The Vagabond Lover

Let's face it, as a movie, this is not persuasive. The principles of enunciating for the stage simply overwhelm the intimate sonics that even this incredibly early talkie were capable of producing. Almost immediately, subsequent movie directors understood the difference between stage and screen and made the corrections. Still, it's hard to believe that some of these scenes could not have been re-shot with more natural acting, once they saw the rushes. (I'm thinking they simply didn't think the delivery of lines would be that important in talkies. "Hey, they're talking! Ain't that enough?")

The music is another matter. Yes, this is not jazz as the revisionist historians would have us understand it (i.e., a largely black phenomenon, with only the most perceptive whites getting it). But it's a mere 30 years from the Gay 90s (that's 1890's) song revolution, and the tug of the sentimental ditty still reached out to 1929 the way early rock still has its effect on rock in the new millennium. Don't judge it harshly. Music like this was an important bridge to the wider American public's tolerance, then acceptance, and finally love of what we now think of as a more pure form of jazz.

Marie Dressler, born 5 years after the end of the Civil War, turns in a stunning performance. All the faces she makes while pushing away the maid's efforts to use smelling salts on her -- pure virtuosity, all done in the blink of an eye. But she can't save the movie entirely. All those shots of wooden Rudy and his entourage -- I've seen more life in the Petrified Forest.

On Long Island, crooner Rudy Vallee and His Connecticut Yankees are mistaken for a more famous band, by neighboring socialite Marie Dressler (as Mrs. Whitehall). The ruse, which started innocently, goes too far, and threatens Mr. Vallee's budding relationship with Ms. Dressler's niece, Sally Blane (as Jean Whitehall). It all works out while Vallee sings several songs, including "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" and "A Little Kiss Each Morning (A Little Kiss Each Night)".

"The Vagabond Lover" does not capture the Vallee hysteria, unfortunately. It is his first feature length film. The songs are stylistically representative, but dull; "Honey" had already appeared in a "short", and the film was completed too early for "The Stein Song" to be included. Ms. Blane (Loretta Young's sister) is very pretty; but, the most beautiful woman in the film is most definitely Dressler. It is her first feature length sound film. Later, Vallee would become a surprisingly effective (considering this performance) character actor.

**** The Vagabond Lover (1929) Marshall Neilan ~ Rudy Vallee, Sally Blane, Marie Dressler

Rudy Vallee's first feature film and his first starring role is badly hurt by many of the acting problems: both he and his co-star Sally Blane seem to be mouthing their lines and fail to pick up on their cues, and Malcolm Waite flubs some lines which were not reshot. I was conscious of the bad acting throughout. However, the old pros, Marie Dressler, Charles Sellon and Nella Walker do fine, with Dressler a standout. She seems to have an ability to contort her face into any position, and with her expressive eyes is a joy to watch.

The plentiful music is mostly enjoyable with Vallee singing most of the songs, which include the popular ballads "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover," "You're Nobody's Sweetheart Now," and "If You Were the Only Girl in the World." I particularly liked a quartet of cute 5-to-7-year-old orphans singing "Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie." So the film is a mixed bag, but Rudy Vallee fans will surely enjoy it.

The Vagabond Lover is a historic film as it was the first to showcase a current popular radio star as its lead. In 1929 Rudy Vallee was the number radio crooner in the country and as such brought a built in audience to the theaters. That he hadn't quite got down the technique of acting period, let alone film acting was incidental for this film with its very slight plot.

Rudy and his band The Connecticut Yankees play a second tier orchestra looking for a break. Rudy persuades them to break into the home of a noted leader and idol and audition even after he was rebuffed. When they're caught by the local constable Charles Sellon, they pretend the famous orchestra leader and his group and have to continue the deception right up to playing in a charity event organized by society grande dame Marie Dressler and her daughter Sally Blane. Of course it all works out in the end.

The film didn't launch Vallee as a movie idol, his his ascetic personality just didn't work for a leading man. This film was done for RKO and later Warner Brothers tried twice to make a leading man of him with Sweet Music and Golddiggers in Paris and failed.

The songs were taken from what Vallee had made popular on his radio program and they included such hits as A Little Kiss Each Morning and the title song. This was probably wise because I'm sure the producers knew this man was not an actor, yet. It would take Preston Sturges who cast Vallee in several of his films to make use of his unique personality and style in great series of character roles. After that curiously enough Vallee rarely sang in films, but still continued as a radio performer. By this time it was the Forties and people like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, and Dick Haymes were crowding Vallee and earlier singers for public attention including Vallee's chief rival Bing Crosby.

If you like Rudy Vallee's singing as I do, by all means catch The Vagabond Lover, but realize you will not see the Rudy Vallee you might remember from later work.

"The Vagabond Lover" could be considered the perfect example of the early-talkie. The acting by Mr. Vallee is rather non-exsistant, but his singing and the music is quite pleasant, and the performance by the great Marie Dressler as "Auntie" makes up for the rest. The photography is very representative of the early sound era, with the actors grouped around a hidden mike with hordes of people in the frame. The sound itself is remarkably good, maybe the best remaining example of early sound recording. There is one chorus number which has a brief overhead shot of the type that Busby Berkely would make famous a year later in "Whoopee!". The film is a brief 65 minutes in length, and it is a rather modest black-and-white production, but it remains a telling window into the 1920s, with it's fashions, music and such. This was also one of the most profitable films of the year for the fledgling Radio Pictures, a new company set up that year to take advantage of the RCA Photophone system. The DVD has a rather dry commentary prolouge by a UCLA film specialist which appears to be taped in his apartment. Rather poorly edited, this feature is easy to skip on the DVD, once you have seen it once. Other players featured in this include Loretta Young's sister, Sally Blane, Eddie Nugent and especially Nella Walker, as Marie Dressler's rival for social prominence. The story, by James Ashmore Creelman, was purportedly based on Mr. Vallee's own carrer.