Romance in the Dark

This film is a pastiche. But then so are most operas and all operettas. Think of this as a kind of cineretta. The characters are trying to outwit each other and seduce each other and get ahead whilst singing at the same time. Duets are used to show both seduction and battle-by-personality, or voice-duels. It's a lot of fun, and not intended as a serious drama. John Barrymore manages to restrain himself from his most annoying mannerisms most of the time because he is in an ensemble situation, which meant that he could not be as mawkish and arch as when he was cast as a leading man opposite a lone actress, where no woman was safe from his roaming hands or his over-acting (and which was usually worse?), or his whiskied breath. Barrymore does not sing, which must be why no one passed out on the set. The singing is left to the others, as Barrymore is an impresario who makes or breaks them. All the gals want him to give them a contract, and he wants all the gals to do more than just sign here. The American singer born in Texas, John Boles, plays an egotistical, preening, successful Hungarian singer named Kovach. He does it very amusingly, avoiding going too far over the top, and he sings well. Gladys Swarthout, a Missouri-born opera singer who had left the Metropolitan Opera to make movies, and who was famous on the radio in the 1940s before being forced to retire through bad health in the 1950s, here charmingly plays a young singer who wishes to advance herself. Kovach (Boles) has handed her a first prize medal at her graduation from conservatory, and casually said he would like to hear her sing again and to look him up. He didn't mean it, but she takes him literally, so she goes and stands by the stage door and he doesn't notice her, she tries his house and can't get in, and eventually gets a job as his maid. By this means, having infiltrated his abode, she keeps trying to draw attention to her voice by singing, and he remains obtuse and does not notice. Events transpire in her favour, however, and he ends up appreciating her, then later falling for her. Barrymore gives her a contract, under the false impression that she is a Persian princess, and creates a huge publicity campaign about his new discovery, a Middle Eastern singing sensation (who just happens to speak Hungarian, and if you believe that you can believe anything, but anyway it's a Hollywood movie). Well, events ensue, and the ending must remain wrapped in satin, although the discerning might well imagine it. It's good fun if you are not too critical, and there is a lot of music, although much of it is rather low brow for people with genuine operatic tastes. The film is based on a play called 'The Yellow Nightingale' by the Austrian Hermann Bahr, and was filmed again in 1944 as 'Das Lied der Nachtigall' ('The Song of the Nightingale') in Bavaria during the War, presumably to lift German spirits as defeat loomed.

"Romance in the Dark" is a rather suggestive title for such an innocuous bit of fluff like this musical comedy. It seems to have been one of many attempts in the 1930's to find another Jeanette MacDonald, when studios were placing in front of the cameras Lily Pons, Grace Moore, Miliza Korjus and seemingly every diva under 250 pounds whose face would not fracture the camera lens. In this case, it was Gladys Swarthout who made four or five films before she left Hollywood.

Here, she plays a young Hungarian music student who receives a prize for outstanding graduate from her conservatory from John Boles and John Barrymore, respectively the leading opera singer and leading impresario in Budapest. She follows Boles to the capital and when he doesn't remember her, takes a job as his maid to insinuate herself into a singing career. He eventually takes note of her talent and hits upon a scheme to pass her off as a mysterious Persian prodigy to lure Barrymore into signing her while leaving the coast clear for him to woo Claire Dodds as a snooty countess both men are pursuing. Complications ensue.

The plot is foolish piffle, not to be taken seriously. Swarthout sings admirably and is attractive enough, but merely gets by as an actress. Boles gets to sing here and is livelier than in his straight acting roles, while Barrymore coasts along in support, not hamming it up as much as in some of his other later roles, with a few amusing moments. Many of the more pleasurable moments come via veteran supporting actors Fritz Feld and Curt Bois (who late in life had a role in Wim Wenders classic "Wings of Desire"). I guess what this really could have used was an Ernst Lubitsch behind the camera instead of H.C. Potter!

It occurred to me that if Paramount had really wanted to make Gladys Swarthout a film star they might have bought some proved operetta and musical comedy properties. Such things as Victor Herbert's Red Mill, Sigmund Romberg's Maryland My Maryland, and Rudolf Friml's Three Musketeers never got a film version. In fact her leading man in this film John Boles had done early versions of The Desert Song and Rio Rita. This is what MGM did for Jeanette MacDonald.

So instead Paramount took inferior properties for Gladys Swarthout and it showed. I'm convinced this is why her career in films never took off.

Romance In The Dark is a piece of fluff about a singer and an impresario who just form a natural rivalry over every woman they come across. John Boles and John Barrymore play these roles and currently they're both in heat over Claire Dodd who with Helen Vinson always seemed to be getting those other woman roles. Dodd's a countess of sorts.

Boles and Barrymore hear young Gladys Swarthout sing and they say she has great promise. But that's what they tell all the girls. So when Swarthout shows up in Budapest looking to audition, both have forgotten here, but then she becomes a pawn in their little romantic games.

Watching Romance In The Dark I thought the pair of them, Boles and Barrymore a pair of egotistical fools. I guess only a girl first looking for a big break and then in love would have put up with either of these jerks.

The musical interludes were nice but with stories like these Paramount showed they were not handling Swarthout right.

Paramount's main musical films were those of Bing Crosby which relied on Bing's unique personality to put them over. Apparently they had trouble musically with anything else.

John Barrymore is the reason I tracked down this lesser-known film. The story itself is B or C-grade. John Boles gets to show off his own singing ability on film as an opera singer who is competing with John Barrymore's impresario character for the attentions of Claire Dodd. Her character comes across very icy and doesn't seem worth fighting over. Meanwhile an opera singer eager for fame, Gladys Swarthout, drives the screwball comedy element of the film. She poses as a maid and Middle Eastern princess, and Boles hopes her marketability will distract Barrymore from Dodd. Swarthout's character is the only one I felt anything for.

For me, the best part of the film was seeing John Barrymore without his moustache! He has it shaven off early in the film and suddenly looks like his 1920s films again. It's like silent movie Jack, looking a bit older and with less hair, but wonderfully attractive. Unfortunately, he gets very few opportunities to do any scene-stealing.

This film is only worth seeing if one of the actors is among your favorites. Clean-shaven Jack Barrymore is the sole reason I will watch this again. I just wish he'd had more screen time.