A Good Talkie Debut For Ramon Novarro
Bonaparte goes to Elba and loyalist Ramon Novarro goes to prison. He promptly escapes and takes refuge with Marion Harris, who loves him despite her being a royalist. He, however, has eyes only for her cousin, Dorothy Jordan, whom he woos, despite pretending to be a lackey.
MGM spared no expense for Novarro's talkie debut, with operetta songs, two-strip Technicolor ballet sequences with music by Dmitri Tiomkin, and Sidney Franklin as director. The singing voices are a bit thin, although whether that's because of MGM's sound systems or the singers, it's hard to say. Still, everyone works hard, the visuals are top-notch, and I am told Ann Dvorak is a chorine in the rather battered Technicolor sequence. For a 1929 musical, it's pretty good.
MGM spared no expense for Novarro's talkie debut, with operetta songs, two-strip Technicolor ballet sequences with music by Dmitri Tiomkin, and Sidney Franklin as director. The singing voices are a bit thin, although whether that's because of MGM's sound systems or the singers, it's hard to say. Still, everyone works hard, the visuals are top-notch, and I am told Ann Dvorak is a chorine in the rather battered Technicolor sequence. For a 1929 musical, it's pretty good.
- boblipton
- Aug 11, 2021