Deliciosa

It is hard to see at what audience exactly "Delicious" (1931) would appeal; perhaps that's why it has been almost completely forgotten today. It is not funny enough to be a comedy; it is not dramatic enough to be a drama; it does not contain enough music to be a musical; and while the romantic chemistry between Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor kinda works, they are kept apart from each other for long periods of time. Speaking of time, the film is definitely overlong at 106 minutes. An imaginative dream sequence is the only real highlight. Gaynor's Scottish accent comes and goes; El Brendel provides the alleged comic relief. ** out of 4.

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 On reaching Ellis Island, Heather is told she can't enter the country because her uncle has rescinded his offer to support her, but she slips away from the irascible immigration agents and escapes from the boat.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.

In 1931, America was in love with Janet Gaynor. Not only was this lady very popular in films, but she had already won the first Oscar for Best Actress and played a sweet, diminutive sort of character. However, because she was so beloved, it presents a problem in "Delicious". The filmmakers picked her to play a part way beyond her abilities--a Scottish woman with an accent that comes and goes and sounds too much like a cute little cartoon character! It's ridiculous--and almost Scottish Betty Boop-ish!! I am pretty sure had it been made a few years after, the accents wouldn't have been this bad, but it was only a few years after talkies debuted and stilted dialog and bad accents were pretty common.

As for the film, it's an episodic picture set aboard a cruise ship full of immigrants heading to America. The idea of such a film is great--since this is something most viewers in the US could relate to. But the story comes off as very lightweight and, at times, clichéd...and incredibly dated and old fashioned. The singing is particularly bad. While many of Gaynor's films (particularly those with Charles Farrell--who is also in this film) are considered classics, this one is pretty much awful.

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.

DELICIOUS (Fox, 1931), directed by David Butler, is a sugar-coated love story featuring the then highly popular romantic team of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in their ninth movie together. With the plot following the pattern of their initial talkie, SUNNY SIDE UP (Fox, 1929), DELICIOUS, is also a musical, but on a better scale largely due to the forgettable but yet somewhat interesting score by George and Ira Gershwin, and mainly because, this time around, Charles Farrell doesn't get to sing. Gaynor, like Farrell, is no professional singer, but unlike Farrell, her girlish vocalization gets by. As a Scottish girl, however, her accent sometimes strays away from her character, which in turn, when speaking as the Scots do, is not totally convincing.

Gaynor plays Heather Gordon, a lively as well as lovely young Scottish orphan, accompanied by her dog, Tammy, is traveling third class on the USS Maudonia bound for America to live with her Uncle Angus. During the ocean voyage, she is accompanied by fellow Russian passengers who take a liking to her, especially Sasha (Raul Roulien), who not only thinks she is "delicious," but loves her well enough to want to marry her, but she refuses. On the first class deck are Lawrence Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a wealthy polo-playing American, who is accompanied by his débutante fiancée, Diana Van Bergh (Virginia Cherrill), and her equally snobbish mother (Olive Tell). Diana becomes jealous when she finds Larry taking notice on Heather (whom she had mistaken for a groom in a horse's stable). Before the boat docks, Larry, entrusts Diana with a letter to give to Heather where she is to contact him if she is ever in need of his assistance, but when Mrs. Van Bergh learns of it, she takes the letter from her daughter, tears it up and throws the pieces overboard. Upon arrival on Ellis Island, Heather is surprised to learn from the passport agent that she must return to Scotland because her uncle has suffered some financial losses and is unable to support her. Believing she could take care of herself once she gets a job, Heather escapes Detective O'Flynn (Lawrence O'Sullivan) and other immigration authorities by running through the ship and takes refuge in a stall where Larry's horse, Poncho, is kept. The horse is then brought over to Larry's estate where she is secretly cared for by his valet, Kris Jansen (El Brendel), whom she had met earlier while on passage. But when Heather is discovered, much to the delight of Larry, she decides not to be a burden by locating Sasha and agreeing on becoming his bride. After Larry is injured in a polo match, Heather hears of this on a radio broadcast and comes to Larry's estate to be near him. But the ever more jealous Diana decides to put an end to this nonsense by notifying the authorities to take Heather away.

The musical segments include: "O Tchonya," "Delicious" (sung by Raul Roulien); "We're From the Journal" and The Melting Pot" (a musical dream sequence with Janet Gaynor, sung by reporters from the Journal, Statue of Liberty and others); "Somebody From Somewhere" (sung by Janet Gaynor); "Katinkitschka" (sung by Janet Gaynor and Mischa Auer); "Blah, Blah, Blah" (sung by El Brendel); and "New York Rhapsody" (instrumental segment featuring Gaynor's stroll through the New York City streets).

While the score for "New York Rhapsody" might not be in the same league as "Rhapsody in Blue" or as memorable as some of the other Gershwin masterpieces, this one that stands out in true Gershwin fashion, underscored by piano and orchestration, visually impressive with the city's lights and stylized sets and shadows, reminiscent to Gaynor's earlier silent classic, SUNRISE (Fox, 1927), but not as effective. Looking more European in style than New York City, it does include in the soundtrack sounds of honking cars and gathering of people talking as Gaynor's Heather tries to escape her problems by being taken back by the customs official O'Flynn. At times, resembling "film noir" due to its darkness, it's quite artistic to a point with all the ingredients for which Gershwin is famous. This makes DELICIOUS one of its few high points of the story. As with SUNNY SIDE UP, Gaynor does take time to sing a song, in this instance, "Somebody From Somewhere," to the movie audience by looking directly into the camera. But of all the songs presented, only the title tune is catchy as well as memorable, especially when underscored during the dialogued portions of the story.

Besides the fact that Gaynor and Farrell were a popular screen team, much of the focus in this presentation is more on Gaynor. El Brendel, the Swedish accented character actor of many Fox films who, at times, resembles silent comedian Harry Langdon, does provide some offbeat humor such as playing a deaf mute supplying his made up sign language. Brendel also partakes as the third part of the romantic couple, here as the love interest to Olga (Manya Roberti), Sasha's sister. Raul Roulien, a Brazilian performer, best known solely as the second leading man opposite Dolores Del Rio in FLYING DOWN TO RIO (RKO, 1933), with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (in supporting roles. Virginia Cherrill, the memorable blind girl in Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece, CITY LIGHTS (1931), is believable as the attractive upper crustier girl, but fails to deliver herself as the fine actress here as she did under Chaplin's guidance.

At the time frame of 106 minutes (15 minutes shorter than SUNNY SIDE UP), DELICIOUS may not be for all tastes for contemporary viewers but on the whole, is an agreeable affair. This very rare find of DELICIOUS, at present, turns up sporadically either on cable television's The Fox Movie Channel or Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 14, 2011). (**1/2)