Paramount, 1930
Starring Dennis King, Jeanette MacDonald, O.P Heggie, and Lillian Roth
Directed by Ludwig Berger
Music and Lyrcis by various
For the next two weeks, our weekday reviews will look at musical remakes, either of older films, or a remake and the original. This version of the 1926 stage hit of the same name was intended to be Paramount's stately answer to major film operettas like Warner Bros' The Desert Song or MGM's (now-lost) Rogue Song. It proved to be too stately for 1930 audiences who were looking for war movies and gangster films, but how does it look now? Let's begin in fifteenth-century Paris, where only a lawless poet stands between the King of France (O.P Heggie) and the Duke of Burgundy's attempt to take over his throne...
The Story: Francois Villion (King) is arrested by Louis the XI and his men while drunk and brought to the castle. Louis anoints him king for a day, hoping to enlist him and his fellow peasants, poets, and drinks in battling the Duke and his army. Earlier in the day, Francois had rescued the beautiful Princess Katherine (MacDonald) and had fallen hopelessly in love with her, despite already having a girlfriend in the tavern wench Hugette (Roth). It's the ladies who are willing to lay down the line - and in Hugette's case, her own life - to make sure Louis stays on the throne and Francois is hung for a king's amusement the next day.
The Song and Dance: Oh, how I wish the full color copy was available online! What little color is seen during the "Only a Rose" number is blurry but exquisite, with MacDonald looking every inch the princess she's supposed to be in exquisite peach, standing out against the lavish green garden. In fact, even in the blurry mostly black and white copy currently on YouTube, it's that much-vaunted pageantry where this stands out. MacDonald is a radiant princess in glittering gowns amid enormous, craggy castles and the fetid alleys of a shadow-strewn Paris, while Heggie makes a wonderful opportunistic King Louis. European director Ludvig Berger had made several similar sumptuous fantasies in France and Germany during the silent era, and he knew something about spectacle and how to make it work.
The Numbers: We open over the credits and at the tavern Francois frequents with "Song of the Vagabonds." "King Louis" is Francois' mocking rhyme and assessment of Louis' ability to rule his people. "Mary, Queen of Heaven" is a number for the choir when Katherine is praying in Notre Dame. The ballad "Some Day" is Katherine's first solo as she changes for bed and contemplates Francois and their first meeting in Paris. Francois declares to his followers what he would do "If I Were King." He tells the disguised Louis "What France Needs."
"Only a Rose" is the only Technicolor sequence existing in current online prints. The gorgeous singing from King and MacDonald and exquisite color somewhat make up for MacDonald being right about King's ego and his continued attempts to push his nose or hands into her shot. Roth's solo is "Hugette's Waltz," as she explains to the vagabonds that she is how she is, take her or leave her. Francois and Katherine get a second duet, "Love Me Tonight," shortly before he is to fight the Burgundians. The people of Paris reprise "Song of the Vagabonds" during the actual siege. "Nocturne" is the executioner's number as he's about to hang Francois.
Trivia: The color prints do exist and were restored by UCLA in 1990, but alas, to date have only seen there other than the "Only a Rose" sequence taken from the PBS documentary Broadway: The American Musical.
This is based on the fanciful book and non-musical play If I Were King. If I Were King was filmed as a non-musical three times, in 1920 and 1938 under its original title and in 1927 as The Beloved Rogue.
The Vagabond King opened on Broadway in 1925 with King as Villon and was a huge hit for the time, running over 500 performances. It had a brief revival on Broadway in 1943. It hasn't been seen there since, but remains popular with light opera companies in New York and elsewhere. The film would be remade in 1956 with Kathryn Grayson as Katherine (which we'll be looking at on Thursday).
What I Don't Like: Jeanette MacDonald had a point about Dennis King and his ego. He's a little too into the role, proclaiming everything to the rafters when film calls for a somewhat subtler approach. He's too hammy even for a swashbuckler. This is likely why he very rarely made movies after this. Lillian Roth has the opposite problem. She's too much of a cute comedienne to be playing a sensual streetwalker and really can't pull off her "Hugette's Waltz." And oh, how I wish UCLA would release the rest of that color copy to the general public! I have the feeling it would help this tremendously, and certainly be nicer to look at than the dim, blurry copy currently on YouTube.
The Big Finale: In the end, as lovely as it is, it's really only for fans of MacDonald, operetta, or early film musicals.
Home Media: Which perhaps makes it just as well that the only place you can see this is in that blurry copy I mentioned that's currently on YouTube.
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