Lord Byron of Broadway

Don't let some ol' sourpusses diminish the charm of this admittedly antique musical. For those who find early sound musicals innately fascinating, this one is a key film, particularly for the two-strip Technicolor sequences. And the music is very, very evocative of the era. I'm glad we have such early films available on TCM, since they don't deserve obscurity, whatever their dated qualities. There >is< definitely something to like about this film, which is unfortunately at the mercy of sometimes ignorant and unforgiving 21st century sensibilities. Look beyond the hokey acting and let the authentic feel and sound of the late '20s cast a unique spell. It's still worth a visit.

This is a movie musical from 1930 so expect very static scenes as the sound equipment in those days greatly limited the actors and director. Second, let me caution that the actor in the lead male role and the two actresses in the top female roles are often blushingly amateurish. The director didn't seem to be much help and in a few years he would be at Monogram doing routine programmers.

So what's worthwhile here? First there is the performance of Cliff Edwards, who gets a chance at a full-bodied role and does well. He shows he could be more than a Disney footnote.

But the biggest surprise to me was the fine, natural performance of Benny Rubin. I was so accustomed to him as an aging ethnic comedian that I almost didn't recognize him. The role was flash-flash "Jewish" as he played an employee of a song publisher and he joked about charging the hero interest for a loan. But he was the most natural presence on the screen and he shined as a real human being. The camera loved him at the same time it gave scant grace to the leads in this film.

Rubin is often mentioned as a talented comedian who was limited in Hollywood by the ethnic prejudice. Here we see the very real evidence of what was lost because of that prejudice.

This backstage musical a la THE Broadway MELODY about love and angst behind the footlights was based on a famously nasty novel by Nell Martin. Haines and Love balked at the idea of playing in such a nasty plot so MGM had it re-written (watered down) and brought in stage stars Charles Kaley and Ethelind Terry, and ingenue Marion Shilling. Creaky and a little slow in places but very interesting for the music and the 2-strip Technicolor.

Kaley (who slightly resembles Haines) plays a user. He latches on to anyone or anything that will get him ahead. He uses women (Shilling and Gwen Lee) as well as his partner (Cliff Edwards). But while he meets his match in the grasping Ethelind Terry (the original star of RIO RITA on Broadway), he's not the one who pays.

One good song: "Should I" which one used in SINGIN'IN THE RAIN decades later. Co-stars included Benny Rubin, Drew Demorest, Eddie Kane, Rita Flynn, and the voice of Jack Benny. Ann Dvorak is in the chorus.

Shilling and Edwards, perhaps, come off best.

If the name of Ukulele Ike makes you smile with informed warmth, you may want to give a quick flip past "Lord Byron of Broadway" when TCM replays it in thirty years or so. If you're obsessive-compulsive enough to wait out scene after scene of tepid love talk for two-strip Technicolor Albertina Rasch dance routines, or lesser-known Nacio Herb Brown songs trilled by operetta-singing stiffs, you may even sit thru a good portion of it. But whatever you bring to it, be warned that you cannot possibly like this picture.

Even to the 1929 audience, "Lord Byron" must have been a bland plate of turkey indeed. The color dance numbers aren't too bad to look at - Mme. Rasch owed a debt to Busby The Great, or maybe vice versa - but listening to the draggy, chirpy musical settings is painful even if you love the music of the 20s. And if the name of lead actor and grade-B recording star Charles Kaley means anything at all to you, you've watched entirely too much Joe Franklin. Or perhaps you ARE Joe Franklin.

Strictly for nostalgia nerds, this, and even for them, it's not all that rewarding.

LORD BYRON OF Broadway (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1930), directed by William Nigh and Harry Beaumont, turns out to be another one of the studio's musical contributions to "The Broadway Melody" (1929) mode. With the title leaving the impression of a British Lord achieving fame and fortune on the Broadway stage, it's actually a scripted story from the novel by Nell Martin dealing with an American songwriter and the women and tunes in his life. While this production could have been a reunion for its "Broadway Melody" stars of Charles King, Bessie Love and Anita Page, MGM placed another singing Charles in the lead, Charles Kaley, accompanied by Broadway veteran, Ethelind Terry, and Marion Shilling as his female co-stars. As with many early musicals featuring star named performers from the theater making their mark in motion pictures, the names of Kaley and Terry just didn't go any further than this film. As much as they separately appeared later in short subjects and an obscure western film into the thirties, LORD BYRON OF Broadway was just another here today/gone tomorrow musical from the early sound era and nothing more.

The story introduces Roy Erskine (Charles Kaley), a piano playing songwriter coming to the Trocadero Café where he's met by another one of his rejected girlfriends, this one named Kitty, who sees him for what he actually is. With another girl out of the way, Roy encounters Bessie (Gwen Lee), a flirtatious blonde at the café. He escorts Bessie to her apartment where he not only gets an inspiration for another new song, but works fast with kiss and embrace with a woman he hardly knows. Later, Bessie introduces Roy to Mr. Millaire (John Byron), a song promoter interested in his latest composition, "Just a Bundle of Old Love Letters." In spite of her favor, Roy begins to tire and ignore Bessie. Later that night, Roy comes into a sheet music store where he immediately becomes interested in employee, Nancy Clover (Marion Shilling), who guides him through his "Love Letters" song. The song is soon introduced on the theatrical stage by Joe Lundeen (Cliff Edwards), the popular singer of songs. Roy and Nancy, who happen to be in the audience, are shocked when Lundeen credits the "Love Letters" song written by Mr. Millaire. As Roy proves he actually wrote that song, Lundeen's agent, Phil (Benny Rubin) stumbles upon a great idea by having Roy and Lundeen work as a song and dance team, with Nancy at the piano, and Roy providing his latest song hits. Now a popular vaudeville team, Roy, the ladies man, forgets his friends and spends much of it with Ardis Treyker (Ethelind Terry), a theatrical singer. After Roy and Ardis become engaged, Roy discovers his fiancé happens to still be married, and is surprised to find out the name of her husband of seven years. Also appearing in the story are Drew Demarest (Edwards, the Butler); Paulette Aqult (Marie, the Maid); Gino Corrado (Riccardi, the jealous husband); Rita Flynn and Hazel Craven, among others not credited in the cast listings.

While LORD BYRON OF Broadway gets by with its familiar plotting, the song interludes come off best. The motion picture soundtrack, credited by "Broadway Melody" composers as Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed include: "Just a Bundle of Old Love Letters" (sung by Charles Kaley); "The Japanese Sandman" and "Just a Bundle of Old Love Letters" (both sung by Cliff Edwards); "Just a Bundle of Old Love Letters" (reprise by Kaley); Untitled dance number; "Blue Daughter of Heaven" (stage production by Dmitri Tiomkin and Raymond B. Cagan, sung by James Burroughs); "Should I?" (sung by Charles Kaley); "Should I?" (sung by Ethelind Terry); "The Woman in the Shoe" (stage production sung by Ethelind Terry); and "You're the Bride and I'm the Groom" (sung by Kaley). The two production numbers, staged and filmed in color to an otherwise black and white film, are highlights to a degree. As much a some musicals of 1930 were beginning to improve in its staging by this point (as opposed to production numbers from 1929 with ensembles doing card-wheels or flip-flops), "The Japanese Sandman," for instance, is a predate to the Busby Berkeley numbers of the 1930s with chorus girls in circular revolving floors doing formations captured by camera from top of the stage. Yet, this production is credited not by Berkeley but to Sammy Lee, with ballet sequences by Albertine Rasch. "The Woman in the Shoe" is another color staged production that comes later in the story. Of the bundle of songs vocalized, "Should I?" is well received, considering it was the same score used in parts of the silent film production of OUR MODERN MAIDENS (MGM, 1929) starring Joan Crawford.

Though Kaley sings and acts his part well, like Charles King from "The Broadway Melody," they would only become associated only with early sound musicals during the 1929-30 season and nothing else. Ethelind Terry, better known for her stage role in the Florenz Ziegfeld musical, RIO RITA, receives second billing, yet surprisingly comes 40 minutes into this 70 minute story. One would assume it would be Ethelind as the good girl rather than the third-billed Marion Shilling, the actual co-star of the story. The only familiar faces seen here are Benny Rubin (with that distinctive laugh) and Cliff Edwards, considering their extended movie and later television roles, even if their latter day careers were far from major. Edwards, however, usually associated with singing and comedy routines, is quite effective with good when serious, especially during his showdown scenes with song and dance partner, Kaley.

With the exception of rare revivals in theatrical movie houses as Theater 80/St Marks in the 1970s, LORD BYRON OF Broadway remains virtually forgotten and unknown today, even with occasional cable television showings on Turner Classic Movies and availability on home video and DVD. It may not have been theatrically successful in 1930, LORD BYRON OF Broadway somehow holds interest for film buffs, even with the now lacking of better-known names heading in the cast. (**)