Delicious

Although I am not necessarily a fan of such cookie-cutter fare (same studio, same director, same stars, same premise, different setting, but once profit is made, keep em cooking until it burns you), I find this film enjoyable on several levels. Sure, there's Janet Gaynor at the peak of her adorability, and El Brendel, the first master of comedic talent in the talkies, but tossed into director David Butler's mixing bowl are this tale's little forays into the multitude of human emotion, all very well expressed, and captured, on screen. Oh, to see this one on the big screen! Perhaps I will get the chance one day, if you will help me scream loud enough, and buy enough tickets, to get these old gems circulating widely through the "retro" theater circuit.

Delicious (1931)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Really bad musical/drama from Fox about a Scottish immigrant (Janet Gaynor) who arrives in America with a detective (Lawrence O'Sullivan) hot on her trail. She's able to duck him for the time and this is how she meets Larry Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a rich man and it doesn't take long for the two to fall in love. DELICIOUS was the ninth film to feature Gaynor and Farrell together so needless to say the duo were very popular and audiences loved them. I do wonder how audiences originally reacted to this film. I mean, it's so poorly made but I wonder if they would eat this type of thing up anyways. We've got a poorly made movie that runs way too long with a story with so much sugar on it that it almost caused this diabetic to go into a coma and to make matters worse it features some horrid and embarrassing songs from George and Ira Gershwin. We can start with the ugliness of the movie. Yes, production levels hadn't reached their highpoint in 1931 but there's still no reason for this film to look as badly as it does. The cinematography is among the worst I've seen from a major studio and even the editing is poor. The film, for some reason, was shot way too dark and the special effect dream sequences look poor as well. The music numbers are so small and silly that it almost seems like they took a camera into a local bar and just filmed some drunks trying to dance. The story itself is a very predictable one but what they did to the Gaynor character is make her so child-like and "sweet" that she almost comes across as being slow. The character is so fake and boring that you can't help but not care what happens to her. It also doesn't help that Gaynor is really bad in the role. She was one of the best actresses of this era so it's pretty sad seeing her work with nothing. Still, she deserves some of the blame as well and especially for that Scottish accent that goes in and out as the movie flows. Farrell and the rest of the supporting players are equally bad. Clock in at 106-minutes also shows that the producers just wanted to throw everything into the movie no matter if it worked or not. I'm sure DELICIOUS will have people interested due to the talent involved but sadly it's a complete misfire not worth anyone's time.

Delicious is a word of four syllables ("De-li-shee-ous") as pronounced by our heroine and in the title tune. Not one of the Gershwins' better-known songs, and for good reason, it is nonetheless sweet, catchy, and disarming in its modest wittiness, just like the whole movie. This is a soufflé-type film: it could easily have fizzled into a flabby mess, with its improbable plot, creaky class stereotypes and heavy ethnic humor. Instead it's a delight from beginning to end, as irresistible as its leading lady.

Janet Gaynor plays Heather Gordon, a Scottish lassie immigrating to America on her own. We know from the first scene that the film is set in cloud-cuckoo-land, where steerage passengers are all colorfully dressed peasants who speak accented English, sleep in clean, cozy cabins and amuse themselves by playing the tunes of their native lands on deck. Heather has fallen in with a Russian family headed by Mischa Auer, a warm-hearted volatile bunch including composer Sascha (Raul Roulien), who is in love with Heather and writes the song "Delicious" for her. (Don't ask why they all speak English or how he learned to write tin pan alley songs.) While trespassing in first class, Heather meets Laurence Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a rich polo-player who is instantly smitten with her. On reaching Ellis Island, Heather is told she can't enter the country because her uncle has rescinded his offer to support her, but she slips away from the irascible immigration agents and escapes from the boat. The remainder of the movie follows Heather's efforts to evade the police, her budding but ever thwarted romance with Larry, and her friendship with the Russians, who take her in and make her part of their café act.

Janet Gaynor's Scottish accent slips on and off like a wobbly tam-o'-shanter, but she's so adorable it doesn't matter. I saw Delicious as part of MoMA's centennial retrospective of Gaynor's films, and I can't get over her talent. Not only was she a great actress, she was a charming dancer and singer. Here she sings "Somebody from Somewhere" to the accompaniment of a musical whiskey bottle(!) She's such an appealing waif, it's hard to buy the convention whereby she is invariably abused and mistreated in her films; at least here she's spunky. Charles Farrell is always handsome and likable, but his role is a bland nonentity. To make matters worse, his rival Sascha is also attractive, deeply in love with Heather, and a genius to boot—all of his music sounds just like Gershwin! It's hard not to feel that Janet falls in love with Charles simply because they're an established team. Heather's rival, on the other hand, a society husband-hunter played by Virginia Cherrill, is thoroughly hateful. Comedy is provided by El Brendel as Larry's bumbling Swedish valet. Despite an annoying "yumping Yimminy" accent, he has some very funny moments and a few mildly "pre-Code" lines, as when Heather says that some over-sized pajamas are better than nothing, and he responds, "That's debatable."

Delicious is smoothly and even gracefully made for an early talkie. Gershwin's Second Rhapsody is the backdrop for an expressionistic sequence in which the despairing Heather wanders around Manhattan, intimidated by crowds, looming buildings, the clatter of the elevated trains, riveters working on a skeletal skyscraper, and the misty, sinister docks. Obvious back-projection does not diminish this dream-like sequence, and neither the smashing music nor the dramatic imagery upstages Gaynor's expressive acting. Always understated and natural, she retains from silent movies a transparent face and the power to make a stone cry. For all her sweetness, she is never cloying. Her prettiness is distinctive, not conventional, and there's enough pepper in her characters to counteract the sugary plots. Though largely forgotten today apart from her roles in Sunrise and A Star is Born, Gaynor was on top in Hollywood for a few years, and it's easy to see why.

David Butler directed Delicious in 1931. Janet Gaynor stars as Heather, a Scottish immigrant to America. Charles Farrell plays wealthy Larry Beaumont. El Brendel provides comic relief as Swedish prankster Kris Jansen and Raul Roulien plays Sascha, a Russian immigrant in love with Heather. This film is a romantic comedy with musical segments written by the legendary George Gershwin.

Delicious begins on a ship to America. Heather and Sascha sing a song Sascha wrote for her called "Delicious." There is no piano in steerage, so they trespass to first class to find one. When discovered, they run away, and Heather finds herself in a horse's stable. There she meets Larry and the two connect immediately. When the ship docks, they lose contact, but find that fate intervenes. Heather discovers she cannot enter America on a formality, but she is desperate. She hides in Larry's horse's stall and is sent to his estate. There, Kris, Larry's valet, cares for her until Larry discovers her.

This film has four noticeable elements; sound, movement, costume, and acting. It is a realistic musical because no one bursts randomly into song. The first is sung during a celebration, a traditional song which displays the ethnicity of the performers. The title song exhibits the relationship between Sascha and Heather, but is appropriate because Sascha is a songwriter. The most elaborate number "The Melting Pot" is excusable because it is performed in a dream. It exemplifies another element, movement. Animation causes actors to appear and re-appear magically through stop-motion photography. The director utilizes motion in other scenes, like pans to establish new surroundings and zooms to highlight facial expressions. Later, a pull-back dolly exhibits Heather exiting the horse stall and a tilt follows Larry's eyes when he receives a letter. The stars' costumes are telling. Larry wears dark, solid suits while lower class characters like Sascha wear light, patterned suits. Heather begins in a plaid dress to reflect her Scottish heritage but changes to over-sized pajamas which emphasize vulnerability. Lastly, Brendel's stage-trained acting style exemplifies personality acting. He dons a comic Swedish accent in his films and here he sings his trademark and hilarious, "Blah Blah Blah." Musicals from the early 1930s are generally static, but this one is surprisingly innovative. The story is fun and the cinematic elements make it a joy to watch. Fans of classics and light-hearted comedies will love Delicious.

Janet Gaynor is a pretty Scottish lass who has trouble maintaining her accent, but rather winsome nevertheless as a stowaway hiding from the authorities. Charles Farrell makes an engaging co-star, so it's no surprise when they find true romance by the final fadeout in which he declares her "delicious." El Brendel has a largely sympathetic role but gets a little too much screen time for my taste and some of his comic moments have a rather flat affect.

The songs are forgettable, particularly a little ditty Janet Gaynor sings without much voice or style. Still, she does a fair job of carrying most of the film with her own brand of charm, but the script is really a lot of hokum.

Contemporary audiences will find it hard to sustain interest in this tale. The TCM print was too dark for comfortable viewing, only accenting the primitive B&W photography and sound system.