1929-30 – Lawrence Tibbett
The Rogue Song
OK, so this may be a review that maybe I shouldn’t be writing. After all, I technically haven’t seen the movie, as no copy of the movie actually exists any more. What I found on YouTube is made up of the surviving scraps of the footage, and the complete soundtrack. Most of the hour and forty-four minute long video is made up of production stills, promo shots, posters, and even photos of the actors from entirely different films. So kudos to the person who put the video together, though I am having difficulty finding an individual’s name to thank.
In all, there is about half an hour of footage that has been pieced together. Tibbett was a lyric baritone, and most of the footage in which he appears, is of him singing. And as to that, I must say that he had an incredible voice. It had a sweet and soft lilt in his upper-range, a full and warm core sound in his mid-range, and a deep and powerful sound in his low-range. Just a beautiful voice.
And I have to say that I really loved his look. He was a very handsome man. I think it was his gorgeous eyebrows. I know that’s a strange thing to focus on, but there you have it. I loved their shape. Also, he didn’t have that typical slicked-back, leading man hair style. His hair was bushy, and wild, like his character, the Russian bandit, Yegor. And even though I only saw a few scant clips of his acting in motion, I think his unkempt appearance made him seem even more attractive.
The part seemed like a pretty weighty one, despite this being a romantic musical. There was a great scene in which he murders the brother of the Princess he loves as an act of revenge for the rape, and subsequent suicide, of his beloved sister. And there was another scene where he is caught by the royal family and publicly whipped. Of course he sings of his love for Princess Vera while the torture goes on, and all the while, his vocal production was marvelous!
It really is too bad there is no surviving copy of this movie. I bet it would have been a great one to see, especially since it was MGM’s first all-talking Technicolor film. And of all the films Tibbett ever made, this was apparently one of his favorites.