Crooner

I'd looked forward to this Warners B as a rare chance to see the underappreciated David Manners in a leading role. As a struggling bandleader who discovers he has a voice and becomes a star, he's fine. But the character is such a jerk. Teddy, aided by a PR man (Ken Murray, who had a long career exhibiting home movies of Hollywood stars, but not much of one as an actor, and this shows why), who lusts after Teddy's girlfriend (Ann Dvorak, always welcome but doing nothing surprising here), soon is vain, demanding, unfaithful, greedy, and unreasonable with his bandmates. Nothing in the backstory indicates why this would happen. It's trite, and so is his comeuppance, as he suffers a PR disaster and returns to his saxophone. Even at 65 minutes it feels padded, with too many renditions of the two same old songs, and it feels like it's shaking a finger at us: Stay nice when you get famous, don't let this happen to you.

Ah, for the good old days of simple story lines. "Crooner" follows the rise and fall of Ted Taylor, a small time band leader whose musicians are underpaid and getting restless until a drunk Guy Kibbee (in a surprisingly tiny role) tosses him a megaphone. Now when he sings, women swoon. But all the attention goes to his head and even his paramour, Ann Dvorak, is turned off. Unfortunately, David Manners in the title role isn't much of an actor and even worse as a crooner. Dvorak's a lot better and J. Carroll Naish as the nightclub owner stuck with paying Manners' escalating tab, is fine. Throw in Ken Murray (yeah, that Ken Murray) as a hustling publicist and if only Manners wasn't so stiff -- and his band so listless -- this would have been a lot more entertaining. Whether this was inspired by Rudy Vallee or Bing Crosby is anybody's guess. Not bad -- but shoulda' been better.

"Crooner" is a 1932 film starring David Manners, Ann Dvorak, and Ken Murray.

Manners plays a band leader Teddy Taylor whose singer becomes ill before a performance, so he has to take over. He has a voice the size of a mosquito, so someone hands him a megaphone, and a star is born.

His girlfriend (Ann Dvorak) brings a publicist (Murray) to hear him, and Murray signs him, promising Teddy and the band big money. He actually doesn't like Ted's voice, but when he sees how the women fawn all over him, he decides he can take him to the top.

Ted becomes successful and becomes a major jerk, two-timing his girlfriend, refusing to conduct the music at a tempo people can dance to, and demeaning the band.

It's an okay comedy/drama, but the only really comedic part is when Ted is taking voice lessons. I actually didn't find Ted's voice so awful as some other people on this board is - I've heard worse, except when he goes crazy singing high notes for his teacher.

This film apparently was a big success for Manners, who had played standard leading men up to then. He was attractive (and related to Princess Diana on his mother's side), but he didn't stay in films long, preferring writing and painting.

Ann Dvorak turns in her usual good performance, as a sweet, patient woman who becomes fed up.

This film may be the veiled story of Rudy Vallee or perhaps even Bing Crosby -- an egotistical crooner. I imagine both would fit the profile.

Crooner (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

David Manners (DRACULA) gets his first top-billing in this familiar rags to riches back to rags tale. In the film he plays Ted Taylor, a mediocre singer who rises to fame after a gag with a microphone makes him a hot pick. Soon the fame and money goes to Ted's head and he begins to hurt those around him including his girlfriend (Ann Dvorak). If you've ever seen this type of drama before then I'm sure you're not going to find anything original here as it follows the familiar story that we've seen countless times. What does make the film work is some nice music and some good performances by the cast. This is a Warner "B" picture that doesn't have the greatest screenplay but it does its job, which is to keep you entertained for 64-minutes. Manners, an underrated actor in my opinion, turns in a nice performance as the young punk who quickly gets in over his head. I thought Manners did a pretty good job with the more dramatic moments but he also managed to be quite funny when needed to be. Dvorak is also very good in her role and Ken Murray and J. Carrol Naish add fine support as the agent and club owner. The cinematography by Robert Kurrle is also pretty impressive for such a low budget film and he seems to enjoy swooping the camera in on the intended target and this really mixes quite well with the style of music being played. Those who aren't really fans of "B" pictures probably won't find anything here for them but if you like short, to the point films then this one here isn't too bad.

Musicals were wildly unpopular at this point in Hollywood, following a surfeit of leaden-camera efforts in 1929-1930, and until 1933's one-two punch of 42nd STREET and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 opened up the visual fantasy of the genre.

So this Warner's story of the rise and fall of a crooner and his college-band buddies is a musical, but it is set very clearly in reality, with a Warner's small-guy-against-the-world story. The effort is well directed, as you would expect, by Lloyd Bacon; the cinematography by Robert Kurrle -- he would die later in the year -- is constantly interesting -- he favors tight shots with a mobile camera to maintain constant composition -- and the acting -- well, it's 75-minute Warner Brother movie so everyone speaks their snappy dialogue as fast as a hockey commentator.

As for the songs themselves, they are decent and written by the real pros of the era, including Irving Cesar and Harry Warren. None are particularly memorable, in part due to the fact that they are all crooned through a megaphone by David Manners. The best role is Ken Murray as the agent/promoter of the high-hatting Manners.

The net effect is typical Warner's fare. It's highly amusing for people who love the stuff. More than good enough for me.