The Great Lover

Of some interest to opera lovers. Irene Dunne shows off her real-life operatic talents which I'm unqualified to judge. Herman Bing, brother of opera impresario Rudolf Bing, plays a comic Wagnerian tenor and sings a little. Some comic bits about typically temperamental opera stars.

Plot revolves around a romantic triangle with Menjou as an aging opera star in New York, Hamilton as his understudy, and Dunne trying to break into the business. Turns out Dunne and Hamilton had a warm but chaste relationship while studying in Europe.

IMHO this started out to be a bit racier than your average opera flick but the studio got cold feet. Early on, Dunn seeks Menjou's mentorship and possibly more. People keep warning her about his reputation as a womanizer and she keeps saying she doesn't care, she'll do anything to get ahead even though, in the language of the day, she's maintained her "purity." Then this thread disappears and it becomes a tepid battle for her hand in matrimony between the two male leads.

Cliff Edwards has a Lee Tracy type role as a fast-talking PR man that fades away without connecting with the plot too much. Ernest Torrence plays Menjou's manservant as an effeminate sort whose only interest in life seems to be arranging and spying on his employer's love life. Kind of creepy.

Adolphe Menjou convinces as neither a great lover nor a great singer (his operatic singing voice is clearly dubbed) in this so-so pre-code romantic comedy. A young Irene Dunne fares only slightly better as a young songstress willing to prostitute herself with him in order to gain a foothold on the ladder to success, much to bland ex-boyfriend Neil Hamilton's great distress. Ernest Torrence is a highlight as Menjou's manservant, who identifies so closely with his boss that he refers to him as 'we'.

"The Great Lover" has been described by reviewers here as "an opera story" without much story. Although the film takes place in and around opera, I consider it to be about theater. As talkies took the place of silent films, it was natural for filmmakers to look to the stage for great stories. "The Great Lover" may not be a theater classic, but it has a classic story and is written as many of the great plays are--with s simple theme and writing that requires great actors to fill in the spaces between the lines with emotional subtlety. Aldolphe Menjou--as the womanizing opera star Jean Paurel--does a terrific job of conveying each emotional note of his role.

He is aided by Ernest Torrence, who plays Potter, his manservant. Torrence is a delightful actor with great range, whose career would be tragically cut short a few years later. His talents gave him success in both silent films and talkies.

The primary object of Paurel's affections is Diana (Irene Dunne). He woos her like every other woman, then finds she is more to him. Through his passions for her and music, he discovers another side to himself even as he recognizes his true nature.

Though described as a drama, "The Great Lover" feels more like a comedy to me, with elements of many of the basic comedy forms.

While it is not a great film, I thoroughly enjoyed the direction and acting required to make its characters understandable and engaging.

Back in those early days of sound all the studios bought up whatever they could in the way of scripts. The Great Lover had been a play produced on Broadway by George M. Cohan and Sam Harris back during World War I years, but as the background is opera you will not hear a note of Cohan's in the story.

As those early sound days also brought a glut of musical films MGM had Irene Dunne playing a young opera ingenue who falls under the spell of womanizing opera star Adolph Menjou. Menjou certainly has his share of opera groupies as we see in the film. But he falls for her and has a hand in bringing her career along just as his is going into decline. A little bit of Maytime is also present here.

More than just a few elements of the many versions of A Star Is Born are found in The Great Lover. Also here is Neil Hamilton a young opera singer also interested in Dunne and the great Olga Baclanova from the Russian Art Theater. Only Dunne needed no dubbing for her part.

An interesting old chestnut, I doubt we'll see a remake though.

What a delightful movie! For anyone interested in how opera was perceived in the 30's ,this is a must. I heartily urge a DVD release. Adolphe Menjou is superb as the womanizing real life Don GIovanni who finally succumbs to cupids arrow. What a class act. His portrayal is full of ribald humor and sensitivity. Irene Dunne is also superb as the naive young ingénue who will take the opera by storm. There is a host of wonderful supporting players who add to the sparkle of this movie. This is admittedly a very dated film but therein lies the charm. An era of the opera AND cinema is recreated beautifully. This movie will appeal not only to opera fans but also nostalgia buffs. It gives us a sense of operatic and film history. Terrific!