The Broken Melody

Paul Verlaine (John Garrick) is a struggling young composer in Paris. Most folks have little interest in his work, however, he's spotted by a rich and spoiled brat (Margot Grahame) who takes him under her wing. Despite the wonderful (but awful singing) Germanine (Merle Oberon) loving him, he is lured to the rich lady who he thinks loves him. However, their marriage soon sours and she begins cheating on him and partying all night long. During this time, he's amazingly dense until he happens to catch her with one of her lovers--then bad things happen.

As I sat and watched "The Broken Melody" (a.k.a. "Vagabond Violinist"), I had to really struggle to keep paying attention. It's because despite the subject matter, the movie was incredibly dull. Part of it was the very emotionless acting, part of it was sloppy direction and part of it was because the film lacked any sort of punch. Even when the main character was sent to Devil's Island, the film seemed amazingly uninteresting. Much of it was because Paul seemed quite dumb and difficult to like. The most likable was Germaine, but she sang like a cow caught in an electric fence. Overall, an incredibly dated and dull film from start to finish. The only fun I had was listening to some of the characters forget their French accents in some scenes only to pick it up in the next!

Although she's only third billed here Merle Oberon is the main reason to see The Broken Melody. She plays the faithful girl friend of composer John Garrick who gets himself in quite a jackpot.

Garrick lives at the boardinghouse run by Oberon's father and both work singing and serving at a cheap Paris cafe. One night musical star Margot Grahame drops in and sees Garrick as her latest boy toy. Before you know it they're wed and she's given birth to their son.

She tires of him quickly after a musical he wrote flops and shows him the way out. He responds by killing her paramour which wins him a trip to Devil's Island.

The whole melodrama is told in flashback by Austin Trevor who thinks he recognizes Garrick on stage while Trevor is at the theater. What happens is for you to watch the movie for.

Garrick sings well, I assume Oberon and Grahame are dubbed. But he truly is stiff. Tyrone Power would have been great in the role.

The ending? Watch the John Garfield classic They Made Me A Criminal for a hint.

When I was about twelve years old, I saw "The Broken Melody" on TV and I thought it was absolutely wonderful. It was very romantic and had some really lovely music. From that day onwards I looked forward to seeing it again.

For years I looked in the TV listings but it never came up. And then, the other day, it occurred to me that there might be a DVD available. So I looked on Amazon . . . and there was! I was so thrilled. I sent off for it and it arrived quite quickly. I sat down to watch it . . . and quite quickly realised why it had never been shown again on TV. It must be one of the worst movies ever made!!! It's not so much romantic as melodramatic. The music is nothing special. The acting is criminal - it's set in France so there's one character with an accent so thick you could cut it with a knife, one or two with slight accents and the hero and heroine have 'cut glass' 'fratefully frateful' accents.

The story is ludicrous and the ending so sentimental that I could hardly bring myself to watch. But it's left me wondering how a relatively bright twelve year old (ie me!) could have thought it such a wonderful movie!

Disappointing to see this film receive so many poor reviews. Don't forget it was made not long after talkies became a reality, so technically its not really going to excite you with innovations or receive any accolades. However the acting and the emotional drama sparkles through. Admittedly, the Devil's Island section is wholly morose and casts a shadow on the movie's brisk pace, but generally it excels in cliff hanging surprises (for that Hollywood period anyway). The songs are nostalgic and typical of the period, so you'll enjoy them if you are familiar with the music of the period. Merle Oberon is a stunning beauty as usual and makes this film well worth watching if for no other reason.

Paul (John Garrick) and Germaine (Merle Oberon) are young friends, working to make ends meet. Germaine works in a cafe while Paul struggles to make it as a composer. Germaine encourages Paul to write popular music instead, assuring him that it will make him more money than serious classical compositions. In her heart she wants him to succeed because she is in love with him, but he's too engrossed in his music to notice.

Germaine's advice proves fruitful when Paul plays his music at the cafe, and is noticed by Simone St. Clair, a famous stage actress (Margot Grahame) who is dining there. Margot takes him under wing and they quickly develop a relationship, much to Germaine's disappointment. After many ups and downs, Paul begins to question whether his life has really unfolded in the way he wanted it. Revisiting his old stomping ground brings Germaine back into his life. The emotional last few scenes bring the story to its bittersweet end.

This is a fine film, with interesting characters and high quality acting. It's not one of Oberon's strongest performances, but enjoyable nonetheless and a must-see for Oberon fans. Neither John Garrick or Margot Grahame went on to very impressive things, but it was just the tip of the iceberg for Merle Oberon, who went on to many fantastic projects such as "Wuthering Heights", " These Three" and "The Divorce of Lady X".