Call of the Flesh

A brash cantina singer in Sevilla heeds the CALL OF THE FLESH when he romances a young postulant from a nearby convent.

Sometimes movie studios make most unwise decisions, resulting in ramifications that can be quite detrimental to the careers of even their biggest stars. CALL OF THE FLESH is a case in point. Good production values & fine performances can not save this film from its one fatal flaw: it is difficult to like, or even tolerate, the hero.

Ramon Novarro, usually quite the pleasant fellow, here is forced to play a repellent rogue who quickly irritates the audience with his cruel treatment of those who love him most. Oozing a smarmy charm, he alternately smirks & pouts his way through the plot, until his eventual - and much belated - regeneration. Novarro's undoubted acting abilities enable him to deliver a fine performance, but mischievousness mixed with too much meanness can result in viewer apathy.

This did not help his career. The fad for the Latin Lover was wearing mighty thin already and would soon be completely eclipsed by the All American Hero, and Novarro's sexual ambiguity was always a bit of a problem for the MGM front office. The advent of Sound, while finally revealing his strong singing voice, also exhibited his Mexican accent, making it difficult to cast him in traditional roles. The Studio simply couldn't come up with a definitive screen persona for him, and so Novarro was made into their ethnic chameleon, playing everything from Chinese to Arab to Navajo.

Novarro's costars come through very well. Dorothy Jordan is radiant as the innocent young woman who loves him with every fiber of her being; she delivers a heart touching, memorable performance. Flamboyant & hammy, Scottish actor Ernest Torrence is terrific as Novarro's friend & mentor - although one has to wonder just why he was willing to put up with so much nonsense from the little squirt. Equally adept at drama or comedy, Torrence's theatrical mannerisms and the contortions of his great homely face make him both entertaining to the audience and an enjoyable contrast to handsome Novarro. French actress Renée Adorée, in her final film, stirs up the flames in her role as Novarro's musical partner & lover. (Ill health would bring about the early deaths of both Torrence & Adorée in 1933 - he at 54 and she at 35. Today, these two fine performers are virtually forgotten.)

Mention should be made of Mathilde Comont, hilarious as a rotund little diva turned landlady.

Novarro is in good voice throughout, which is fortunate as the plot keeps him singing interminably.

"Call of the Flesh" is a musical romance, so I was expecting lots of song (check) and lots of emotion (no). I have not seen Ramon Novarro in any other film, but this one certainly does not promote him, much as he is showcased in song and dance. His dancing was leaden. His singing was okay, but the songs were awful, and nothing to make even an innocent convent girl fall in love with. Ms Jordan's performance was touching and enjoyable. I just could not muster any enthusiasm for the story and gave up persevering through this movie by 40 minutes in.

I watched The Call of the Flesh and enjoyed it despite the dueling accents. Ramon Novarro plays a saucy singer who teams with Renee Adoree to appear at local cantinas and is pushed by his friend (Ernest Torrence) to get serious about opera. But then he meets a "runaway" from a convent (Dorothy Jordan) who knows nothing of the world. He falls in love and dumps Adoree. But Adoree gets even by finding Jordan's military brother who tracks them down and sends her back to the convent. Meanwhile Novarro is turned down by a local opera house because he's never had his heart broken and his singing has no soul. Torrence buys a night for Novarro to sing at the opera and he grudgingly does to, bringing down the house. But his heart is so broken he's actually dying until Adoree takes action.

Novarro is quite good here, especially when singing. A few of the dramatic scenes are badly done, but the rest of the film is lively. Novarro co-wrote the song "Lonely" with Herbert Stothart. I have no idea what Novarro sings in the finale but he's good despite having rather thin high notes. It's quite a shock to see Torrence break out in song, but the burly Scottish actor, a dependable heavy in silent films, was a trained opera singer. Jordan and Adoree handle the music well.

There's a great scene where Torrence at the piano joins Novarro in a burst of song only to be joined by the landlady (Mathilde Comont). It all seems so spontaneous.

Sadly this was Adoree's final film. Her other talkie was Redemption with John Gilbert.

Its an oldie. Ramon Navarro (Ben Hur, Mata Hari) and Dorothy Jordan. he's a singer, she's a nun. she falls for him, but they must decide what is really the best thing for her to do. the whole thing is pretty low budget. cheesy story, cheesy sets, bad fake, foreign accents. things they would say in 1930, but certainly not today. and all before the film production code, so it was okay to do some of these things! he's a singer, so there's lots of singing. some sound and picture issues, but it IS 90 years old, so we'll cut it some slack. it gets better as it goes along. also keep an eye out for Ernest Torrence... he was also Steamboat Willie, with Buster Keaton! Torrence died quite young of complications of surgery. directed by the mostly unknown Charles Brabin. he had made TONS of silent films, and then a couple years more in talkies. the trivia says there was a color sequence that seems to lost.... sad. Novarro was beaten to death at age 69, apparently as part of a robbery. also sad.

By no means a "B" film in budget, but definitely one in story and technique. After seeing this effort, it's remarkably easy to understand why Novarro's stellar career declined so rapidly and dramatically in the sound era. It's not that there's anything wrong with his voice, it's just that his acting seems so ludicrously inept and his personality so colorless and lacking in charisma. Mind you, if you turn off the sound, then Novarro's gestures and even his persona appear quite acceptable. But with sound in this film, he's just ridiculous! True, the script itself is a load of old romantic melodrama that's about impossible to stomach, let alone get involved in. The only way to rescue this sort of operettish stew from the throw-out pot, is to pep it up with flair and imagination. Unfortunately, Charles Brabin is not this sort of chef – at least not here. He did learn his lesson, but here his direction is little more than disinterested and/or routine. Even the sets lack the pictorial qualities we usually associate with Cedric Gibbons. The sound recording of course is poor. But at least the photography in the present wholly black-and-white version telecast by TCM retains appeal.