La quimera de Hollywood

In the 1930s, Hollywood loved opera stars and cast quite a few of them in big films. The likes of Lawrence Tibbett, Colleen Moore and Nino Martini all were huge opera stars...and were tempted by Hollywood to appear in films. Oddly, despite Hollywood loving opera stars, none of them ended up making very many movies. And, in many cases it's because the scripts didn't seem to be able to make good use of these talented folks. An exception is "Music for Madame"...a film which was far more enjoyable than I'd expected.

In this story, Nino wants to become a big opera star but he's tricked by some thieves into working to help them! They sneak him into a big party filled with important folks (especially, the Maestro, played by Alan Mowbray). During Nino's surprise performance for these guests, they are all so transfixed by his amazing voice that the crooks are able to sneak in and steal a super-valuable necklace. Nine is clueless this is going to happen and the police assume he is working as a willing member of the gang. While he manages to escape, this poses a big problem...if he sings in public, he's likely to be recognized and the police will arrest him for the theft.

The best things about the film are Mowbray's over the top performance as the fat-headed Maestro, Nino's lovely voice and a lot of nice supporting actors. Well worth seeing and surprisingly fun.