Stars Over Broadway

Pat O'Brien is a washed up talent manager who meets a singing hotel porter (James Melton) in "Stars Over Broadway," a 1935 film from Warner Brothers. The film also stars Jean Muir and Jane Froman.

O'Brien is Al McGillevray, a broke manager, who, as he's contemplating suicide, hears a porter sing and decides to take him on. The tenor's stage name becomes "Jan King," and his rise to fame is a bit too fast. He starts to enjoy his social life and the accompanying alcohol more than the high notes. Adding to the problem is that Al has fallen for an ambitious young singer (Jean Muir) who wants him to manage her.

O'Brien does a great job as a man trying to work out his life and what it is that he really wants. The surprise for me here was Jane Froman, whom I only knew from the film "With a Song in My Heart," in which she was portrayed by Susan Hayward. Froman is not only absolutely gorgeous, but her lush voice is equally beautiful (I did at least remember that she was a wonderful singer). In 1943, she was in a horrible plane crash and almost had to have her leg amputated, though she kept on entertaining. Why she wasn't featured in films more before her accident is beyond me.

The career trajectory of the tenor in the film actually matches James Melton's, minus the booze. He started out as a popular singer, but during the Depression, his kind of high, bright singing voice went out of style and was replaced by the more baritone sounds from the likes of Bing Crosby and Russ Columbo. Already classically trained, Melton returned to his operatic roots, eventually making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Tamino in "The Magic Flute." Tamino would be a signature role for him at the Met, and he also performed the tenor roles in Lucia, Don Giovanni, Mignon, La Traviata, and Madama Butterfly during his 8 years there. Melton continued to have a great career later in concerts and clubs. He was very pleasant looking and a nice personality, so it's no wonder he was picked up for films, however briefly. In the movie, he sings several songs that were mainstays of his concerts as well as "Celeste Aida," in which he sounds fabulous.

Entertaining, and if you like beautiful singing, you'll enjoy "Stars Over Broadway."

This opens with a Jack Dempsey cameo at his restaurant near Madison Square Garden where dramatic heavyweights O'Brien and McHugh make the scene. From this promising start the music takes over. Muir and Miller are added as love interests to support the acting side of the equation. Keighley keeps the plot flowing around the musical obstructions. McHugh's considerable talent is jammed into the comic role. The star O'Brien is boxed in as a dour talent manager. But given there exists only a finite number of these appearances of the two together, we'll take it. Muir and Miller provide the softer side of Depression hardship. In the Orry-Kelly fashions, Froman is the most impressive.

Hoary old chestnut about the rush to stardom, losing control when you're at the top and setting things right. If you're a fan of light opera than you'll enjoy Melton's singing but his acting is strictly dinner theatre quality and he photographs like a cross between Dagwood Bumstead and a shiny lemon.

Fortunately the film has Pat O'Brien, Frank McHugh and Marie Wilson to inject some life into the proceedings but even with them it's an average affair.

The real reason to catch this is the presence of Jane Froman in the cast. The singer famed for her war work and catastrophic accident immortalized in With a Song in My Heart didn't make many films and while this one isn't much she sings beautifully.

This begins with failed agent Pat O'Brien planning his suicide. A porter in his building catches his ear with his cowboy song. Could this be the new star to make his name and fortune? The porter is James Melton, who soon is taken to an operatic vocal coach presciently named Menotti. Menotti sees him as someone who could be a star at the Met with five years of training and Melton's "Celeste Aida" is sung in a fine tenor.

O'Brien wants quick results, though, and betrays him, making him a more popular-style singer who can rake in the bucks. He does and stardom goes to his head but he takes to the sauce, betraying O'Brien in return.

This is not the first time I've seen O'Brien in a role that suggests gay or closeted gay feelings. The reconciliation between these two is strange indeed for a scene between two men in a mid-thirties movie.

O'Brien wants to make a star of Jean Muir, too, but Menotti hears her "Ave Marie" sung in church and doesn't think she has the goods. She and O'Brien end up together but the movie is really about his and Melton's characters.

It is dark and quite elegant, a touching movie whose title has little to do with it and is misleading. Perhaps O'Brien smiles once but if so, it is the exception rather than the rule. His performance is subdued and he seems beaten down.

JAMES MELTON was a great tenor who never had much of a movie career and JANE FROMAN's fate in a plane crash made it impossible for her to pursue a career in films. She's very lovely and has a warm, appealing contralto voice. Melton, despite the fine pipes, lacks the charisma of a movie star in his role as a porter discovered by PAT O'BRIEN and turned into a successful radio star.

He handles his singing chores with professional ease but there's not much to be said about his bland acting. It's another story about the discovery of a new singing star while his manager makes personal sacrifices for the sake of new talent. FRANK McHUGH and MARIE Wilson offer some comedy support (not enough), and JEAN MUIR is colorless in a minor role as an aspiring singer who catches O'Brien's eye.

Melton's quick rise to stardom is too much for him and he has to be straightened out by manager O'Brien and friends when his drinking gets out of hand. The story limps toward a dramatic conclusion, but it's no use. None of it is the least bit convincing and the only lasting impression is made by JANE FROMAN, graceful and charming in a brief role.

Melton would return to the Metropolitan Opera and concert engagements, making another rare appearance in MGM's Technicolored ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF 1946, singing an aria from "La Traviata" and continuing success on the stage of opera houses and occasional TV appearances on shows like "The Bell Telephone Hour"--but the movies never turned out to be his medium and he never made the sort of impression in operatic roles that other operatic singers did (like NELSON EDDY or MARIO LANZA).