Oh, for a Man!

The plot to "Oh, For a Man!" is truly nutty...so much so I'm surprised they made it. But this doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie...just a truly strange one!

Carlotta (Jeanette MacDonald) is a world famous opera singer who is bored with her life despite her fame and fortune. One night, 'Barney' breaks into her home to rob it. She catches him and strikes up a conversation with the robber. Soon, she gets him to sing and think he MIGHT be good enough to sing professionally..though his voice is rough. After getting him singing lessons, her plans for Barney turn out to be a bust so she then does something even nuttier than making friends with a thief...she asks him to marry her! Not surprisingly, they are so different from each other that the marriage is a bust. What's next? See the film...or not.

Aside from a truly ridiculous plot, the film suffers from MacDonald really overacting at times...especially when Barney leaves her. But despite all this, it's not a horrible film...just not an especially good one. Worth seeing for the strangeness or to catch a glimpse of Bela Lugosi just before he became world famous for playing Dracula for Universal Pictures.

This film would seem to have very little to recommend it except for the sparkling energetic performance by Jeanette MacDonald. But that is enough. If you only remember MacDonald from the sometimes stultifying MGM musicals with Nelson Eddy, you are in for a surprise. Jeanette is alive and bright and rather seductive in the peignoirs, flimsy negligees and low cut gowns she wears and she no longer has the slightly zaftig European look that Lubitsch preferred at Paramount. She has a very natural sexiness that comes through even though the print I viewed on youtube is of very poor quality. I'm sure she was a turn-on for male viewers in 1930 which is what Fox wanted when they signed her. Remember this was the "pre-code" era which she as much as anyone else was responsible for (she was already tagged "the lingerie queen") so this is what audiences expected and this is what they got.

As a result of the Paramount musicals she previously appeared in, MacDonald was typed as singer so in this she is cast as an opera singer and opens the film singing "The Liebestod" from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde" and later on she sings once more. But this not a musical; it is strictly light comedy held together by MacDonald. The plot can only be called ridiculous. She (inexplicably) falls in love with a burglar (Reginald Denny ) and convinces him to marry her but he agrees only on the condition that she will give up her career. Soon he tires of the arrangement and leaves her and (apparently) goes back to being a burglar while she resumes her career as an opera singer. But of course it is not over. It ends as viewers probably already imagined it will.

MacDonald did three films at Fox between her two stints at Paramount that preceded her eventual stardom at MGM. These three are largely forgotten now but were well received and were money makers at the time for Fox. It was the depth of the depression and all the studios but MGM were effectively bankrupt. Seen in this context, films like "Oh, for a Man" were what Fox needed, what MacDonald needed to prolong her career and what the country needed. And viewed today, it is surprisingly refreshing and shows what MacDonald was capable of.

Jeanette MacDonald opens the film with the finale from Tristan And Isolde. Thankfully, she has been well recorded [early Fox films were rife with spoiled sound in spite of the fact Fox held the sound-on-film patents]. Charles Clark's cinematography weaves complex shadows into the foreground and background, his camera freed from the "meat locker" booth. The performance ends and backstage dialog begins. MacDonald is the snippy diva, she performs confidently and speaks clearly. Hey! there's Bela Lugosi could this get any better? Sadly, no,

The proceedings quickly fall apart, first with a miscast William Davidson as Kerry Stokes. This actor can be convincing as a police detective, grilling a suspect into a confession. But when he uses the same delivery, trying to romance Jeanette "what I ought to do is crush you in my arms and smother you with kisses"! I almost fell off my chair with laughter. That is some clunky dialog. But the saddest thing is that it was set up by a gorgeous close-up of Jeanette. It gets worse.

The plot thickens (congeals) with a burglar in the personage of Reginald Denny. He breaks into Jeanette's bedchamber to rob her jewels. When she protests his chloroform because she's an opera singer, he recognizes the diva, compliments her performance that evening, and speaks in the most ridiculous Irish accent you have ever heard. [That settles it, I'll sit on the floor so I won't fall again]. The writing reminded me of what I used to type when I was 10. Jeanette then decides to make this thief her protege! OK!

The writers are Phillip Klein and Lynn Stalling. Now Lynn would go onto earn credits for Bob Hope's THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES and CAT AND THE CANARY. Can't blame her, hmmm, Phillip Klein went on to write CHANDU THE MAGICIAN and a couple Charlie Chan films, aha! Mr. Klein's career climaxed with DANTE'S INFERNO, let's blame him. Anyhow, I'm obviously trying to be mean because there is so much good work in the film I was compelled to sit through Denny's insufferable performance and more horrible writing. I can only recommend this film for MacDonald and Lugosi fans on a completory quest.

1930's "Oh, For a Man!" is, for an early talkie musical, such an atrocity that only fans of Jeanette MacDonald, Marjorie White, or naturally Bela Lugosi may find solace in it. The slapdash plot centers on opera singer Carlotta Manson (Jeanette), tiring of the daily grind, who finds excitement after professional thief Barney McGann (Reginald Denny) enters her boudoir after dark, and actually sings for his supper! (or something like that). Wanting to promote his singing career, Carlotta decides to call upon Senor Frescatti (Bela Lugosi), her opera director/impresario, who can only watch disapprovingly at the painful squawk in his presence. Soon she decides to marry the talentless scamp, but her class of people aren't exactly the same as his. He meets former lover Totsy Franklin (Marjorie White), now married to boxer Pug Morini, alias 'The Walloping Wop' (Warren Hymer), and runs off with them, leaving his wife in despondent tears (the ending isn't any better). As bad as it sounds, not even good for laughs, but Jeanette's beauty is ravishing. Still, once Marjorie White enters, we are introduced to her captivating vivacity, a diminutive blonde dynamo who graced several early talkies, including three more opposite Lugosi, "Women of All Nations," "The Black Camel," and "Broadminded." As for Bela, he's only in it for around five minutes (just two scenes), making his exit at 26 minutes; notable primarily as the last film he completed before starting work on his hard fought role in "Dracula."

This is a very poor early talkie, both in subject matter and in technical non-achievement. The sound is atrocious - sound sections are recorded at a low level and silent sections are extremely noisy with white noise- and there are damaged sections - Denny's audition aria and subsequent dialogue are drowned out. The surviving print, which must be a 16 mm one, is dark, blurry and washed out. One entire reel is missing from the surviving print, which runs 72 minutes.

The plot is stupid and full of sexual innuendos. MacDonald will give up her opera career to marry a low life Irish thief. It's all sex here - opera star and man toy (inspiration for Pal Joey?). Alison Skipworth is fine as MacDonald's private assistant and Bela Lugosi plays the part of her manager well.

The only reason to see this is for MacDonald - who has one number- the Liebestod from TRISTAN UND ISOLDE. She is vivacious, charming and full of diva personality. She does so well, it's a pity the film does not support her.

The DVD I saw was taken from an old VHS print with horizontal blip lines - very dark and fuzzy. For those who must have this for their MacDonald collection - it's available from Loving The Classics.