Lord Byron of Broadway

This backstage musical a la THE Broadway MELODY about love and angst behind the footlights was based on a famously nasty novel by Nell Martin. Haines and Love balked at the idea of playing in such a nasty plot so MGM had it re-written (watered down) and brought in stage stars Charles Kaley and Ethelind Terry, and ingenue Marion Shilling. Creaky and a little slow in places but very interesting for the music and the 2-strip Technicolor.

Kaley (who slightly resembles Haines) plays a user. He latches on to anyone or anything that will get him ahead. He uses women (Shilling and Gwen Lee) as well as his partner (Cliff Edwards). But while he meets his match in the grasping Ethelind Terry (the original star of RIO RITA on Broadway), he's not the one who pays.

One good song: "Should I" which one used in SINGIN'IN THE RAIN decades later. Co-stars included Benny Rubin, Drew Demorest, Eddie Kane, Rita Flynn, and the voice of Jack Benny. Ann Dvorak is in the chorus.

Shilling and Edwards, perhaps, come off best.

I've seen this film twice and I think it's really one of the most underrated early musicals. Yes, it has its flaws: there's some typical early-talkie clunkiness in the direction, and Charles Kaley as the leading man is good-looking and a competent actor but hardly the irresistibly charismatic woman-magnet and energetic go-getter the script tells us Roy Erskine is. (Imagine this script as an early-1930's Warners product with James Cagney in the lead and you've got a good idea of what this story could have been.) But the story has real bite and pathos, its picture of the music business as exploitative and cutthroat rings as true now as it did then, and next to Rouben Mamoulian's masterpiece "Applause" this is probably the darkest backstage musical ever made. Even the ending, which in other hands could have been unbearably sentimental and sappy, is handled with the same realistic toughness as the rest of the film. Worthy of note is the appearance of a Columbia record label on screen (the label Charles Kaley actually recorded for; I have a 78 of him singing "Hello, Bluebird," a song Judy Garland revived in her last film, "I Could Go On Singing") instead of a made-up record company, and the two beautifully preserved two-strip Technicolor dance numbers (including an Albertina Rasch ballet that features Busby Berkeley-style overhead shots a year before Berkeley himself ever made a film) that show off what a gorgeous process two-strip Technicolor really was, with a harmonious, painterly color scheme that often is more pleasing than the often overripe colors of the early three-strip process which replaced it.

ETHELIND TERRY WAS A THEATRICAL SINGER OF BEAUTY AND TALENT, THE HEIGHT OF HER CAREER STARRING IN THE TITLE ROLE OF THE LATE-TWENTIES BROADWAY HIT, "RIO RITA". SHE WAS PASSED OVER FOR RKO'S 1929 MOVIE VERSION IN FAVOR OF BEBE DANIELS - THIS PRODUCTION WITH AN EXTRAORDINARILY LENGTHY RUNNING TIME! MISS TERRY DID HAVE THE FEMALE LEAD IN "LORD BYRON OF BROADWAY" (MGM; 1930), A BAD FEATURE ALTHOUGH WITH THE SONGSTRESS PERFORMING IN A TRULY WONDERFUL MUSICAL NUMBER, "WOMAN IN THE SHOE", PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE TWO-STRIP TECHNICOLOR PROCESS AND LATER REUSED IN "NERTSERY RHYMES", A 1933 MGM COMEDY SHORT FEATURING THE THREE STOOGES WITH TED HEALY (HE AN ANCHOR AROUND THEIR NECKS BEFORE THEY LEFT HIM IN 1934 FOR COLUMBIA PICTURES). TERRY CONTINUED TO STAR IN VARIOUS STAGE MUSICALS, NONE VERY SUCCESSFUL. IN 1937, SHE APPEARED IN A TEX RITTER WESTERN FOR GRAND NATIONAL (A SMALL STUDIO) ENTITLED "ARIZONA DAYS", AND THEREIN LIES A TRULY STRANGE CIRCUMSTANCE: RECEIVING PROMINENT BILLING (THIRD AFTER RITTER'S HORSE, "WHITE FLASH"!) ON POSTERS AND LOBBY CARDS - AND HAVING A BIT OF DIALOGUE WITH ANOTHER WOMAN, BOTH SEATED UPON A WAGON EARLY IN THE STORY - THE SINGER DISAPPEARS FROM THE PRODUCTION! STILLS SHOW HER PERFORMING IN A STAGE NUMBER, VERIFYING THAT SHE HAD A PROMINENT ROLE INITIALLY. BUT ETHELIND TERRY NO LONGER IS EVEN BILLED IN THE PICTURE'S MAIN CREDITS! WHAT HAPPENED? ASIDE FROM A FEW NEWS PHOTOS OF HER AS ASSISTING THE WAR EFFORT BY BEING EMPLOYED IN AN AIRCRAFT PLANT, THIS IN 1943 - STILL HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE - SHE SEEMINGLY DISAPPEARS, AS SHE DID FROM THE TEX RITTER FILM. HER DEATH IS GIVEN AS MARCH 17, 1984 IN FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, REPORTEDLY WEALTHY ; ADDITIONAL DETAILS, HOWEVER, ARE NOT INCLUDED. PERHAPS AN EXPLANATION WAS RENDERED FOR HER NO LONGER BEING IN THE WESTERN FEATURE, THIS IN A TRADE PAPER SUCH AS "VARIETY" OR "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER" - UNLESS THEY, TOO, HAD BY THEN LITTLE IF ANY INTEREST IN THIS ONCE VERY SUCCESSFUL SINGER.

SINCERELY, RAY CABANA, JR.

This is a movie musical from 1930 so expect very static scenes as the sound equipment in those days greatly limited the actors and director. Second, let me caution that the actor in the lead male role and the two actresses in the top female roles are often blushingly amateurish. The director didn't seem to be much help and in a few years he would be at Monogram doing routine programmers.

So what's worthwhile here? First there is the performance of Cliff Edwards, who gets a chance at a full-bodied role and does well. He shows he could be more than a Disney footnote.

But the biggest surprise to me was the fine, natural performance of Benny Rubin. I was so accustomed to him as an aging ethnic comedian that I almost didn't recognize him. The role was flash-flash "Jewish" as he played an employee of a song publisher and he joked about charging the hero interest for a loan. But he was the most natural presence on the screen and he shined as a real human being. The camera loved him at the same time it gave scant grace to the leads in this film.

Rubin is often mentioned as a talented comedian who was limited in Hollywood by the ethnic prejudice. Here we see the very real evidence of what was lost because of that prejudice.

Don't let some ol' sourpusses diminish the charm of this admittedly antique musical. For those who find early sound musicals innately fascinating, this one is a key film, particularly for the two-strip Technicolor sequences. And the music is very, very evocative of the era. I'm glad we have such early films available on TCM, since they don't deserve obscurity, whatever their dated qualities. There >is< definitely something to like about this film, which is unfortunately at the mercy of sometimes ignorant and unforgiving 21st century sensibilities. Look beyond the hokey acting and let the authentic feel and sound of the late '20s cast a unique spell. It's still worth a visit.