O Rei Vagabundo

This 1930 talkie is a bit creaky and director Berger doesn't seem to have the skills to really bring it to life. Still, one can see the great production values, the sets, costumes -- the staging is often quite impressive and the camera has occasional fluidity. MacDonald is singing in what I refer to as the "early Jeanette voice" -- not as full and rich as in her MGM films, but still lovely and sweet on the high notes. She seems to still be learning her screen acting technique (this is only her second film) -- she's not the great emotional actress she became later on. I imagine if one could see this film in the original two-toned technicolor it could be quite mesmerizing. Dennis King is a bit strident in the lead. Lillian Roth has the look of Huguette, but doesn't have the style of singing to pull of "The Vagabond Waltz". Highlights and Jeanette's renditions of "Only and Rose" and "Someday".

I have seen The Vagabond King (1930) twice on the big screen, in the restored two-strip Technicolor version and it is gorgeous. It is like a Rembrandt painting which moves, with lots of dark, muted colors which evoke the medieval setting. The smaller size of the film studio orchestras at this time (compared with symphonic proportions later on), and the stage-bound camera-work typical of early talkies, combine with the acting style of Dennis King and the rest of the cast, to give the modern viewer a sense of seeing this great musical on stage. In fact, a film such as this, I believe ought to be compared to stage productions or other films of the period, more than to later films. Dennis King's Shakepearian delivery and legitimate baritone singing voice would seem out of place in a later film, where subtlety would reign. How fortunate, then, that we have such a fine document from the Broadway creator of the role. Jeanette MacDonald fairly glows in this, her second film, and gives a haunting delivery of Only a Rose. As a fan of early stage and film musicals and the 1920s era in general, I highly recommend this film in the color version.

King Louis XI of France (the competent O. P. Heggie) hasn't his problems to seek. The Burgundians are at the gates of Paris and his subjects within are all a bit disgruntled. They are being stirred up by the rebellious poet "Villon" (Dennis King) who repeatedly suggests that Louis is an incompetent fool. He voices those opinions a bit too freely one evening and finds himself arrested by none other than the King himself. Hanged? Well, the rather shrewd monarch decides to see if this loudmouth can do any better. He ennobles him, puts him in charge and tells him his survival depends on him defeating the marauders outside the city walls. Meantime, his time in the palace introduces him to "Katherine" (Jeanette MacDonald) with whom he quickly becomes smitten. Now he has to save the city, get the girl and, ideally, avoid the gallows! It's quite good fun this, when it concentrates on the action. There is some acrobatic sword fencing and great ensemble fight scenes with tables and chairs and bottles used to full effect. The singing, though - well we had to have it, but the mediocre songs do rather break up the pace and there isn't really much chemistry between the rather hammy King and an off-form and pretty unremarkably flat MacDonald. It does look great though, with some stylish and authentic looking scenarios presented, but in the end I was a bit disappointed with this rather muddled historical adventure.

Considering the major names involved (in addition to the performers, it was an early screen adaptation from Herman J.

Mankiewicz!) in this fine reflection of the popular 1925 operetta, it's high time we had a good Technicolor restoration done and issued on DVD.

Jeanette MacDonald as the female lead is, perforce, secondary to the slightly "over the top" Dennis King recreating his starring Broadway role (511 performances at the Casino Theatre), but she gives a pure portrait of the King's niece much more honest and appealing than her later over blown "acting" in the Nelson Eddy screen operettas of the late 30's and 40's.

Lillian Roth's Huguette is more throaty than many familiar with the character's beautiful Rudolf Friml music may be used to, but her acting is impeccable and quite moving. Additionally, the chance to see 20th Century Fox's first major "Charlie Chan," Swedish actor Werner Oland, in another perspective entirely as Thibault, is not to be missed for any fan of Earl Derr Biggers' famous sleuth.

While, after the painful Hollywood custom, much of the rousing score has been sacrificed in the film's fast moving 104 minutes (only 100 surviving in the TV print I've seen), most of the best, "Some Day," "Only A Rose," "Huguette Waltz" and of course, "Song of the Vagabond" are here in fine form. Certainly preferable in this relatively faithful form than the bland 1956 remake. It's an exciting alternative to the fine (if music-less) 1938 Ronald Colman film drawn from The Vagabond King's source material: "If I Were King."

Depression era audiences often sought escape from the harsh realities of the events of that decade. One the least expensive and convenient forms of escape for them was going to the movies. Many went to movies three or more times a week. There was no television in the 1930s, and radio was the only other form of mass entertainment. But there was nothing like going to the movies and escaping reality visually. The Vagabond King goes to extreme lengths to escape reality, as very little in the film was ever likely to happen in real life. Despite that, audiences ate up the fantasy and a good time was had by all. The plot is silly, but who cares? It's Hollywood!