The Flame Song

Here's a real musical curiosity: George Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein II contributed music and lyrics to this mixed operetta and popular (for 1930s, pre-swing audiences) music short subject.

The story is that Prince Alexander Gray is deposed as ruler of Floretan by a popular revolt. Fellow Prince J. Harold Murray heads to the kingdom to restore order and charm the local ladies while disguised as a chauffeur, because that's how these stories progress.

Both Gray and Murray were popular 1920s musical performers. Gray got his start with Ziegfeld, and Murray was very popular in vaudeville, and both operetta and modern musicals. Neither of their film careers survived this musical short, which was intended to take advantage of the fading remnants of their popularity. How Hammerstein and Gershwin got involved is uncertain, but I expect sizable checks were involved.

The nation of Florestan is struggling after Prince Basil overthrew his cousin Prince Henry (J. Harold Murray). Prince Henry decides to return from exile in Paris to retake his throne. He is traveling in disguise as the driver to a playboy who is in reality his manservant. Anita (Bernice Claire) is the flame.

This started as an operetta in 1925 turned into a film in 1930 and remade into this movie in 1934. The music was originally written by Herbert Stothart and George Gershwin, the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto A. Harbach. For this movie, they moved it out of Czarist Russia and created a fictional land. Since the 1930 version seems to be lost, this is an interesting artifact. I'm not a film historian or music historian. This must have some historical values. I'm just not sure if it's any good. The story is simplistic and short. The musical is a short opera which may be popular back in the day. It's not for me, but it may be for somebody.

Flame Song, The (1934)

** (out of 4)

MGM two-reeler about a prince (J. Harold Murray) who is thrown out of his country so he re-enters under the the disguise of a chauffeur so that he can overthrow his evil cousin (Alexander Gray) who is now running a corrupt office. It's well-known that MGM was ran like a factory as the studio just pumped one film out after another. Features and shorts were being pumped out by the studio and while a lot of them are now legendary classics you still have plenty that seem like no real effort was put into them and THE FLAME SONG is one. There's not really anything horribly wrong with this picture but it just seems so by-the-numbers that you can't help but feel as if no one behind the scenes were putting too much into it or perhaps they were just wanting to go on their vacation and rushed through everything. Murray isn't too bad in his part but the same can't be said for Bernice Claire who plays the love interest he meets along the way. Her "acting" wasn't that bad but when it came time for her to sing I was wanting to hit the mute button. Her singing voice might have been dubbed but whoever was doing the singing should have never gotten out of bed that morning. This here is certainly just for those who have to see every short the studio released.

... the lost 1930 feature film operetta "Song of the Flame". In fact, it has the two leads of the original Song of the Flame returning for this short. Bernice Claire is still the revolutionary "Flame" and Alexander Grey returns, but this time as the heavy, not the hero. There are some other elements of the story that have changed as well. For one thing, Noah Beery's great baritone voice is missing here in this 22 minute remake of an originally 96 minute operetta. Why do I know it is great if the film is lost? Because five reels of the sound still remain via the Vitaphone discs.

In the original "Song of the Flame" Bernice Claire plays a Russian revolutionary that wins the love of a prince, but she must contend with a greedy fellow revolutionary in the person of Noah Beery's character. In fact, it looks as though she might need to sacrifice her virginity to this fellow to save the prince. In the 1934 short, this is merely a tale of two princes - one good and exiled, one bad and in power.

Besides the confusion caused by shortening the film and jettisoning most of the music, the story has been changed because the production code is about to begin enforcement, and not only did the code forbid maidens trading their virginity for the valiant, it did not care for talk of revolution, especially in the middle of a Depression. Thus the tale becomes one of just a good prince versus a bad prince. Lesson - pick your prince, but don't revolt! Why was this remade as a short? The original Technicolor musical was a box office flop in 1930, but after musicals began a resurgence in 1933 after two years of disfavor, some recycling of material did occur. Warner Brothers made both "The Song of the Flame" and the very early talkie musical "The Desert Song" into two reel musical shorts, both equally confusing.

Why watch this? Because it is our only film link to the original musical and because the original lead performers have returned even if their appearances are abbreviated. Remember these things and I think you can appreciate the effort a bit more.