Sweet Kitty Bellairs

Claudia Dell gets a star build-up in this one and although the camera clearly loves her, particularly in mid length profile, this whole movie of an adventuress in the city of Bath is so miscalculated that it is occasionally embarrassing. The performances are pitched for the stage, rather than the movie screen and while this style of light opera might have suited Offenbach and Gilbert & Sullivan, by this period, the only other extant examples are those moments in Marx Brothers movies when Groucho sings "I want my Shirt" to something from CARMEN and occasional revivals of THE STUDENT PRINCE. The best version of that is a silent movie.

The whole thing is interestingly shot to look like a Hogarth series and if the music is rarely distinguished, at least "Peggy's Leg" has a little antiquated ribaldry about it. It is fascinating to see Walter Pidgeon as a young man and Miss Dell is lovely. She is reputed to be the model for the Columbia Pictures torch lady.

However, the story is that there was such a glut of poor movie musicals in 1929 and 1930 that the public refused to see them, killing the genre until 1933. Looking at this one, I can believe it.

A musical mix-up of identities, duels, and love, SWEET KITTY BELLAIRS takes place in the English city of Bath in 1793. The plot involves jealous lovers, intrigues, a highwayman, and masks as Kitty (Claudia Dell) tries to unscramble a few mysteries and win a shy lord (Walter Pidgeon). Amazingly this fluff comes from hard-boiled Warner Brothers.

Not a bad film at all, this one simply got lost in the glut of musicals in the early talkie period. Originally shot in Technicolor, this film survives only in B&W and was one of many "operettas" to get released after the success of RIO RITA.

Dell is very pretty but has only a so-so singing voice. Pidgeon seems oddly cast but handles the songs well. Ernest Torrence is a surprise as the blustering husband. June Collyer plays Julia. Flora Finch plays the old gossip. Lionel Belmore, Tom Ricketts, and Arthur Edmund Carewe also co-star.

A highlight is the ribald song "Peggy's Leg."

It was a real chore to watch this one. The script is silly, the acting is beyond poor, and the musical performances are tedious. There's no charm here; steer clear.

In the very early 1930s, operettas were quite popular. Films like "The Rogue Song" and "Sweet Kitty Bellairs" were just a couple such movies and less than a decade later the style was resurrected with the Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy films. However, by the mid-1940s the genre was just about dead due to changing tastes and when seen today the pictures come off as very strange and old fashioned. Based on what I've seen, I can understand why they are no longer popular.

When "Sweet Kitty Bellairs" begins, a group of rich 18th century folks are heading to the spa town of Bath for a holiday. However, their carriage is waylaid by bandits and the cheeky masked leader decides that instead of stealing all their valuables that he'd just take a kiss from Kitty. While she protests, it's pretty obvious to tell that she is quite taken by this stranger. And, what's also obvious is that the nice man she later meets at the spa is actually the bandit dressed in the fine clothes of a gentleman. What will come of this? See the film (or, better yet, don't).

This film was creaky with age and left me very, very bored. Much of the music just put me to sleep but the bad acting made it even worse. Particularly bad was Ernest Torrence who just didn't seem to know how to deliver his lines...though he would improve in later films. Perhaps he just wasn't used to sound films. All I know is that the movie left me very cold and this sort of silly fluff just didn't appeal to me. Far less well made and interesting than a MacDonald/Eddy film.

This film is an interesting curio of the progress of early sound films and the musical glut that killed off the genre for several years. The original film (in Technicolor--no longer) is lavish and is very much an operetta with sung dialogue, connecting musical sequences, and musical underscoring. It's all way-overplayed and the morals on display are rather questionable. What is interesting is the continuity of music and scenes, outdoor recording and camera work, camera movement, and tracking shots which required pre-or post recording after the film had been finished. The whole picture is edited and recorded very professionally probably by the most advanced studio in these techniques at the time. The film is technically impressive and if you're into old movies its worth 63 minutes of your time.