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IMDbPro

The Prodigal

  • 1931
  • Passed
  • 1h 16m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
108
YOUR RATING
The Prodigal (1931)
MusicalRomance

The blacksheep son of a wealthy Southern family returns to his family's plantation after he spends five years on the road as a hobo.The blacksheep son of a wealthy Southern family returns to his family's plantation after he spends five years on the road as a hobo.The blacksheep son of a wealthy Southern family returns to his family's plantation after he spends five years on the road as a hobo.

  • Director
    • Harry A. Pollard
  • Writers
    • Bess Meredyth
    • Wells Root
  • Stars
    • Lawrence Tibbett
    • Esther Ralston
    • Roland Young
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.5/10
    108
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Harry A. Pollard
    • Writers
      • Bess Meredyth
      • Wells Root
    • Stars
      • Lawrence Tibbett
      • Esther Ralston
      • Roland Young
    • 10User reviews
    • 3Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 3 wins total

    Photos4

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    Top cast16

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    Lawrence Tibbett
    Lawrence Tibbett
    • Jeffrey Farraday
    Esther Ralston
    Esther Ralston
    • Antonia Farraday
    Roland Young
    Roland Young
    • Doc aka Somerset Greenman
    Cliff Edwards
    Cliff Edwards
    • Snipe, a Tramp
    Purnell Pratt
    Purnell Pratt
    • Rodman Farraday
    Hedda Hopper
    Hedda Hopper
    • Christine
    Emma Dunn
    Emma Dunn
    • Mrs. Cynthia Farraday
    Stepin Fetchit
    Stepin Fetchit
    • Hokey
    Louis John Bartels
    Louis John Bartels
    • George
    Theodore von Eltz
    Theodore von Eltz
    • Carter Jerome
    Wally Albright
    Wally Albright
    • Peter
    Susanne Ransom
    • Elsbeth
    Gertrude Howard
    • Naomi
    John Larkin
    John Larkin
    • Andrew Jackson Jones
    Jules Cowles
    Jules Cowles
    • Hobo
    • (uncredited)
    Charles R. Moore
    Charles R. Moore
    • Railroad Porter
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Harry A. Pollard
    • Writers
      • Bess Meredyth
      • Wells Root
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews10

    5.5108
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    Featured reviews

    5Michael-110

    A mishmash of comedy, drama, music, and racist portrayals.

    "The Prodigal" appears to be assembled from leftover script ideas from other films. It opens with some pretty good scenes of the lives of tramps in the early Depression years. Soon it focusses on Jeff Farraday, one of the tramps who actually comes from a wealthy Southern plantation family. Jeff has been exiled from the family, served time in jail, and is detested by his brother Rodman and sister Christine. The Farraday family seems to be withstanding the Depression quite well. Jeff returns to the plantation with a couple of other bums, is welcomed by his adoring mother, scorned by his siblings, and falls in love with the charming and perky Antonia, the wife of his brother Rodman. Rodman, of course, is a cruel, bullying stuffed shirt who hates Antonia but won't give her a divorce.

    The film veers from melodramatic family conflict to awkward love scenes to thoroughly unfunny comedy to incongruous musical numbers. Jeff is played by opera-singer Lawrence Tibbett who frequently breaks into song. Tibbett can really sing but he can't act, nor can any of the other characters in this mishmash. But then with lines like these, it would be impossible for any actor to seem anything other than ridiculous.

    Not to be overlooked are the really horrible portrayals of the blacks on the plantation. Even for the time (when Aunt Jemima type characters are standard), these racist portrayals are extreme. One farmhand is a whining, sniveling wimp; other scenes involving the darkies' BBQ make a viewer want to crawl under the table.
    2richard-1787

    There's no real reason to sit through this movie, even if you love Lawrence Tibbett

    I'm a big fan of Metropolitan Opera baritone Lawrence Tibbett, so I sat through this movie. It wasn't easy, though. Tibbett only gets a few numbers, and he doesn't do anything noteworthy with any of them, even Vincent Youmans' very beautiful "Without a song." He is often very stiff, and while it is true that the script is very bad, he doesn't deliver most of his lines very well. So, in short, it really isn't worth sitting through 76 minutes of bad melodrama to see him.

    The rest of the movie is just bad. The melodrama is bad, as I said, and none of the other actors do anything interesting with it.

    And then there is the depiction of the black characters, starting with Stepin Fetchit. Even for a 1930s movie, it's bad.

    So, my recommendation: if you want to hear Tibbett sing, go to YouTube or your record collection - if you're old enough to have one. Don't regret not seeing him act. He really doesn't here.
    GManfred

    7 ******* Underrated

    How much you like this picture depends on how much you like Lawrence Tibbett. He is in almost every scene and the picture is clearly designed for him, and he doesn't disappoint. Tall and handsome and with a great baritone voice, he carries the picture through all of its illogical eccentricities and old-fashioned moral values.

    He is the scion of a wealthy southern family who 'hit the road' and became a hobo after becoming disenchanted with the graceful plantation way of life. He returns home after five years to a mixed welcome, from his mother who adores him and his brother who hates him. His brother's wife, played by Esther Ralston, is also in his corner. The story is trifling and dated but I felt Tibbett makes it work, right up to and including the peculiar ending. The plantation workers were stereotyped and this couldn't be made now, but it worked in 1931.

    Not sure you will take to it, unless you are a fan of one of the Metropolitan Opera's great voices.

    7 stars - Website no longer prints my star rating.
    9gratwicker

    Better than people think

    Falling in love with your brother's wife is a good starter. There's plenty of tension between the brothers. Their mother is in between but obviously sees the failings of the successful, stay at home, brother. His wife is bored as her husband fails to think of her...Lawrence Tibbitt gets to sing, and he's as good an actor as most opera stars(not very).

    This reviewer was glad to her his voice. The justly criticized scenes with stereotyped darkies are as bad as you'll ever see, but Steppin Fetchet answered critics of his portrayals with the remark that he "laughed all the way to the bank."

    I am pretty far to the left, but I judge art as a product of its time. The singing and dancing of African-Americans in this film was joyful and artful, though admittedly stereo-typed. It was not embarrassing.
    5boblipton

    What Do You Mean We Can't Make Tibbet A Star?

    Five years after he had to hot-tail it out of town, Lawrence Tibbet returns with fellow tramps Roland Young and Cliff Edwards. He sings some songs, terrifies Stepin Fetchit and charms the children and Esther Ralston (Yowza!) and worries the men, who fear for their women-folk.

    It looks like an attempt to do for Tibbet what The Champ did for Wallace Beery, but Harry Pollard ain't King Vidor. Once Tibbet gets a bath, everyone is clean and neat, especially the darkies down at the meeting house in the swamp who sing about chitlins. Except Roland Young. Of course, I love Young from the late 1930s, but it's nice to see he could do more, as here.

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      This is one of about two dozen feature films directed by Harry A. Pollard, which the American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films, in all 3 of their volumes, 1911-1920, 1921-1930 and 1931-1940, chooses to erroneously credit to comedian Harry (Snub) Pollard, who is, of course, a different person entirely.
    • Quotes

      Antonia Farraday: You'd better get out of there before my husband catches you.

      Carter Jerome: It's only the last place I should worry about being caught by your husband would be in your bedroom.

    • Soundtracks
      Life Is a Dream
      Written by Oscar Straus & Arthur Freed

      Performed by Lawrence Tibbett

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • February 21, 1931 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • The Southerner
    • Filming locations
      • Sherwood Forest, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 16 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White

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