MTV, 1940s Style: Film #202 - The Lamp of Memory (1944)
Viewed July 21, 2006
In the 1940s RCM Productions began making a series of very short films for projection in jukebox-like machines. These short films were called “soundies” and were, basically, music videos. They would often have a modest storyline, but the main focus was always on whatever song was being performed throughout the soundie’s length. One concept that was regularly used was a dream sequence and such is the case with The Lamp of Memory featuring a very young Yvonne DeCarlo (Lily Munster).
The song is nice enough and DeCarlo does a good job of selling it’s romantic nature. (Whether she actually was singing or not seems to be the subject of debate.) She looks absolutely lovely and handles the spotlight (including a dance segment) with ease.
The film has very limited production values, with the only sets being the bedroom set and a small veranda/balcony set where most of the song takes place. Still, they seem to have put some effort into making it look as good as they could.
Soundies are, as I stated, essentially the forerunners of the modern music video. As such, they have varying degrees of complexity with The Lamp of Memory being about average. It’s certainly worth a look if you are interested in seeing what Yvonne DeCarlo was like in the 40s. If you’ve never seen a soundie before, it’s as good as any to serve as an introduction to the form. But as entertainment on its own, it (like most music videos) just doesn’t offer that much.