Ding Dong Williams

"Ding Dong Williams" must be one of the most wrong-headed titles in film history. After all, I am sure many, many folks stayed away from theaters when they saw such a stupid title. It's sad, because the film certainly is better than the title....it just HAD to be!!

Hugo Meyerheld (Felix Bressart) is a musician who works for a movie studio. However, his skills are a bit limited and old fashioned...and if he cannot come up with some hip music for one of the films, he's out of a job. Fortunately, his secretary knows of a young musician whose music is original and very hip....and Ding Dong Williams is hired! There are some problems with this (apart from his stupid name)...he cannot write nor read music...and he's never written down anything he and his band played! How's Ding Dong going to make it in Hollywood?

This film is a great example of a movie that works pretty well because the acting is so nice...as well as the music. I normally don't love a lot of music in movies, but Ding Dong's playing AND the wonderful Edvard Grieg piece played by a VERY precocious child is terrific (though the Chopin piece WITH Ding Dong was not particularly enjoyable). As far as the plot goes....it's decent and worth seeing. And, at least for me, I like ANY movie featuring Felix Bressart...he's a character actor who is just charming in everything.