Sweet Kitty Bellairs

Claudia Dell gets a star build-up in this one and although the camera clearly loves her, particularly in mid length profile, this whole movie of an adventuress in the city of Bath is so miscalculated that it is occasionally embarrassing. The performances are pitched for the stage, rather than the movie screen and while this style of light opera might have suited Offenbach and Gilbert & Sullivan, by this period, the only other extant examples are those moments in Marx Brothers movies when Groucho sings "I want my Shirt" to something from CARMEN and occasional revivals of THE STUDENT PRINCE. The best version of that is a silent movie.

The whole thing is interestingly shot to look like a Hogarth series and if the music is rarely distinguished, at least "Peggy's Leg" has a little antiquated ribaldry about it. It is fascinating to see Walter Pidgeon as a young man and Miss Dell is lovely. She is reputed to be the model for the Columbia Pictures torch lady.

However, the story is that there was such a glut of poor movie musicals in 1929 and 1930 that the public refused to see them, killing the genre until 1933. Looking at this one, I can believe it.

It was a real chore to watch this one. The script is silly, the acting is beyond poor, and the musical performances are tedious. There's no charm here; steer clear.

Altogether lavish, silly, trite and dull...this is the sort of thing that is handled best by Sheridan, Congreve and later by Oscar Wilde. The script lacks the charm and wit of those masters to put it over. Without that it's only very dull trifle, looking good but tasting terrible. The opening chorus is overladen, cumbersome and sluggish like most of the music and acting. Labored and graceless.

On the plus side, the sets and costumes are lavish and great fun can be had in seeing a very young Walter Pidgeon in knee britches and periwig warbling his love song, Claudia Dell warbling hers, and then the two of them intertwining their separate songs in a resulting duet. For me, that was the high and sole enjoyable point of this unfortunate enterprise.

This film is an interesting curio of the progress of early sound films and the musical glut that killed off the genre for several years. The original film (in Technicolor--no longer) is lavish and is very much an operetta with sung dialogue, connecting musical sequences, and musical underscoring. It's all way-overplayed and the morals on display are rather questionable. What is interesting is the continuity of music and scenes, outdoor recording and camera work, camera movement, and tracking shots which required pre-or post recording after the film had been finished. The whole picture is edited and recorded very professionally probably by the most advanced studio in these techniques at the time. The film is technically impressive and if you're into old movies its worth 63 minutes of your time.

Way too heavy on the violin and musical numbers. This one would have benefited from a spiffing up of the script. Claudia Dell, in one of her earlier starring roles is the charming, flirtatious Kitty Bellairs, in this LONG period piece. They keep breaking out in song, but more of a story would have made it a better film. The one bright spot here is Walter Pidgeon, from such awesome films as Mrs. Miniver, Forbidden Planet, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and SO many others. I won't talk about the story here, because my god, it goes on and on. All quite inane. Co-stars Ernest Torrance, who had been around hollywood for YEARS. This seems to be based on a novel by Egerton and Agnes Castle (Egerton ? must be a french name, as he was born in france). Directed by Alfred Green, who had started out in silents. While he didn't receive an oscar as director, several of his film stars DID receive oscars for their performance. At least it's all over in 63 minutes, a Warner Brothers shortie. Skip this one, unless you are a fan of the actors involved. Sound and picture quality not good in the version i saw, but I guess for history's sake, we're lucky to still have it around.