Rumba d'amour

Lawrence Tibbett had a varied and distinguished career at the Met. In "Metropolitan," he got to sing operatic arias. The music here is schmaltz, though he delivers it with great beauty.

He strides around the sound stage as if on a theatrical stage -- but that's not a problem. The movie itself is fairly silly.

Jimmy Durante is somewhat restrained as his military buddy. And, lucky guy! He has romances with two lovely ladies. Karen Morley is the kind woman back home. And that famous Cuban Lupe Velez is the peanut-seller he meets while in the service.

Velez is allowed little of the fieriness and tantrums that marked her "Mexican Spitfire" series and most other movies I've seen her in. She appealing.

I won't give anything away. (It's far from a work of art or a suspenseful movie, anyway.) However, the plot does seem a Hollywood riff on "Madame Butterfly."