Caro Nome

Caro Nome (1926)

*** (out of 4)

Marion Talley, star of the New York Metropolitan Opera, appears in this historic short from Warner. She performs the title song from Rigoletto with The Vitaphone Symphony Orchestra but what makes this collaboration so important is that this was one of the shorts shown before DON JUAN, the feature that introduced sound to people. If you're coming to this expecting some sort of masterpiece then you're going to be disappointed as there's really not much here outside of what film buffs are going to find entertaining. I think film buffs are going to love the historic nature of the picture and on this level alone I found it to be entertaining. There's no question that Talley has quite a voice and she's the second reason people will want to check this out. I'm sure there are opera fans out there who are going to be interested in hearing from this former star and this here gives them that chance. The cinematography is pretty much what you'd expect from a film of this era as the camera stays still and the star pretty much stays in place as well. CARO NOME is for film buffs only but it's an important picture.