Quand l'amour appelle

The story isn't all that great, but Bebe Daniels is sensational as the showgirl stranded in some hellhole where she works in a cantina as a singer. A ship docks and the sailors pour into the bar buying drinks for the girls. But after Bebe (as Peggy) sings a number, she attracts the attention of a jaded sailor (Lloyd Hughes) and they hit it off. Meanwhile, the local queen bee, Carlotta (Alma Tell) is two-timing the local honcho (Montagu Love) and gets caught. He throws her over and takes a shine to Bebe when he hears her singing in the garden.

Love has plans for Bebe and lures her out to a fiesta with the promise of letting her sing. Hughes gets the wrong idea and bails but is arrested by Love and deported. He comes back just as Love is about to close in on Bebe. Not much of a plot, but it's serviceable.

Daniels, in her follow-up to the smash hit RIO RITA is terrific as the wisecracking Peggy. She also sings a nice song called "Until Love Comes Along" and a few others by Oscar Levant and Sidney Clare. She sings this about 3 times and the final rendition (sung live) is quite moving. Hughes was a fairly big star in silents and is pretty good here and shows a decent singing voice, Love seems to be impersonating Noah Beery and overacts badly. Tell is lousy.

Others in the cast include Ned Sparks (with a monkey) as a drunken sailor and Lionel Bellmore as the treacherous cantina owner. Evelyn Selbie is Bianca.

Certainly worth a look (and listen) for the wonderful Bebe Daniels. Her opening song in nicely filmed by a roving camera and overhead mike as it follows her around the cantina.

In a portside cantina, sailor Lloyd Hughes and singer Bebe Daniels fall in love. When they quarrel, will she go off with rake Montague Love?

It's a so-so operetta from RKO, with over-orchestrated music by Oscar Levant, and some basic situations and performances: a good example of why the movie musical went into decline for three years, despite Miss Daniels' accomplished singing -- her former studio, Paramount, didn't even give her a voice test when sound came in. Although this is usually blamed on sheer stupidity, I think a reasonable explanation might be that they were trying to cut bloated studio roles, and Miss Daniels had never been one of their top stars. It was a miscalculation,certainly. She went over to RKO and had a hit in RIO RITA.

Other well-remembered performers in this movie include Ned Sparks and Lionel Belmore. Director Rupert Julian supervised a competent but uninspiring shoot.