Metropolitan

Lawrence Tibbett's penultimate film. Oscar-nominated star of early talkies and 30s films is almost forgotten now. Good little film with terrific cast. Virginia Bruce, Alice Brady, Cesar Romero, Jane Darwell, Jessie Ralph, George Marion, Luis Alberni, Walter Brennan, Thurston Hall, Etienne Girardot, Mary Gordon are all familiar faces. Tibbett plays struggling singer who breaks free from dominating star, Brady. Several good arias and some nice cinematography. And it's not often you hear anyone referred to as "monkey wrench girl!"

Metropolitan, what can I say? A real musical treat of a film. The story is not exactly familiar territory, but the production values for example are really well done, with lovely lighting, exquisite costumes and spacious settings. Even better is the music, a real treasure trove of operatic highlights especially Largo Al Factotum, Pagliacci and The Toreador's Song. Even better than that is the performance of Lawrence Tibbet, he doesn't quite have the looks of Nelson Eddy for example but what more than compensates is his exciting presence on film and his enormously resonant voice. Virginia Bruce and Alice Brady both look alluring and sing beautifully, although Bruce's Micaela sometimes lacks warmth and this detracts from the poignancy of the role. Overall, for fans of Lawrence Tibbett and opera this is a real delight. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Darryl Zanuck's first release after the merging of his 20th Century co. and Fox studio, this features the boyish baritone, Lawrence Tibbett, in his prime. He was a busy guy in the 30s: top Metropolitan Opera star, movies, concerts, recitals and many radio appearances. The usual backstage story is played out with cheerful verve by the superior cast. Tibbett singing highlights are the famous "Figaro" aria from Barber of Seville; The Toreador Song from Bizet's Carmen; the Prologue to Pagliacci; as well as his rousing concert showpieces, "On the Road To Mandalay" and "De Glory Road: a negro spiritual." Tibbett's autobiography is titled The Glory Road.

The script for this movie is really bad, a collection of tired clichés. And that's a shame, because there is enough talent here to have made a good movie.

Lawrence Tibbett was unquestionably one of the great singers of the first part of the twentieth century, and definitely one of the first American stars of opera, along with Rosa Ponselle and Grace Moore. He was a handsome guy who could act, and he had real stage presence, which you can see in this movie.

And that is what saves this movie from being a total loss. Several of Tibbett's signature roles - Tonio in Pagliacci, Escamillo in Carmen, Figaro in the Barber of Seville - get captured here, so that we can see why he delighted opera audiences for two decades at the Met. The opera excerpts are never presented or explained, however; they just get performed, leaving most of the audience to appreciate the music, if they can, without any idea what Tibbett is singing so well. That was expecting too much, I suspect, and it's a shame, because the three excerpts are good performances that could have been integrated into the script a lot better.

We also get to see Tibbett sing two popular numbers, and they are perhaps the most striking in the movie: a setting of Kipling's "On the road to Mandalay" and the spiritual "De glory road," with both of which Tibbett does a great job. Again, however, there is no effort to integrate them into the plot. At one moment, Tibbett sings them as examples of "beauty" to other musicians. Then they're over.

There isn't much else to notice in this movie. If that is Virginia Bruce doing Micaela's aria from Carmen, she does a good job of it.

The rest is all clichés. Why, you might wonder, does the movie start with Tibbett's character leaving Bruce's character stranded in the countryside with a broken down car? That should have aggravated her to no end. Instead, she falls in love with his voice.

It never gets any better.

This marked the end of Tibbett's movie career, and you can see why. But in this case the fault was not Tibbett's. The script was the villain!

Although the music is as grand as it gets from grand opera if you see Metropolitan you will certainly recognize the backstage plot of a lot of Warner Brothers Busby Berkeley films plus a few Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland works of the let's put n a show variety.

Diva Alice Brady makes a grand gesture and walks out of the Metropolitan Opera and announces she's forming her on company. She takes promising baritone Lawrence Tibbett with her. Tibbett looking for his big break goes along, but Brady proves excessive with all her demands artistic and personal. Especially after Tibbett pays attention to promising new singer Virginia Bruce.

If you are a fan of Lawrence Tibbett he does more singing here than in any other film. It's a regular Tibbett concert as he does a great variety of work with songs from his many concert tours..

Great music if tied indeed to a routine backstage plot.