Wednesday, October 15, 2014

I Hate Fake Trumpet Playing in Movies

Fred Astaire portrayed a trumpet player in the 1940 film Second Chorus.  I have an irrational hatred of actors who do a carp job of fake playing an instrument as Astaire and his sidekick, Batman's Penguin, did:



 More horrible fake trumpet playing:





Conversely, Artie Shaw and his orchestra probably fake played their instruments to playback on stage, but did a better job pulling off synching their actions to the music since they at least knew real fingering:





The entire film:


To contrast, others find Astaire as one of the few redeeming aspects of this film:



However, I'm not the only person who finds bad fake trumpet playing annoying, from the PBS show "Theater Talk" episode discussing new Broadway play about the trumpet player Louis Armstrong "Satchmo at Waldorf":


The playwright, Terry Teachout, states:

"I never wanted an actor to pretend to be playing the trumpet. That never looks right."


and the entire "Theater Talk" episode:





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