The Vagabond Lover

After about a year on my Netflix wait list when this was previously listed as "long wait", I finally got this in the mail. Among the extras was a PSA about pollution with children (don't ask), Ch. 1 of a Zorro serial, and a talking piece with Rudy Vallee's widow. When clicking on the movie proper, it was introed by a Michael Young, a representative of a film school. The picture itself was a pretty good print for the most part. Knowing this was an early talkie, I found much of the dialogue to seem stilted as performed but when the Marie Dressler character was making faces near the end, I was highly amused by that part. Vallee himself wasn't much of an actor, at least not here, but his singing was quite smoothly compelling, even in today's terms though of course, his kind of music is not in vogue right now. Sally Blane, Loretta Young's sister, is quite a luminous presence, if nothing else. Overall, I liked The Vagabond Lover especially since it happened to be quite brief (65 minutes) compared to some of today's short features when the least running time would maybe just be 90 minutes.

Most folks watching "The Vagabond Lover" today would probably dislike it or at best tolerate it. However, given the context for the film, it is a pretty good film. That's because the early talking pictures had horrible sound--just horrible. Much of the action was stuck around hidden microphones--and the films seemed stiff and unnatural. Additionally, the sound quality was just awful in many of the film (the best example "Coquette"--the film that earned Mary Pickford an Oscar). However, "The Vagabond Lover" is less stagy and stiff and the sound quality is marvelous for such an early film. I am sure some of this is due to the restoration of the film by Roan. Regardless, it's a rare DVD because I didn't need captions in order to understand what the folks were saying--which is good, as it came with none.

This film is the first full-length film for Rudy Vallee, though he made two shorts (where he and his band just performed in front of a camera) earlier in 1929. Because he was brand-new to film (as well as to music, as he'd only been a nation-wide sensation for about a year), I can cut him some slack here. While he became an excellent supporting actor in such films as "Palm Beach Story" and "Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer", here in "The Vagabond Lover" he really is pretty stiff and bland. But, so were almost ALL singers in 1929! Flat, stilted acting was pretty common in the day and more naturalistic performances were still to come in the 1930s. The same can be said for the dance numbers--pretty crummy when seen today, but for 1929, not bad at all.

The story finds Vallee and his band (The Connecticut Yankees) out of work--and no one will hire them. They know they are good but just getting someone to LISTEN to them is the problem. So, they concoct a stupid plan--to break into the home of a famous musician, Ted Grant, and perform for him!! This insanely irrational plan really goes unexpectedly poorly when the neighbor (Marie Dressler) sees them break in and calls the police. One of the band members comes up with an even more insane solution--to tell the cops and the neighbor that Vallee IS Ted Grant. They do believe them but this creates another problem with this goofy society lady (Dressler) insists that they MUST perform at a local benefit. They cannot say no and it's not at all surprising that Grant learns that SOMEONE is using his name! What will come of all this as well as Vallee's budding romance with the dippy society matron's daughter (Sally Blane)?

Despite Vallee's stiffness, the weakest part of the film, for me, was actually Dressler. While some of the reviewers really liked her (and some thought she was the best thing in the film), I thought her acting was about as subtle as a stripper at a Baptist picnic! Her later wonderful acting (like she did in "Dinner at Eight") was not apparent. Here she was far, far from subtle and dialing back her goofy performance a bit would have helped. Now I have said a lot about the shortcomings of the film, but there are also some nice things apart from the great sound. The plot, though heavily used in later years, works well and some of the band members were really relaxed on film. Plus, the film IS fun. So, while compared to a 1935 or 1940 film it's very weak, for 1929, it's actually quite nice and worth seeing if you, like me, adore old films.

Rudy Vallee's first feature film and his first starring role is badly hurt by many of the acting problems: both he and his co-star Sally Blane seem to be mouthing their lines and fail to pick up on their cues, and Malcolm Waite flubs some lines which were not reshot. I was conscious of the bad acting throughout. However, the old pros, Marie Dressler, Charles Sellon and Nella Walker do fine, with Dressler a standout. She seems to have an ability to contort her face into any position, and with her expressive eyes is a joy to watch.

The plentiful music is mostly enjoyable with Vallee singing most of the songs, which include the popular ballads "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover," "You're Nobody's Sweetheart Now," and "If You Were the Only Girl in the World." I particularly liked a quartet of cute 5-to-7-year-old orphans singing "Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie." So the film is a mixed bag, but Rudy Vallee fans will surely enjoy it.

"The Vagabond Lover" could be considered the perfect example of the early-talkie. The acting by Mr. Vallee is rather non-exsistant, but his singing and the music is quite pleasant, and the performance by the great Marie Dressler as "Auntie" makes up for the rest. The photography is very representative of the early sound era, with the actors grouped around a hidden mike with hordes of people in the frame. The sound itself is remarkably good, maybe the best remaining example of early sound recording. There is one chorus number which has a brief overhead shot of the type that Busby Berkely would make famous a year later in "Whoopee!". The film is a brief 65 minutes in length, and it is a rather modest black-and-white production, but it remains a telling window into the 1920s, with it's fashions, music and such. This was also one of the most profitable films of the year for the fledgling Radio Pictures, a new company set up that year to take advantage of the RCA Photophone system. The DVD has a rather dry commentary prolouge by a UCLA film specialist which appears to be taped in his apartment. Rather poorly edited, this feature is easy to skip on the DVD, once you have seen it once. Other players featured in this include Loretta Young's sister, Sally Blane, Eddie Nugent and especially Nella Walker, as Marie Dressler's rival for social prominence. The story, by James Ashmore Creelman, was purportedly based on Mr. Vallee's own carrer.

This film is for those who are interested in early talkies, and early talkie musicals in particular. If you are not in that group, then skip this film.

The plot has Rudy Bronson (Valee) and his band going to Long Island to attempt to audition for Ted Grant, who has loaned his name to a musical correspondence course that Bronson took and according to a newspaper clipping is looking for new talent. Promptly thrown out by the butler, the band members decide to break into Grant's home through the garden entrance, set up their instruments, and play for Grant anyway. However, Grant has already left to go back to New York. A series of misunderstandings has Bronson mistaken for the famous Grant by a neighbor, Mrs. Ethel Bertha Whitehall (Marie Dressler). A series of musical performances and comic misunderstandings later, and Mrs. Whitehall's niece has fallen for Bronson, with everyone still thinking he is Ted Grant. However will he get out of this dilemma?

The musical performances are quite good and include several big hits of that time including the title song which Valee also performs in "Glorifying the American Girl" which also came out in 1929. There is also a dancing performance by a group of chorus girls that involves some interesting formations that are photographed from a top view several years before Busby Berkeley made this sort of thing an art form. Rudy Valee and the other players leave much to be desired in the acting department, leaving plenty of room for Marie Dressler to steal the show as the comic society matron.