The Rogue Song

For information: There are 8 monochrome production stills, from throughout the film, reproduced as plates in Val Lewton's eponymous novelization of 1930 for the publisher Collins. To repeat, for the sake of the automatic filter: There are 8 monochrome production stills, from throughout the film, reproduced as plates in Val Lewton's eponymous novelization of 1930 for the publisher Collins. To repeat, yet once more, for the sake of the automatic filter: There are 8 monochrome production stills,from throughout the film, reproduced as plates in Val Lewton's eponymous novelization of 1930 for the publisher Collins. Please only refer to the first sentence, as the rest is padding to trigger acceptance. (11 lines of text! At last!)

This is perhaps not a review, but a comment that portions of the movie have been posted on you-tube. If I remember correctly, the scenes/clips together added up to about 20 or so minutes. This means that about 1/5th of The Rogue Song is known to survive today. The clips were actually quite beautiful, although they involve mostly Laurence Tibbett and not Laurel and Hardy. One can also see the original trailer, a ballet sequence of about 5 minutes and a 3 minute clip of Laurel and Hardy rushing into a cave. Hopefully the entire film will turn up someday soon.The 10 rating is for the joy that I think any film lover will have while seeing these tantalizing scenes from an otherwise lost film.

I have finally been able to hear the entire 101 minute audio track, preserved on disc. The film is lethargically paced and the ten Laurel and Hardy scenes are very short and have nothing to do with the plotting, just gags tacked onto the film to liven it up after poor preview response. The sound is not that good and of the ten musical numbers only two songs are worthy of praise - SWEET WHITE DOVE and WHEN I'M LOOKING AT YOU. In addition we have a RIDING SONG, SONG OF THE ROGUE, LOVE COMES, SONG OF THE LAUGHING MAN, NADJA'S SONG. There are two ballets and a lament.

Tibbett comes off well, self-confident and masculine in his bravura and sexy performance and his singing voice here is put to good use. One can see how he garnered a Best Actor nomination that year. There were a number of other performances nominated on the basis of pure charm (Ronald Colman in BULLDOG DRUMMOND, Maurice Chevalier in THE LOVE PARADE and THE BIG POND).

If this is ever found, it probably will be a disappointment for those who waited. The fragment of Laurel and Hardy with the bear (just over a minute) and the ballet (a few minutes) have surfaced as visual fragments and are housed at UCLA.

The Rogue Song is best described as a lost film, but its complete soundtrack has survived, along with enough short clips and stills for someone to have posted a "reconstruction" on YouTube. Having watched this, I can post a tentative "review."

Let's get the (many) negatives out of the way first. This is an early musical, so you'll need to adjust to the slow pacing, awkward transitions, clumsy acting, and lethargic direction (courtesy of Lionel Barrymore, more suited to ham acting than directing). And it's an operetta, not the most popular or well-loved musical form around nowadays. Nor are the songs first rate.

But none of this matters too much, because the heart and soul of The Rogue Song is Lawrence Tibbett, who joyfully breathes fire into the film. Despite the limitations of early film sound equipment, Tibbett's voice remains one of the most powerful to ever boom from the screen. He's in magnificent form and clearly having a ball (he loved making the film and showed a personal print to friends for decades). His zest informs his acting too--forget all those stuffy, stick-up-the-ass opera stars who infected so many other early musicals, this guy is larger-than-life in the best way. Tibbett's shattering baritone throbs with a vitality that rescues the otherwise humdrum score, turning "The White Dove," "When I'm Looking at You," and the title song from limp operetta fodder into passionate statements of intent.

The Rogue Song has a couple of other attractions too. As adapted for the screen, the plot has some pre-code kinkiness--there's murder committed by the good guys, a horny countess, and a sensational scene of the hero flogged shirtless while singing away like a madman. There's also Laurel and Hardy, popping in between major scenes to add brief comic relief. Their material is hardly top-notch, but they add tonal balance to an otherwise heavy film.

The Rogue Song has many of the usual faults of early musicals, but they fall away at the sound of Lawrence Tibbett's voice.