It's a fascinating documentary that is definitely worth seeing. But technically, it's a mess. Here, Stanley Warnow (rhymes with Stanley Karnow) delves into the life of his father, jazz pioneer Raymond Scott.
The first third of the film (the "Music") is a trip, as we are introduced to Scott not only through old clips and recordings but through modern musicians who demonstrate the complexities and the beauty of Scott's compositions. It plays like a Music Theory course (Scott is described as a perfectionist and a genius as a producer), and it's jaunty and fun. Scott's music was licensed by the folks creating the Looney Tunes shorts, and he is perhaps best known for "Powerhouse," which became a cartoon soundtrack classic:
He went on to achieve more than modest fame and success as bandleader for the early TV smash "Your Hit Parade." (His brother had led the band for the radio version of the show but died right before the transition to TV.)
The final third of the film (the "Machines") draws us in to the technical noodlings of Scott, whose magnum opus of a contraption was the Electronium, a crude forerunner to the synthesizer. Scott seemed to never complete any of his inventions, but he did manage to create music with them (and have the machines themselves occasionally generate their own melodies), serving as a sort-of godfather to the genre of Space Age Bachelor Pad music.
Here's a geek's introduction to the Electronium:
The machine now belongs to Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo, "Pee-Wee's Playhouse"), who rescued it from a weathered garage.
The problem with this production is Warnow's weakness as a filmmaker -- in a bit of dramatic irony, he's rather technically inept, shooting John Williams and Mothersbaugh in horrid lighting, for instance -- and his insistence on making the story about him and his mostly absentee father. There is just no dramatic tension created, and Warnow uses the middle third of the film (the "Mystery") to actually turn the camera on himself (and his own son at one point) in a vain attempt to plumb some emotional depths. But he comes up empty. (For an expert way to make a documentary about your parents, check out "51 Birch Street.") The combination of cheap filmmaking and indulgent storytelling (Warnow's mother and sister also chew up a lot of screen time) seriously threaten to derail the whole documentary.
But the music and the machines do win out in the end. Scott's is a compelling story of a musician, composer and inventor who was ahead of his time and under-appreciated.
Bonus Track
Raymond Scott and his Quintet performing "Twilight in Turkey" from "Ali Baba Goes to Town":
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