This rare jazz feature was a highlight of William K. Everson's presentation at last summer's Mill Valley Film Festival. A musical romance revolving around two cool characters--Jackie Cooper and Bonita Granville, hot for jazz, poetry, and each other-- Syncopation traces the development of jazz since 1906 in fictional form. In his book, "Jazz in the Movies," David Meeker notes the many musicians featured in the film: "Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, Joe Venuti, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Rex Stewart, Jack Jenny, Connee Boswell, and the Hall Johnson Choir. Some soundtrack ghosting was done by Bunny Berrigan (for Jackie Cooper) and by Stan Wrightsman (for Bonita Granville). Leith Stevens provided several songs."