The Vagabond Lover (1929) Online

The Vagabond Lover was an early all-talkie film (1929) that starred the current singing rage, Rudy Vallee. He plays the leader of a small-town band determined to make the big time. The band travels to Long Island to crash the home of noted band leader, Ted Grant. Of course, snoopy society matron (Marie Dressler) mistakes them for the all-star band and invites them to play at her musicale. In her rivalry with fellow matron (Nella Walker), Dressler will not stop at anything to "one up" her. The band plays well, and Vallee instantly falls for Dressler's niece, Sally Blane. OK plot, but the main setback is Vallee: he's a lousy actor, his singing seems thin, and he has a strong lisp. But Dressler makes up for it, stealing the film from the novice actor. By today's standards, she overacts, but she's so funny and lively, it's hard to find fault. Blane is pretty but no great actress. Malcolm Waite plays the real Ted Grant, Charles Sellon is the local cop, Edward Nugent and Danny O'Shea are band members, and Gladden James, once a silent-screen star (The Social Secretary with Norma Talmadge in 1916) plays one of the reporters.

The title song is sung over the opening credits. "I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now," "I Love You, Believe Me, I Love You," "Georgie Porgie," "If You Were the Only Girl in the World, and I Were the Only Boy," "A Little Kiss Each Morning, A Little Kiss Each Night," "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other," and "I'll Be Reminded of You" are the songs. A couple are well remembered. "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other" was also a featured song in 1929's smash hit, Rio Rita, sung by Bert Wheeler and Dorothy Lee (and in a better rendition).

This is Dressler's talkie debut in a feature. The same year, she starred with Polly Moran in a talkie short, Dangerous Females and appeared in the all-star Hollywood Revue of 1929. After having been a star on early films (Tillie's Punctured Romance, etc.) Dressler was on the comeback trail in 1928 (The Patsy with Marion Davies). Talkies cemented her return to stardom, and Dressler would be a top box office star within a year. Everything she appeared in was a hit (Anna Christie, Let Us Be Gay, etc.) and she resumed top billing in star roles, winning an Oscar for Min and Bill.

Blane would have a so-so career, eclipsed by her sister, Loretta Young. Vallee would re-surface in the 40s in comedies like The Palm Beach Story and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. Handsome Edward Nugent would linger for another decade but never made much of a splash. And Nella Walker would have a long career playing society ladies.

This film is certainly worth watching but is a disappointment. Vallee does NOT use his famed megaphone (it might have helped), nor does he sing his hit version on "The Stein Song" (from the University of Maine). Vallee attended both the University of Maine and Yale.

THE VAGABOND LOVER (RKO Radio, 1929), directed by Marshall Neilan, is an appropriate title to one of the most popular vocalists of the time, Rudy Vallee (1901- 1986). As with many singers making a screen debut, Vallee's performance is somewhat stiff, reciting his lines as if he were reading from cue cards, but satisfactory with his vocalizing. Unlike future crooners as Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra, Vallee's screen career in leading roles were limited but acting overall improved through the passage of time. By the 1940s, however, Vallee started a new chapter in his career playing stuffy millionaires starting with Preston Sturges' comedic masterpiece, THE PALM BEACH STORY (Paramount, 1942) starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea. As for THE VAGABOND LOVER, this is where the Rudy Vallee of motion picture screen began.

"Every small town has its small town band with big town ideas," is its opening title before introducing Rudy Bronson (Rudy Vallee), the lead vocalist and organizer of a college senior band who's been studying on developing his own orchestra by Ted Grant's mail order guide. Feeling Grant to be a remarkable man and speaking of him as he if were an old friend to his band members, Rudy heads over to Grant's Long Island home with his band for an audition. As Ted Grant (Malcolm Waite) prepares on leaving town for a vacation with his associates, Rudy, initially thrown out of Grant's home by the butler, intends not giving up enters Grant's home through an open window with his band members behind him. By the time Rudy gets his band organized, Grant who has already gone, ends up orchestrating his band to an empty house. Having been spotted by Ethel Whitehall (Marie Dressler), a wealthy matron, and her niece, Jean (Sally Blane), for entering through the window, the next door neighbors notify Officer George T. Tuttle (Charles Sellon) to investigate housebreaking. Confronting the "burglars," members of the band cover up by telling Tuttle, Mrs. Whitehall and Jean that Rudy IS Ted Grant and that they accidentally locked themselves out of the house. With one thing leading to another, Mrs. Whitehall soon engages "Ted Grant's Orchestra" to perform at a charity benefit for orphans. Rudy becomes successful, but feels guilty about his false pretense. At the advise of his band, Rudy remains silent, going on with his masquerade, even with the possibility of being exposed as a fraud and losing Jean, whom he's very much interested.

During its brief 65 minutes, THE VAGABOND LOVER manages to squeeze in a handful of popular tunes, old and new, including "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" (voiceover sung by Vallee during opening credits); "I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now" (sung by band); "I Love You, Believe Me, I Love You," "Georgie Porgie" (sung by orphans); "If You Were the Only Girl in the World, and I Were the Only Boy," "A Little Kiss Each Morning, A Little Kiss Each Night," Instrumental dancing to "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" and "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other," "I Love You, Believe Me, I Love You" (reprise by Vallee) and "I'll Be Reminded of You."

Unlike some 1929 releases consisting of faded photography and distorted sound, the production values of THE VAGABOND LOVER are quite good. What may hurt the value of this movie today is the wooden acting of Rudy Vallee. Considering this to be his first screen appearance, with sound techniques still relatively new, this could be overlooked. Another bonus is the plot not focusing heavily on melodramatics with tearful solutions, but an overly familiar but an amusing mistaken identity plot that makes this antique more palatable. For anyone unfamiliar with the Rudy Vallee method, his singing singing style stir up chuckles with contemporary viewers, particularly watching his facial close- up with makeup on lips and eye-lids while singing with his eyes closed and mouth wide open.

THE VAGABOND LOVER is redeemed somewhat by Marie Dressler (1869-1934) in the early stages of her sound career. Unlike the lovable characters she performed so well later on at MGM, she presents herself here more like a Margaret Dumont (of the Marx Brothers fame) type than anything else, but she's still Marie. Watching THE VAGABOND LOVER comes as a blessing as to something new, considering how the Dressler legend lies more on the frequent revival to the excellent sophisticated comedy-drama, DINNER AT EIGHT (MGM, 1933). To see more of Dressler and other films (such as her Academy Award winning performance in MIN AND BILL in 1930) is to learn more about her gifted talent of long ago.

The performance of Sally Blane (sister to actress Loretta Young) has her mostly sitting back and listening with awe to Rudy's singing. ("When you sing like that, I wish you'd go on forever."). Charles Sellon, whose Officer Tuttle could have easily been played by Ned Sparks, adds a little spark as the crusty old policeman who suspects Rudy as a phony. Rounding out the cast of reliables are Nella Walker (Mrs. Todhunter); Norman Peck ("Swiftie"); Edward J. Nugent ("Sport"); and Rudy Vallee's Connecticut Yankees.

This rarely shown item was first introduced to public television in its weekly film series, SPROCKETS (1982). After that series expired, THE VAGABOND LOVER was later shown on American Movie Classics, and then on Turner Classic Movies. Formerly distributed on video cassette, it's availability can be found on DVD.

THE VAGABOND LOVER, an Rudy Vallee song-feast at best, is of sole interest for those interested in early talkies. According to legend, the screenplay used in THE VAGABOND LOVER is based on Rudy Vallee's own career. Did he actually climb through an open window to success? We'll never know. (**)

This film is for those who are interested in early talkies, and early talkie musicals in particular. If you are not in that group, then skip this film.

The plot has Rudy Bronson (Valee) and his band going to Long Island to attempt to audition for Ted Grant, who has loaned his name to a musical correspondence course that Bronson took and according to a newspaper clipping is looking for new talent. Promptly thrown out by the butler, the band members decide to break into Grant's home through the garden entrance, set up their instruments, and play for Grant anyway. However, Grant has already left to go back to New York. A series of misunderstandings has Bronson mistaken for the famous Grant by a neighbor, Mrs. Ethel Bertha Whitehall (Marie Dressler). A series of musical performances and comic misunderstandings later, and Mrs. Whitehall's niece has fallen for Bronson, with everyone still thinking he is Ted Grant. However will he get out of this dilemma?

The musical performances are quite good and include several big hits of that time including the title song which Valee also performs in "Glorifying the American Girl" which also came out in 1929. There is also a dancing performance by a group of chorus girls that involves some interesting formations that are photographed from a top view several years before Busby Berkeley made this sort of thing an art form. Rudy Valee and the other players leave much to be desired in the acting department, leaving plenty of room for Marie Dressler to steal the show as the comic society matron.

Let's face it, as a movie, this is not persuasive. The principles of enunciating for the stage simply overwhelm the intimate sonics that even this incredibly early talkie were capable of producing. Almost immediately, subsequent movie directors understood the difference between stage and screen and made the corrections. Still, it's hard to believe that some of these scenes could not have been re-shot with more natural acting, once they saw the rushes. (I'm thinking they simply didn't think the delivery of lines would be that important in talkies. "Hey, they're talking! Ain't that enough?")

The music is another matter. Yes, this is not jazz as the revisionist historians would have us understand it (i.e., a largely black phenomenon, with only the most perceptive whites getting it). But it's a mere 30 years from the Gay 90s (that's 1890's) song revolution, and the tug of the sentimental ditty still reached out to 1929 the way early rock still has its effect on rock in the new millennium. Don't judge it harshly. Music like this was an important bridge to the wider American public's tolerance, then acceptance, and finally love of what we now think of as a more pure form of jazz.

Marie Dressler, born 5 years after the end of the Civil War, turns in a stunning performance. All the faces she makes while pushing away the maid's efforts to use smelling salts on her -- pure virtuosity, all done in the blink of an eye. But she can't save the movie entirely. All those shots of wooden Rudy and his entourage -- I've seen more life in the Petrified Forest.

The Vagabond Lover is a historic film as it was the first to showcase a current popular radio star as its lead. In 1929 Rudy Vallee was the number radio crooner in the country and as such brought a built in audience to the theaters. That he hadn't quite got down the technique of acting period, let alone film acting was incidental for this film with its very slight plot.

Rudy and his band The Connecticut Yankees play a second tier orchestra looking for a break. Rudy persuades them to break into the home of a noted leader and idol and audition even after he was rebuffed. When they're caught by the local constable Charles Sellon, they pretend the famous orchestra leader and his group and have to continue the deception right up to playing in a charity event organized by society grande dame Marie Dressler and her daughter Sally Blane. Of course it all works out in the end.

The film didn't launch Vallee as a movie idol, his his ascetic personality just didn't work for a leading man. This film was done for RKO and later Warner Brothers tried twice to make a leading man of him with Sweet Music and Golddiggers in Paris and failed.

The songs were taken from what Vallee had made popular on his radio program and they included such hits as A Little Kiss Each Morning and the title song. This was probably wise because I'm sure the producers knew this man was not an actor, yet. It would take Preston Sturges who cast Vallee in several of his films to make use of his unique personality and style in great series of character roles. After that curiously enough Vallee rarely sang in films, but still continued as a radio performer. By this time it was the Forties and people like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dick Haymes were crowding Vallee and earlier singers for public attention including Vallee's chief rival Bing Crosby.

If you like Rudy Vallee's singing as I do, by all means catch The Vagabond Lover, but realize you will not see the Rudy Vallee you might remember from later work.

Rudy Vallee's first feature film and his first starring role is badly hurt by many of the acting problems: both he and his co-star Sally Blane seem to be mouthing their lines and fail to pick up on their cues, and Malcolm Waite flubs some lines which were not reshot. I was conscious of the bad acting throughout. However, the old pros, Marie Dressler, Charles Sellon and Nella Walker do fine, with Dressler a standout. She seems to have an ability to contort her face into any position, and with her expressive eyes is a joy to watch.

The plentiful music is mostly enjoyable with Vallee singing most of the songs, which include the popular ballads "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover," "You're Nobody's Sweetheart Now," and "If You Were the Only Girl in the World." I particularly liked a quartet of cute 5-to-7-year-old orphans singing "Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie." So the film is a mixed bag, but Rudy Vallee fans will surely enjoy it.

On Long Island, crooner Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees are mistaken for a more famous band, by neighboring socialite Marie Dressler (as Mrs. Whitehall). The ruse, which started innocently, goes too far, and threatens Mr. Vallee's budding relationship with Ms. Dressler's niece, Sally Blane (as Jean Whitehall). It all works out while Vallee sings several songs, including "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" and "A Little Kiss Each Morning (A Little Kiss Each Night)".

"The Vagabond Lover" does not capture the Vallee hysteria, unfortunately. It is his first feature length film. The songs are stylistically representative, but dull; "Honey" had already appeared in a "short", and the film was completed too early for "The Stein Song" to be included. Ms. Blane (Loretta Young's sister) is very pretty; but, the most beautiful woman in the film is most definitely Dressler. It is her first feature length sound film. Later, Vallee would become a surprisingly effective (considering this performance) character actor.

**** The Vagabond Lover (1929) Marshall Neilan ~ Rudy Vallee, Sally Blane, Marie Dressler

"The Vagabond Lover" could be considered the perfect example of the early-talkie. The acting by Mr. Vallee is rather non-exsistant, but his singing and the music is quite pleasant, and the performance by the great Marie Dressler as "Auntie" makes up for the rest. The photography is very representative of the early sound era, with the actors grouped around a hidden mike with hordes of people in the frame. The sound itself is remarkably good, maybe the best remaining example of early sound recording. There is one chorus number which has a brief overhead shot of the type that Busby Berkely would make famous a year later in "Whoopee!". The film is a brief 65 minutes in length, and it is a rather modest black-and-white production, but it remains a telling window into the 1920s, with it's fashions, music and such. This was also one of the most profitable films of the year for the fledgling Radio Pictures, a new company set up that year to take advantage of the RCA Photophone system. The DVD has a rather dry commentary prolouge by a UCLA film specialist which appears to be taped in his apartment. Rather poorly edited, this feature is easy to skip on the DVD, once you have seen it once. Other players featured in this include Loretta Young's sister, Sally Blane, Eddie Nugent and especially Nella Walker, as Marie Dressler's rival for social prominence. The story, by James Ashmore Creelman, was purportedly based on Mr. Vallee's own carrer.

Most folks watching "The Vagabond Lover" today would probably dislike it or at best tolerate it. However, given the context for the film, it is a pretty good film. That's because the early talking pictures had horrible sound--just horrible. Much of the action was stuck around hidden microphones--and the films seemed stiff and unnatural. Additionally, the sound quality was just awful in many of the film (the best example "Coquette"--the film that earned Mary Pickford an Oscar). However, "The Vagabond Lover" is less stagy and stiff and the sound quality is marvelous for such an early film. I am sure some of this is due to the restoration of the film by Roan. Regardless, it's a rare DVD because I didn't need captions in order to understand what the folks were saying--which is good, as it came with none.

This film is the first full-length film for Rudy Vallee, though he made two shorts (where he and his band just performed in front of a camera) earlier in 1929. Because he was brand-new to film (as well as to music, as he'd only been a nation-wide sensation for about a year), I can cut him some slack here. While he became an excellent supporting actor in such films as "Palm Beach Story" and "Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer", here in "The Vagabond Lover" he really is pretty stiff and bland. But, so were almost ALL singers in 1929! Flat, stilted acting was pretty common in the day and more naturalistic performances were still to come in the 1930s. The same can be said for the dance numbers--pretty crummy when seen today, but for 1929, not bad at all.

The story finds Vallee and his band (The Connecticut Yankees) out of work--and no one will hire them. They know they are good but just getting someone to LISTEN to them is the problem. So, they concoct a stupid plan--to break into the home of a famous musician, Ted Grant, and perform for him!! This insanely irrational plan really goes unexpectedly poorly when the neighbor (Marie Dressler) sees them break in and calls the police. One of the band members comes up with an even more insane solution--to tell the cops and the neighbor that Vallee IS Ted Grant. They do believe them but this creates another problem with this goofy society lady (Dressler) insists that they MUST perform at a local benefit. They cannot say no and it's not at all surprising that Grant learns that SOMEONE is using his name! What will come of all this as well as Vallee's budding romance with the dippy society matron's daughter (Sally Blane)?

Despite Vallee's stiffness, the weakest part of the film, for me, was actually Dressler. While some of the reviewers really liked her (and some thought she was the best thing in the film), I thought her acting was about as subtle as a stripper at a Baptist picnic! Her later wonderful acting (like she did in "Dinner at Eight") was not apparent. Here she was far, far from subtle and dialing back her goofy performance a bit would have helped. Now I have said a lot about the shortcomings of the film, but there are also some nice things apart from the great sound. The plot, though heavily used in later years, works well and some of the band members were really relaxed on film. Plus, the film IS fun. So, while compared to a 1935 or 1940 film it's very weak, for 1929, it's actually quite nice and worth seeing if you, like me, adore old films.

After about a year on my Netflix wait list when this was previously listed as "long wait", I finally got this in the mail. Among the extras was a PSA about pollution with children (don't ask), Ch. 1 of a Zorro serial, and a talking piece with Rudy Vallee's widow. When clicking on the movie proper, it was introed by a Michael Young, a representative of a film school. The picture itself was a pretty good print for the most part. Knowing this was an early talkie, I found much of the dialogue to seem stilted as performed but when the Marie Dressler character was making faces near the end, I was highly amused by that part. Vallee himself wasn't much of an actor, at least not here, but his singing was quite smoothly compelling, even in today's terms though of course, his kind of music is not in vogue right now. Sally Blane, Loretta Young's sister, is quite a luminous presence, if nothing else. Overall, I liked The Vagabond Lover especially since it happened to be quite brief (65 minutes) compared to some of today's short features when the least running time would maybe just be 90 minutes.

This film may be worth watching as an historical artifact; but that is all. Sally Blane is beautiful, but not enough to offset Rudy Vallee, who is so dull and less than plain spoken that his very presence begs the question of his huge popularity. Thank goodness his music was soon eclipsed by real jazz and more exciting and expressive musicians!

SYNOPSIS: A small-town bandleader is mistaken for a famous person by a Long Island society matron and her attractive niece.

COMMENT: Although hardly making an auspicious visual debut, (Vallee is presented as a youthful, droopy-eyed wooden-face, complete with white pancake make-up), from a sound point of view Rudy is a rousing success. In fact, our only complaint is that we don't hear enough of him. Not only are many of the numbers cut short by the Dressler story, but Rudy is often content to show of his skills as a saxophonist rather than his vocal talent. And even here, he gives himself no solos, but blends in with the band. Nevertheless, the Connecticut Yankees is one terrific band!

Marshall Neilan's somewhat pedestrian direction disapoints. Admittedly, camera movement was hampered by the microphone, but the flat effect of a photographed stage play is reinforced by the shooting of every scene, bar one at a railroad, on the studio floor. Aside from one or two attractively composed shots, the photography would rate as a wash-out, if not presented as it is here, on the original attractive green-tinted stock.

All Neilan presumably did was to direct his cast - and this he has done rather poorly. By way of contrast to the somewhat wooden, lacking-in-confidence acting of star, Rudy Vallee, we are treated to atrociously hammy, overburdened with self-approval, "comedy" turns contributed by Marie Dressler. From the moment she appears on screen, Miss Dressler never stops chewing the scenery with an appetite that knows absolutely no constraints whatever. Fortunately, heroine Sally Blane displays plenty of charm as well as acting ability.

A musical comedy with Sally Blane (who doesn't sing), R. Vallee, Nella Walker (as the matron who's the aunt's rival) and M. Waite (as the impersonated jazz-man), refreshing and good-natured, it has the assets of the classy silent age: the good cinematography, neat and beautiful sets; it is from the 1st wave of its genre, when the movie was eager to offer music, the dawn, the earliest springtime of these comedies. The best tune belongs to the small girlie (Patti Brill, Dorothy Gray …).

A lighthearted show, and in fact a show within a show: the charity event, with the dancers and the small orphans and then the jazz-band; it was made by a stylish studio. The players embody the different styles: for the blandness and numbness, R. Vallee (bland and insipid, awkward and silly), for the luridness, Sally Blane (lurid and glamorous, ), for the lightest comedy, Nella Walker (for the humor and relish) and the grotesque comedians (the aunt, the copper …). The quirk is that, despite its lead, the movie doesn't depend on him.

The jazzmen's music comes across as mild but dapper, and the lead has a nasal, plugged tone.

Rudy Vallee was rushed into this film before anyone bothered to teach him how to act in front of a camera! He's wooden, looks down instead of looking directly at the person he's talking to, and generally looked extremely ill at ease.

The story is not bad and it does move along well for a sound film of this period. Not much interesting camera movements.

What is the best thing is wonderful Marie Dressler's turn as a society matron. She's just plain terrific.

By the late 1930's and into the 1940's, Rudy really blossomed into a first-rate character actor. His work in the Preston Sturges films are really great. His parts in George Stevens' "I Remember Mama" and the Cary Grant-Myrna Loy comedy "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" are very good, as well.

Rudy Vallee was the top crooner on radio by the time of talking pictures in 1929. "The Vagabond Lover" was his first major picture in which the public got to see the singer they had listened to the past few years. The film is also one of the very first "talkies" made, and had Marie Dressler in it. These reasons combined give the film some historical value. But aside from some of the songs, there isn't a lot else going for it.

Others have commented on the low production quality and thin plot. While RKO moved the players away from the fixed microphone positions, the acting still shows signs of the fixed scenes and overly dramatic from the silent era. Vallee is so wooden, one wonders at time if he is alive or a mannequin with a recording playing inside. Some reviewers liked Dressler's overly dramatic scenes, but I agree with those who didn't think those fit well. Although she had only five more years before she died, Dressler went on to some very fine roles, and won an Oscar. She was very good in her comedic roles, without the exaggerated looks and gestures.

Vallee's career as a singer never took off in the movies. I think it was mostly due to his rather high-pitched nasal tone. He did have a comeback in the 1940s with roles in some good comedies without singing. He played mostly a straight man or stuffy character. Vallee could carry a tune, but his popularity waned as other crooners came on the scene. Most had deeper, smoother voices that had more appeal, especially to the ladies. By 1932, Bing Crosby was well on his way to becoming the king of crooners for nearly four decades.

Merriam-Webster's Third International Dictionary defines a crooner as "a singer of popular songs who uses a soft-voice technique adapted to amplifying systems." Rudy Vallee had a trademark use of a megaphone to project his voice, but it's curious that he didn't use it for any of his numbers in this film. The on-line M-W dictionary defines crooner a little more simply: "a male singer who sings slow, romantic songs in a soft, smooth voice." While Crosby became the undisputed king (more than one-half billion recordings sold), many other singers have crooned their way into our hearts over the decades. Other big names of the past are Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nate King Cole, Andy Williams, Eddie Fisher, Englebert Humperdinck, Frankie Avalon, Johnny Mathis, Robert Goulet and Elvis Presley with his slow love songs.

Vagabond Lover, The (1929)

** (out of 4)

Early talkie from RKO helped introduce Rudy Vallee to the world. In the film, which was apparently based partly on his life story, he plays an unknown musician who breaks into a famous musicians house and is mistaken for said musician by a rich socialite (Marie Dressler). Soon Vallee begins to fall for her niece (Sally Blane) but he still has this secret to work around. This is a pretty mixed film because on one hand the music itself is pretty good but at the same time the story, acting and directing are all rather bland at best. I think the biggest problem with this film is that RKO didn't want to spend too much on the budget so they really didn't try overly hard to cover up various mistakes in the film. There are at least two scenes that I can think of off the top of my head where the actor messing up their lines but they just correct themselves and move on. It's also rather obvious in a few scenes that the actors miss their marks, which cause them to make sudden stops and throwing off the actor in the scene with them. The performance are a mixed bag as Vallee comes off likable enough but he's way too stiff and his line delivery is pretty weak. Dressler manages to turn in a fine performance but she isn't given a whole lot to do. Blane, Loretta Young's sister, seems to be in love with Vallee but her acting leaves a lot to be desired. She's certainly cute like her sister but she really doesn't deliver much in terms of a performance. The main reason to watch this thing is for the music and songs that include "You're Nobody's Sweetheart Now", "If You Were the Only Girl in the World" and "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover". Vallee and The Connecticut Yankees do fine work in regards to the music but I'd say a CD would be better fit than going through the entire movie.

Though I don't have a lot to add to the reviews posted here (wooden acting, static players grouped around the microphone, awful wailing by Rudy Vallee), I would mention the godawful humming, ringing, buzzing noise on the soundtrack, punctuated by snapping sounds of static electricity. During lulls in the stilted dialogue, this reached fever pitch and demonstrated that talkies had not yet gotten all the bugs out. Unlike other reviewers, I believe Marie Dressler overacted wildly here and seemed manic-depressive. But I think early talkie audiences were uncritical and in awe of watching words come out of actors' mouths, no matter how lame. It's an interesting period piece, but you may want to hit the fast-forward button during parts of it.

This dreary but not too lethal attempt at light-comedy-with-songs succeeds only to the extent that some musical numbers are performed by an actual band, The Connecticut Yankees, and a few of the supporting actors are up to - and in Marie Dressler's case, even beyond - the demands of the genre.

Director Marshall Neilan, despite a batch of silent classics under his professional belt, is unable to get any life out of his romantic leads, Rudy Vallee and Sally Blane. Vallee in particular is barely able to register any facial expression other than a sort of frozen melancholy, as if he was posing for a painted portrait. Unless absolutely necessary, he never moves either. (He redeemed himself splendidly 13 years later in Preston Sturges's THE PALM BEACH STORY in one of the most sublime comic turns of Hollywood's golden age.) Blane recites her lines as if she is reading them from cue cards in a run-through for a high school production she would rather not be in. As Blane's mother Marie Dressler is animated enough for both. Whenever she is on screen hardly a second goes by without her twitching, grimacing, eye rolling or doing double-takes; her vocal range is vast as well. Perhaps she knew she was among corpses and was trying to save the show. Charles Sellon as a cop and Nella Walker as a snooty socialite also bring some zest to the proceedings, as does Edward Nugent as a member of Rudy's band. The songs crooned by Rudy include the title number and "If You Were the Only Girl in the World." At times the uninteresting plot (about Rudy's amateur band pretending to be a more famous grouping) takes a long breather for such interludes as a quartet of little girls singing a very annoying kiddie number or a troupe of dancers swirling around in flowing white robes in an ineffective attempt to to embellish a performance of the title song.

Visually there is nothing going on outside the efforts of individual performers to give some life to the camera lens and the mikes. The sound is quite good for 1929, though applause sequences tend to sound strangely metallic, as if the density of vibrations was too much for the recording equipment. So as cinema there is little to recommend. As sociological artifact it's worth a look.