The Phantom Broadcast (1933) Online

Alpha Video which continues to serve serious movie lovers, especially those who want to explore the past through films that will never make it to TV, has an interesting item in 1933's "The Phantom Broadcast." The plot is simple: a much beleaguered by adoring female fans crooner is a first class fraud. Actually "his" voice is that of his crippled accompanist and manager, referred to as "the hunchback."

Singer and manager both pursue the beautiful, innocent girl. The singer is also beset with the affections of a discarded mistress who won't take "no" or "get lost" for a permanent disposition of a tired relationship. Exit singer through a bullet wound.

The sweet, decent gal is a suspect but the old hunchback tries to attract the law's heat to protect her. Such nobility.

Nothing novel about the plot but the acting is, largely, not bad.

For $4.99, which is what I paid, this was 73 minutes of entertainment. Now who do I palm the DVD off to?

I LOVED this film (I saw it on a VHS from Sinister Cinema) and was particularly moved by Ralph Forbes' performance in the lead role of the "hunchback," who (in an eerie foreshadowing of the Milli Vanilli scandal) provides the actual voice for a handsome but non-singing radio star. Forbes achieves the pathos of Lon Chaney, Sr.'s performances in similar roles (he actually worked with Chaney on the 1926 MGM film "Mr. Wu") and it's a real pity Forbes spent most of his career playing silly-ass Englishmen in supporting roles. "Phantom Broadcast" is also noteworthy for its daringly amoral ending (the sort of thing Hollywood only could get away with in the so-called "pre-Code" period of the early 1930's) and as proof that Philip Rosen, who made some of the God-awfullest movies ever made for the later Monogram in the 1940's, had at least two genuinely great films in him (this one and 1934's "Dangerous Corner"). Also, the actual singing voice heard on the soundtrack sounds so much like Russ Columbo's I suspect it IS Columbo on demo records recorded for a music publisher — anyone out there know more about who the REAL phantom singer was?

This is a hard to watch film because the subject manner is one which for todays audiences would be taboo. A popular radio singer, tall handsome, and a huge flirt has his own radio show, women adore him and he has tie ins with criminals. The only thing is the singer is not actually singing, his piano player is the actual singer, played by Ralph Forbes. Forbes is also a vocal teacher and has been told that he will never be a star because he has a deformity. His deformity causes several people in the film to call him derogatory terms. The film is not really a mystery either, as it is never a mystery as to what happens, which is best explained by watching the film. Gail Patrick, on loan from Paramount Studios plays the romantic lead in the film.

The film is in the public domain and can be found on VHS and DVD.

The premise is interesting but really stretches the imagination. The story involves a deformed man who becomes the voice for a 1930's style crooner. The two of them have a symbiotic relationship; they need each other. However, the crooner needs the manager/songster much more because without him, he is nothing. The fact that no one ever gets wise is the first flaw. It's just too much. The second is that the abused man continues to function in the face of all the nasty remarks and putdowns. Enter a beautiful young woman singer who is seeking a manager and has great sympathy for the deformed man. A murder is committed and everyone clams up. So many of these movies depend on someone refusing to talk, even when they have nothing to lose. When a murder is committed, the accused acts in a totally irrational way, thinking a young woman is going to be blamed. But there is no reason to do this. He has a witness and she has no motive. Anyway, it's not very tight, and while it has its moments, it kind of fizzles.

The story moves very slowly, but that does not take away from the fun of watching this movie. The enjoyment is seeing the period of the early 1930's--in dress, hairstyles, furniture, automobiles, and the Art Deco design of the sets. Made in 1933, this movie is at about the height of the Art Deco movement, a movement that permeated the design of everything from architecture to kid's toys. Also notable is the slow speech. Since sound was fairly new in the movies and fast casual speech was often not caught by the infant equipment, the actors speak slower than by today's standards and with the clarity of trained stage actors. Since this is a Monogram Studio production, I suppose there were few multiple takes of the scenes and probably a low budget, but some of the performances are almost equal to those of better known film actors working for the high-priced studios of the day, and the sets are fairly elaborate for a low budget film. All in all, it's fun to watch this movie, in spite of the fact that the story leaves a lot to be desired and moves at a snail's pace.

Grant Murdock is a crooner - shallow, a ladies man and vain. His "shadow" is Norman Wilder - a composer, pianist and wise man, who is also a club-footed hunchback. He is also the true singer as Grant merely mimes to the other's voice. (With only a curtain hiding Norman from the fans that swoon over Grant - it is pretty hard to believe that no one has suspected it before.)

A young singer, Laura Hamilton, comes to audition - to see if Norman will guide her to singing success. He finds a kind, sympathetic girl who regrettably puts her wedding on hold so she can achieve her goal.

Accidentally hearing part of a conversation between Laura and Grant, he worries that Laura is about to be the latest in a long line of girlfriends that Grant has. Even though Grant may be hoping that, Laura is merely meeting him to retrieve her broken compact that Grant is going to fix.

Norman, who secretly finds himself in love with Laura, goes to Grant's flat to "have it out" with him but he is already dead when he arrives. Seeing Laura's compact, he thinks that Laura has killed him and rings the police to confess (after re-arranging evidence to make it look like he did it). Laura arrives at the flat and it is obvious she didn't kill Grant. Norman is now on the run and is shot by the police. He dies but not before he reveals to radio listeners and a roomful of surprised women that he and not Grant is the possessor of the beautiful voice.

It was a very enjoyable film - not at all looking like an "el cheapo". Like another reviewer I also found Ralph Forbes fantastic. With his beautiful speaking voice why wasn't he a bigger star - especially in the early years of talkies when pronunciation was the be all and end all. Norman Wilder was probably the role of his career.

Gail Patrick, on her way to bigger things, plays the singer Laura Hamilton. Vivienne Osbourne played the spurned mistress. Mary McLaren, in films from the earliest days and dying in dire poverty, plays Beth, an older woman who has a few things to say about the matinée idol, Grant Murdock in the first few minutes of the film. Louise Beavers, a great black actress the year before her role in "Imitation of Life" plays Vivienne Osbournes maid.

Ralph Forbes may have given his best screen performance in The Phantom Broadcast. Unfortunately it was for poverty row studio Monogram and I venture to say a lot of people even back in 1933 probably never got to appreciate it. If they did see The Phantom Broadcast they could not have missed the resemblance to Cyrano De Bergerac.

Forbes plays a brilliant pianist, singer, and teacher who unfortunately is a hunchback. In the quiet of the sound proof broadcast station he's hit upon a scheme where handsome Arnold Grey appears at the microphone and mouths the words to Forbes's voice.

But Grey as the Christian of the piece is not as noble a character as Christian. He's a womanizing playboy and his fooling around with gangster's moll Vivienne Osborne has not gone unnoticed by some bad people.

Eager young hopeful Gail Patrick enters the picture and she interests both Forbes and Grey in different ways, maybe the same way, but Cyrano Forbes won't say and he's also determined that Grey will not trod here.

The Phantom Broadcast is an interesting idea that should have been tried by one of the big studios. It's highly melodramatic and probably too old fashioned for today's tastes. Still Ralph Forbes is brilliant.

This film is really NOT a "mystery"....it's about a popular radio "crooner" (who has all the women swooning for him), and his mysterious relationship with his pianist/arrranger.

The film contains a VERY minor "mystery", but it is explained half-way thru the film (I can't reveal any more without giving it away).

However, this is a VERY sad film and has a very unhappy ending (I may be naieve, but I like my films to have happy endings!), and I wouldn't recommend this tear-jerker to anyone, unless you want a good cry.

Don't waste your time with this one.

Norm

Ralph Forbes (Norman Wilder), Vivienne Osborne (Elsa Evans), Arnold Gray (Grant Murdock), Gail Patrick (Laura Hamilton), Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (Sandy Higgins), Paul Page (Dr Robert Brooks), Pauline Garon (Nancy, the cigarette girl), Rockliffe Fellowes (Joe Maestro), Althea Henley (working girl model), Mary MacLaren (Beth), George Nash (an artist), George "Gabby" Hayes (police captain), Harland Tucker (program manager), Carl Miller (Lefty), Louise Beavers (Penny), Kit Guard (a thug), Dick Rush (a policeman), Henry Hall (radio station manager).

Director: PHIL ROSEN. Original screenplay: Tristram Tupper. Photography: Gilbert Warrenton. Film editor: Dan Milner. Songs by Bernard B. Brown, Norman Spencer and George Waggner. Miss Patrick appears through the courtesy of Paramount Pictures. Production supervisor: Trem Carr. Producer: William T. Lackey.

A W.T. Lackey Production, copyright 15 May 1933 by Monogram Pictures Corporation. U.S. release: 31 July 1933. 8 reels. 68 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: A crippled composer makes a handsome but heartless Lothario famous on the air waves.

COMMENT: Although its plot gimmick is now well-known, thanks to the popularity of "Singin' in the Rain", this is an off-beat and highly fascinating little musical/crime-romantic melodrama.

Made before the Hays Office imposed its iron fist on Hollywood script-writing, The Phantom Broadcast features a killer who escapes scot-free, a crippled composer who is often derided because of his disability, and a Don Juan who uses his fame for one purpose only.

Unfortunately, aside from a reasonably inventive shot or two here and there and the heart-stopping, climactic rooftop sequence, the movie seems rather flatly directed. But, never mind. To compensate, it's surprisingly well-acted, particularly by Ralph Forbes (of all people) as the unfortunate songwriter who tries for the moon, Arnold Gray as the opportunistic, personable seducer, Gail Patrick as a potential but reluctant prima donna, and even Guinn "Big Boy" Williams who is actually quite moving in a most unusual role as the composer's devoted servant. (Hard to imagine "Big Boy" in this sort of part, but he actually does himself proud).

Another surprise I must mention concerns the tuneful songs written for the film by Bernard B. Brown (later head of the sound department at Universal Studios). They're well worth a listen!

In this Art Deco drama the Lead character, described as "The Little Hunchback", has a beautiful singing voice but an ugly body. He cannot succeed as a crooner on radio until he hires a handsome "Dummy' to lip sync for the studio audience.The Handsome "Dummy" is morally bankrupt. The "Little Hunchback is pure of thought and deed.

Had this film been cast with anyone other than Ralph Forbes it might have been credible. However, Forbes a handsome leading man type of Actor with piercing blue eyes. He is totally unsuited to play an ugly little hunchback.

Don't expect this movie to make a lot of sense. It gets bogged down because of its heavy handed moralizing. Watch it instead for its Art Deco themes which run throughout the movie. There are some really usually beautiful moment sin the film. This alone makes it worth watching.

Back in the thirties, every studio had its own distinctive style...there were star-studded epics like "Gone With the Wind" at MGM, breezy comedies like the Hope-Crosby "Road" movies at Paramount and gangster films with the likes of Bogart and Cagney at Warner Bros. Then there were the Poverty Row studios, principally Monogram and PRC, where "quickies" were churned out on five day schedules. So it's no wonder that while Monogram's "The Phantom Broadcast" is entertaining, it's also confusing. The premise is that piano player Norman Wilder, a hunchback, is the behind-the-scenes voice for a murdered radio crooner. There are a few obvious questions like why no one notices that while the crooner is performing, his pianist is simultaneously singing up a storm. Or how a few characters enter someone's apartment then apparently forget that it's not their own home. Someone at the studio may have noticed that lapse but was told Monogram's policy...no retakes. Still, "The Phantom Broadcast" is fun. And you can't say that about quite a few movies from the major studios.

Except for the fatally flawed premise, this one plays out entertainingly well. You just have to get beyond the idea that a handsome radio crooner is a fraud and that his hunchbacked accompanist is the voice behind the subterfuge. I don't know, maybe this was more believable to audiences of the 1930's, but who would buy it today? Well, there WAS Milli Vanilli.

The whole idea that Norman Wilder (Ralph Forbes) would have taken the fall for a pretty singer (Gail Patrick) is where one has to suspend belief. His motivation to protect Laura Hamilton was noble enough, but there was nothing to implicate her as a murderer, particularly after Norman pocketed the broken compact. Who would have known? Once Laura shows up at the apartment and it dawns on Norman that he just made the mistake of his life, it's too late. As Bugs Bunny would say when dealing with characters like this - 'What a maroon'!

Still, Ralph Forbes gives a decent performance here as the lovelorn singer and manager of the egotistical Grant Murdock (Arnold Gray). Realizing that Norman could have pulled the plug on the charade any time he wanted to should have been some kind of reality check for the dope. Then what would have happened to all that fan mail and girls in a swoon?

This is one of the few times I've seen an era picture in which a competing cab company is shown on screen. It's usually a Yellow Cab that's prominent, and there is one in the second half of the story, but early in the film one can spot a Red Top Cab as well. I don't know why stuff like this gets my attention, but for what it's worth, you can make note of the observation.

Besides the principal players, it was cool to see Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams in the role of Sandy the cab driver and a friend of Wilder. And once again, even when George Hayes appears in the opening credits, it's virtually impossible to pick him out without the trademark whiskers. Especially when no one's calling him Gabby.

....because as a mystery, it simply does not deliver. There is only one murder, it happens three quarters of the way into the film (which runs 72 minutes), and it's almost immediately clear who is responsible; the film seems more preoccupied with the irony of the developments that follow. The story does at times focus on an interesting and always topical theme (fame and success, based on public deception, and how they can lead to moral corruption), but it's rather tiresome to watch, maybe because, with the exception of Ralph Forbes' unsung (pun intended) vocalist, none of the other characters are engaging enough (though the actors themselves are pretty good). *1/2 out of 4.