A toy soldier is drummed out the of the service after a beautiful ice skater catches his eye on duty but when the Screwball army declares war, the soldier gets another chance at redemption—and romance. Whimsical in tone and set to the syncopated sound of The Raymond Scott Quintette’s “The Toy Trumpet,” Rhythm in the Ranks earned George Pal, employing his Puppetoons stop-motion animation technique, his first Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject. —Paul Malcolm
35mm, color, 10 min. Director: George Pal. Production: George Pal Productions, Inc.
Restored by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures from the 35mm nitrate original successive exposure picture negative and track negative. Laboratory services by YCM Laboratories, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc.
