Sweet Adeline

Despite a competent cast of players and the Vitaphone Orchestra doing their best to give the music a turn-of-the-century beer garden sound, SWEET ADELINE does nothing to indicate that musicals would find favor with the public in a big way. The old-fashioned Broadway play has been fashioned into an old-fashioned early '30s musical with absolutely no distinction, either in the musical numbers themselves or the lackluster storyline. It's all strictly cornball and very, very hokey.

I'll leave a description of the story (which takes place in 1898) to others who have already given a detailed synopsis. Suffice it to say that only the most ardent fans of IRENE DUNNE would be willing to sit through this one patiently enough. She does get a chance to lift her voice in song a few times but the result is, to put it charitably, very modest, nor are the songs anything to cherish.

DONALD WOODS, a handsome actor usually confined to supporting roles, is the lead and relies on earnest glances at Dunne to carry his role. It's not enough. Some below par humor is supplied by Hugh Herbert and Ned Sparks.

Summing up: Stands alone as one of the least entertaining musicals of the '30s--bad script, dated material and forgettable songs.

While the Spanish-American War rages, aspiring composer Sid Barnett (Donald Woods) is in love with beer garden singer Adeline Schmidt (Irene Dunne). Her father owns the place and prefers war hero Major Day for her. Adeline's sister Nellie runs away to New York City to be an actress with Adeline and Day in pursuit. Meanwhile, Sid's operetta is set to open on Broadway. Sid wants to replace lead singer Elysia with reluctant Adeline. Day is eager to pay for the move.

The music style is far from my taste, but that's not the movie's fault. The meandering story however is its fault. Most of all, I don't like Sid. He's not attentive to Adeline. She is besides herself looking for Nellie. His first instinct should be soothing her worries. Instead, his first instinct is to get her into his show. They often fight and the main reason is usually him not really listening. He just needs to listen to her. He's a child. The whole espionage thing is coming out of left field and I don't know. Quite frankly, I'm fine with Adeline going with Day until he makes that big turn. Of course, Sid is better by comparison, but that bar is very low.

Chock full of sweet melodies by Jerome Kern, this lavish period musical takes Irene Dunne from Hoboken to Broadway, but in a tin-lizzie of a plot. Set in 1898, in a world of beer gardens and theatres, the film works up plenty of nostalgia -- with horseless carriages, Edison's new "pho-no-graph", and even an audition by "that Jolson kid" ["He'll never get anywhere"]--but self-consciously drops these references in like lead weights. Meanwhile, the screenwriter tries out a tiresome conflict of stage career vs. disapproving papa, then a wholly disposable spy subplot, and finally settles on a dull love triangle.

Irene Dunne supplies much-needed star authority to hold it together, but seems baffled that she has no plausible leading man - where is Cary Grant? -- and no plausible scenes to play. Still, she is a professional, and delivers a surprisingly affecting "Why Was I Born?" In return, she enjoys a knockout wardrobe in white organza and feathers from Orry-Kelly

But what pallid consorts she gets! The erstwhile leading man is Donald Woods, an estimable actor [memorable as Bette Davis' brother in WATCH ON THE RHINE], but here positively evaporating off the screen whenever a stronger personality shares the scene. His songwriter character, when allowed a frame to himself, comes off as callow and egotistical. In the third corner of this love triangle, Louis Calhern-moustachios a-twirl-- plays a military recruiter for Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, but also fades into the scenery.

Luckily, the music keeps coming, one verging-on-operetta tune after another, staged with a clear Busby Berkeley influence. An amusing Sultan's palace number has a basso trying to sing through the chaos of rehearsal. There's a beer garden singalong of "Polka Dots"; a parade of hansom cabs for "Twas Not So Long Ago"; and hordes of dancers in chiffon enact "Lonely Feet". Appealing Irish tenor Phil Regan [why didn't HE play the lead?] joins Irene Dunne in a country bower filled with flowers, swans, twinkling stars and girls on daisy-swings in "We Were So Young". Finally, and imaginatively, a torn-up score is used for a charming ending with "Don't Ever Leave Me". [Yes, the title tune --not by Kern---is briefly sung.] Throughout, Sol Polito's camera tracks from pretty pastorals to hard-edged dance numbers, but always bathes Irene Dunne in flatteringly soft light for big juicy movie-star closeups.

The heroes behind the scene are the editors at Warners, chopaholics in the 1930's, who made every frame of film fight to stay in the picture. This produced razor-fast comedies [like FIVE STAR FINAL] and gangster operas [like BULLETS OR BALLOTS], while protecting the product from harried and unimaginative directors. [Indeed, when director Mervyn LeRoy moved to MGM, his films slowed to a lumbering pace]. Here, the editors relax for the leisurely musical numbers, but seize their scissors again every time the plot surfaces, winning our applause for speeding us through the creaky parts.

If not for her great voice and her usual charming performance, and of course Kern and Hammerstein's great music, this movie is total drivel. It's like Warner Bros. was trying to do 42nd Street or one of the Gold Diggers movies in an 1890's setting. And then they add stock players like Ned Sparks and Hugh Hubert who are both annoying as anything, playing the same dumb characters they do in every movie. Wini Shaw was good as usual, but it's annoying to see her singing and talking with a phony French accent. And Donald Woods was no great actor, he really couldn't hold his own next to Dunne. No wonder why he never made it big. The studio went all out on the sets and costumes though, which make the movie a little more enjoyable... It's just a shame that with such great music and production values and Irene Dunne as the star, that this movie didn't turn out better...

Sweet Adeline was presented on the Broadway stage back in 1929 and was primarily a vehicle for Helen Morgan. Morgan had just made a big hit in Kern's greatest musical, Showboat, in the supporting part of Julie LaVerne. She got such raves for that part that a whole show was built around her. I tend to think that she was deep into alcoholism at the time this was done and was not asked to do the film version. Sweet Adeline unfortunately during its run, ran headlong into the Great Depression and had to close.

Irene Dunne carries the film version here and does a remarkable job. She was one of the great Hollywood talents of her time with an exquisite soprano voice for films like these and a good sense of comedy for some of the non-musical parts she did. She performs the standards that Morgan introduced on Broadway as good as Morgan did. Sweet Adeline had two big hit numbers Why Was I Born and Don't Ever Leave Me which are two of the best Jerome Kern ever wrote. Otto Harbach wrote the lyrics.

Unfortunately and I think that this was because Sweet Adeline was a star vehicle for Helen Morgan when originally done, Ms. Dunne was not given a strong leading man. Donald Woods was a competent actor, with all the charisma of dishwater. His best known part in films was in A Tale of Two Cities where he played Charles Darnay where essentially all he had to do was look handsome and earnest. More was required here and Irene could have used Allan Jones who she did Showboat with or if you wanted a non-singer, Cary Grant, Melvyn Douglas, or Spencer Tracy all of whom she did some classic films with.

The rest of the cast was good. Louis Calhern played the villain in the best Snidely Whiplash tradition. His proposition to Irene that he was not interested in marriage to her, just in living together was generations ahead of its time. Ned Sparks and Hugh Herbert perform their usual parts in Warner Brothers musicals and there were some nice turns by Nydia Westman and Joseph Cawthorn as Dunne's sister and father respectively.

Mervyn LeRoy did succeed nicely in capturing the old fashioned flavor of life at the turn of the last century. If you're an Irene Dunne fan this is a must.