Sweet Adeline

Chock full of sweet melodies by Jerome Kern, this lavish period musical takes Irene Dunne from Hoboken to Broadway, but in a tin-lizzie of a plot. Set in 1898, in a world of beer gardens and theatres, the film works up plenty of nostalgia -- with horseless carriages, Edison's new "pho-no-graph", and even an audition by "that Jolson kid" ["He'll never get anywhere"]--but self-consciously drops these references in like lead weights. Meanwhile, the screenwriter tries out a tiresome conflict of stage career vs. disapproving papa, then a wholly disposable spy subplot, and finally settles on a dull love triangle.

Irene Dunne supplies much-needed star authority to hold it together, but seems baffled that she has no plausible leading man - where is Cary Grant? -- and no plausible scenes to play. Still, she is a professional, and delivers a surprisingly affecting "Why Was I Born?" In return, she enjoys a knockout wardrobe in white organza and feathers from Orry-Kelly

But what pallid consorts she gets! The erstwhile leading man is Donald Woods, an estimable actor [memorable as Bette Davis' brother in WATCH ON THE RHINE], but here positively evaporating off the screen whenever a stronger personality shares the scene. His songwriter character, when allowed a frame to himself, comes off as callow and egotistical. In the third corner of this love triangle, Louis Calhern-moustachios a-twirl-- plays a military recruiter for Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, but also fades into the scenery.

Luckily, the music keeps coming, one verging-on-operetta tune after another, staged with a clear Busby Berkeley influence. An amusing Sultan's palace number has a basso trying to sing through the chaos of rehearsal. There's a beer garden singalong of "Polka Dots"; a parade of hansom cabs for "Twas Not So Long Ago"; and hordes of dancers in chiffon enact "Lonely Feet". Appealing Irish tenor Phil Regan [why didn't HE play the lead?] joins Irene Dunne in a country bower filled with flowers, swans, twinkling stars and girls on daisy-swings in "We Were So Young". Finally, and imaginatively, a torn-up score is used for a charming ending with "Don't Ever Leave Me". [Yes, the title tune --not by Kern---is briefly sung.] Throughout, Sol Polito's camera tracks from pretty pastorals to hard-edged dance numbers, but always bathes Irene Dunne in flatteringly soft light for big juicy movie-star closeups.

The heroes behind the scene are the editors at Warners, chopaholics in the 1930's, who made every frame of film fight to stay in the picture. This produced razor-fast comedies [like FIVE STAR FINAL] and gangster operas [like BULLETS OR BALLOTS], while protecting the product from harried and unimaginative directors. [Indeed, when director Mervyn LeRoy moved to MGM, his films slowed to a lumbering pace]. Here, the editors relax for the leisurely musical numbers, but seize their scissors again every time the plot surfaces, winning our applause for speeding us through the creaky parts.

It seems that great creative teams, while occasionally able to produce something which is perfect on every level, are just as capable of producing something which is an overall mediocrity. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein had their greatest hit with Showboat, a set of beautiful songs for a stirring adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel, which in 1936 would be turned into a sublime (but sadly neglected) movie. They followed it up with Sweet Adeline, based around a hackneyed love story and featuring no such memorable numbers. However it would be among the first of their collaborations to be brought to the screen.

Like so many classic musicals, Sweet Adeline is a nostalgic period piece set at the turn of the century. This wasn't really the sort of thing that Warner Brothers did, their game being more the world of pumping jazz and bare-legged chorus girls. It has to be said that even their lavish period sets have a slightly seedy look to them, like the rooms of some decadent aristocracy about to be carted off by the mob. Oddly enough though, Sweet Adeline is a "backstager", a show about putting on a show, which is what almost all the Warners musicals were. We even have Ned Sparks as a hatchet-faced impresario.

In the director's chair we have Warner Brothers stalwart Mervyn Leroy. You can see why producers liked him. No-one had much cash to spare in these dark days of the depression, film studios included, but Leroy was a master at making a picture look fuller and more elaborate than it really was. In those opening scenes at the beer garden, he creates quite a lot of shots where there's someone in the foreground, a handful of extras milling about at the back, and Irene Dunne somewhere in the middle. It makes the place look crowded when actually we've only seen a dozen or so people. And while Leroy doesn't have much rhythm in his style he does know how to capture the emotions of a song, giving us some lengthy close-ups of Irene as she sings, or scanning over the faces of a rapt audience.

Miss Dunne is one of the best things about Sweet Adeline. Not only a wonderful voice, but someone who could bring out the soul of a song. Donald Woods on the other hand is decidedly lacklustre, filling the role that normally would have gone to chirpy Dick Powell. Comedy supporting players like Ned Sparks and Hugh Herbert were normally there to add a bit of flavour to proceedings, but here it's more like they're filling the gaps in a rather empty movie. Sweet Adeline does have its moments. The final major dance routine is a passable take on both Ziegfeld and Busby Berkely (even though Warners had the real Busby Berkely at their disposal). It has far more troughs than peaks however, and too little variation. It's the kind of disappointing fare that even the strongest of teams give out from time to time.

I really wanted to like this film. It had personal sentiment for me as my mother's day was "Adeline" and I had high regard for Irene Dunne ever since I saw her star in "I Remember Maman."

Yet, despite that positive attitude going in, this wasn't something I'd watch again. It wasn't bad; just too dated and I didn't care for Irene's soprano voice. Yikes, that women hit high notes that rattled my fillings! At least she looked good: the most attractive I've seen her in her younger years. The film, though, as a whole, had a very dated appearance.

Billed as a musical romance, I was impressed with how much humor was in this movie. As for leading men, I knew Donald Woods from "A Tale Of Two Cities" but he never struck me as forceful enough to be a leading man. Louis Calhern, however, always was credible at the detestable villain, as he was here once again.

Reviewers here knock the script, but it was the songs that did nothing for me, not the screenplay. Had these songs been more appealing to me, I probably would have kept the VHS, if only for sentimental reasons.

Irene Dunne is "Sweet Adeline," who sings in a beer garden and has aspirations as a professional singer. Her father is opposed to Donald Woods, who write songs, as a suitor. Hugh Herbert plays an eccentric yet likable character (when did he not), who is trying to catch a spy, who is a famous singer. All this sounds admittedly simple-minded, undemanding and corny, but that's why I found it to be refreshing. Hugh Herbert's scenes with Nydia Westman, as Irene's sister, were very natural and were genuinely amusing/funny. Perhaps the highlights of the film are the outstanding songs written by Kern/Hammerstein, sung to perfection by Ms. Dunne. Despite the old feel of this film, I would watch this again, not expecting much except a good, easy-going time with Irene Dunne and company.

Irene Dunne and the songs by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein were the biggest two reasons for seeing 'Sweet Adeline' in the first place. Have also liked some of Mervyn Leroy's films, especially 'Waterloo Bridge' and 'Random Harvest'.

'Sweet Adeline' is certainly watchable, but at the same time it is unremarkable though with enough big merits. Dunne and the songs as well as being the two selling points are also the best things about the film. Dunne looks luminous with the camera clearly loving her, charms the socks off and sings like a nightingale, definitely a role that suits her to a tee. The songs by Kern and Hammerstein are so good that they are enough to redeem any film, regardless of overall quality, more than one notch, the highlights being "Why Was I Born?", "Don't Ever Leave Me" and "Here Am I".

Production values are very lavish, the production design is very pleasing on the eyes while 'Sweet Adeline' is beautifully shot and slickly edited. Of the rest of the cast, coming off best are a debonair but also sinister Louis Calhern and a zesty Wini Shaw. Ned Sparks is amusing too. The dancing and choreography is lively enough as well, and LeRoy makes the most of the production values and of how Dunne looks on film.

Letting 'Sweet Adeline' down in particular are the story and Donald Woods. The story is dull, thin and creaks badly, while also going well overboard on the winsome and cornball factors. The nostalgia is lovely however. Woods is so lifeless, wooden and charisma-free as the leading man here that he gets completely lost amidst everything else. The script also doesn't feel as funny or as emotionally investable as it ought, also sounding sketchy and awkward often.

The scenes with Sparks and Hugh Herbert also feel like filler that drag the film down. Sparks is amusing and some of his lines are good, but Herbert has always been an acquired taste and does try too hard for laughs that it really grates on the nerves. LeRoy's direction is very good from a stylistic standpoint but from a storytelling point of view it lacks momentum and just feels like his heart wasn't completely in it.

On the whole, very watchable but didn't have me jumping out of my chair with excitement or such. Dunne and the songs are the best things about it. 6/10 Bethany Cox