Crooner

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.

It is surprising that so few motion pictures dramatized the phenomenon of the crooner during the heyday of that singing style. Aside from a handful of features with plots revolving around actual "crooners" like Bing Crosby and Rudy Vallee, the cultural phenomenon of "crooning" - the quiet, intimate delivery of songs by male vocalists which swept America along with the rise of radio as a mass medium - was seldom explored. CROONER is a modest, low-budget, sketchy treatment of this subject. As put together, the story could have, with minor adjustments, just as well have been about a banker, an author or an acrobat or any other professional on the rise, but it happens to locate itself in the popular music world. It says very little of substance regarding the evolution of popular song but does make a few points about the trends of its time.

The plain vanilla David Manners gives an occasionally effective performance in the title role as the saxophone playing leader of a mediocre college dance band who discovers he has a marketable singing voice when he reluctantly subs for the band's ailing vocalist. With the help of his girlfriend (Ann Dvorak) and a publicist she knows (Ken Murray) he achieves overnight fame which over-inflates his ego, creating a crisis which is resolved by film's end. We are repeatedly reminded that his singing appeals to women and offends men, a more or less accurate reflection of the general attitudes towards sotto voce male singers of the period. This state of affairs is crystallized in an amusingly twisted way in a brief sequence during a nightclub performance: an effeminate man praises the crooner ("I think he's superb!") after which his companion, a masculine woman, declares "He's lousy!" The Ken Murray character illustrates how music industry professionals regarded "crooning": he tells Manners to his face that he dislikes his singing, but if the female public buys it he is willing to promote it for 25 percent.

Manners gets interesting after fame goes to his head and he starts behaving in an effete, pretentious manner, which suits his talents. He should have played more haughty, shallow parts, but he was usually cast as a romantic lead and made only a faint impression, and his film career evaporated too soon.

Warner Bros. squeezes every last drop out of a mere two songs: "Sweethearts Forever" by Cliff Friend and Irving Caesar and "Three's a Crowd" by Harry Warren, Irving Kahal and Al Dubin. Inoffensive as they may be, they are repeated excessively. Manners does all of his "singing" into a megaphone, relieving him of the chore of lip-synching to the dubbed voice of Donald Novis. Earlier in the story when Manners is called upon to pretend he is playing a sax, his cheeks don't even move. Director Lloyd Bacon, whose 42nd Street made film history shortly after this effort, handles talking-head dialogue scenes well enough, but his staging of a mini-riot lacks real vigor.

Crooner is the story of a bandleader who when the band singer is AWOL does his vocals and with megaphone that a drunk hands him. He becomes an overnight sensation and then let's it all go to his head.

David Manners plays our Crooner and the story is based quite obviously on Rudy Vallee. In fact Manners was a little too close to the real Vallee who probably considered suing.

I think it was a smart move to not have a singer in the part. You might wonder why he didn't have staying power like a Crosby or a Vallee. There are so many out there that are forgotten today who did have their brief moment of glory.

Manners gets good support from the two women in his life girlfriend Ann Dvorak and society girl Claire Dodd who picks up Manners because he was the flavor of that month. Also featured here are Ken Murray as an agent and J. Carrol Naish as a club owner.

Crooner is a quaint piece of depression era nostalgia.

There is nothing really remarkable about the story in this one. David Manners plays Ted Taylor, saxophonist in a band that has been having a hard time finding quality gigs. Anne Dvorak plays Ted's girl, Judy Mason. When Ted's band finally gets a spot in a club of some quality, their singer falls ill. The only band member that remotely has a voice is Ted, but unfortunately he doesn't have much volume. When he gets up to sing, nobody can hear him.As a joke, a passing drunk (Guy Kibbee) gives him a megaphone and he becomes a sensation, particularly with the ladies.

Time passes, and Ted becomes a big star with his ego growing to match. The best parts of the film are the small anecdotes and scenes that accompany the main story, which is actually quite mundane. For example, after Ted's fame increases, he's singing at a club where he runs into the original drunk that gave him the megaphone. Kibbee yells up to Ted that he's the guy who gave him the megaphone that first night where he is promptly rebuffed by a now self-important Ted. Kibbee responds by saying "I'm sorry fella, I would have never have done it if I'd have known that you'd turn out like this". Kibbee seldom had starring vehicles of his own, but his antics sure could spice up a movie.

There's also a humorous scene where Ted stands up to sing and the effect on the nightclub's wash rooms is shown. In the ladies' room the place empties as the girls rush out to see Ted sing, while the mens' room becomes full of the ladies' neglected and ignored dates. At a nearby table a willowish wisp of a man says that he thinks Ted is divine, while his husky female companion barks back that she thinks he's lousy.

There is also the legend that the part of Ted was slated to be Dick Powell's first film role, and it's interesting to think how he might have done the role differently, though I think David Manners does a wonderful job with what was obviously meant to be one of Warners' B film efforts.

Teddy Taylor (David Manners) leads a struggling band looking for a big break. That break comes through serendipity when a drunk (Guy Kibbee) dances past the band stand and mockingly hands him a megaphone to project. In no time he's "making the charts and the girls are tearing him apart." With overnight success Teddy's demeanor goes from team player to prima donna causing a huge rift between him band members, agent and girl friend (Ann Dvorak).

Crooner is a rather benign story about the pitfalls of instant stardom and the virtues of humility. The handsome Manners is surprisingly effective in the transitioning and there's some light comedy and catchy tunes to keep one's attention. Still, I can't help but wonder if this is a veiled attempt to expose the out of control ego of one of the day's big time crooners. The megaphone prop would suggest Rudy Vallee but it was no secret back then that Bing Crosby dumped his back up band and went on to solo super-stardom.