Earl Burtnett

Jay Rountree, a young, rising businessman and a son of a wealthy manufacturer gets caught up in a web involving an escort service or 'party girls' and trapped into an unhappy marriage.

For the ventriloquist Gabbo his wooden dummy Otto is the only means of expression. When he starts relying more and more on Otto, he starts going mad.

This short was the fourth of four that Earl Burtnett would make at Vitaphone in 1928. As with the previous ones, this here features three songs by Burtnett and his ten-man orchestra.

Vitaphone must have really enjoyed Earl Burtnett because they made four shorts together in 1928 and this here was the first. Burtnett introduces the musical numbers as well as the musician doing the tune and for the most part I thought this was fairly entertaining. "Miss Annabelle Lee" was the final number and probably the highlight of everything but the other numbers are well worth listening to.

Earl Burtnett and His Biltmore Hotel Orchestra playing "What'll You Do?", "The Song Is Ended" and "Tiger Rag".