The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Devil-May-Care

  • Ramon Novarro

    José Ramón Gil Samaniego (1899-1968) was a Mexican actor who became a star of silent cinema after his villainous turn in The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) and a phenomenon with his heroics in Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). Handsome, even beautiful, he combined the roles of swashbuckler with the tag of ‘Latin Lover,’ especially following the death of Rudolph Valentino. 

    Novarro had a light but effective speaking voice and his transition to talking pictures was straightforward. Much earlier, he had worked as a singer, and MGM came up with the idea of having him record a theme song (‘Pagan Love Song’) for The Pagan (1929). The public liked it, so it was no great leap to cast Novarro in a musical feature, Devil-May-Care, where he was able to combine his newly-revealed skill with some of his practised swordplay. 

    Novarro went on to star in four more musicals: In Gay Madrid, Call of the Flesh, The Cat and the Fiddle (partnered with Jeanette MacDonald, and the best of his musical outings) and The Night is Young. He also co-wrote one of the songs in Call of the Flesh and directed the French and Spanish versions of the picture.

    Homophobia brought Novarro’s MGM stardom to an end. His sexuality was no secret in the business and the subject of public speculation. His contract was terminated when he refused to enter into a ‘lavender marriage’. He continued to work elsewhere as a supporting player, until his tragic and violent death during a robbery in 1968.

  • George Davis

    George Davis (1889-1965) was a prolific small-part actor for almost forty years. He appeared without credit in It’s a Great Life, played a groom in  Devil-May-Care, was uncredited again in They Learned About Women, The Cuban Love Song and The Cat and the Fiddle. He appeared in The Merry Widow and played the same part, without credit, in the French version. 

    David showed up uncredited in Maytime, I Married an Angel, For Me and My Gal, Two Sisters from Boston, Words and Music, The Toast of New Orleans, Rich, Young and Pretty, An American in Paris, Lovely To Look At, the second version of The Merry Widow, Lili, Easy to Love, Interrupted Melody and Les Girls.

    That’s twenty Metro musicals plus a French copy, with a single credited appearance.

  • Albertina Rasch

    Albertina Rasch (1891-1967) was an important component of early MGM musicals. She provided dance direction for seven pictures, which normally featured her eponymous ballet troupe, as well as acting in two others.

    Rasch trained at the State Opera House in Vienna, and pursued a career there before relocating to the United States when she was around 18. She was involved in spectacular productions at the 5,000-seat New York Hippodrome and performed as prima ballerina with a number of companies. Rasch also acquired vaudeville experience.

    In the early twenties she established the Albertina Rasch Dancers and played a part in the development of syncopated American Ballet such as ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (1925).

    At MGM, Rasch developed the insertion of ‘ballet spectacles’ into the studio’s musicals, something she had begun on Broadway. She and her dancers first appeared in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, which was followed by Devil-May-Care, Broadway Melody of 1936 (the ‘Lucky Star’ ballet involving Eleanor Powell), Rosalie, The Girl of the Golden West, The Great Waltz and Sweethearts. She also worked on the abandoned The March of Time.

    Rasch acted in The Rogue Song and appeared without credit in The Firefly. 

    Rasch was married to composer Dimitri Tiomkin.

  • John Carroll

    The actor born Julian La Faye (1906-79) became a successful second-tier star, notably alongside John Wayne in Flying Tigers (1942). He started his film career playing bits in MGM musicals: Marianne (doughboy), Devil-May-Care (Bonapartist), The Rogue Song (Bandit) and New Moon Russian soldier).

    After developing his career, Carroll returned as straight man to the Marx Brothers in Go West, and went on to feature prominently in Lady Be Good, Rio Rita and Fiesta.

    Carroll’s last appearance was in Orson Welles’s film maudit The Other Side of the Wind (1975, released 2018).

  • Ann Dvorak

    Anna McKim (1911-79) made her name as an actor of great talent in Scarface (1932) and flourished for a time at Warner Bros. But only a couple of years earlier she had been a regular member of the chorus line in no fewer than eleven of Metro’s early musicals. She is prominent in all her appearances, largely owing to her unique beauty and a screen presence that would be fully revealed by Howard Hawks.

    Dvorak is cited by some sources as assistant choreographer to Sammy Lee, who certainly was the dance director on most of her MGM appearances. This would certainly explain her prominence.

    Dvorak starts off big in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 in a two-shot with Jack Benny. She gets to speak two words (“Pardon me”) and slap Benny in the face. After playing a student in So This Is College, she was back in the chorus line in It’s a Great Life, supporting the Duncan Sisters.

    After that, Dvorak was in Devil-May-Care, Chasing Rainbows, Lord Byron of Broadway, Free and Easy and Children of Pleasure. She was another student in Good News, another chorus girl in Love in the Rough and, finally, a party-goer in the zeppelin in Madam Satan. In later films she was also working on choreography with Sammy Lee.

    Dvorak also worked on The March of Time before it was abandoned.

  • William Axt

    William Axt (1888-1959) was a composer and conductor who joined the MGM music department in 1929 and went on to write hundreds of scores. He composed for a number of musicals, mostly early in his career: Marianne, It’s a Great Life, Devil-May-Care, Chasing Rainbows,The Rogue Song, Free and Easy, Call of the Flesh, Madam Satan, Hollywood Party, The Great Ziegfeld,  Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry, Everybody Sing and Listen, Darling. 

    Axi’s work was also taken off the shelf for use as stock music in New Moon, Student Tour, Balalaika and Little Nellie Kelly .

  • Adrian

    The costumes he designed for The Wizard of Oz, which included the iconic ruby slippers, were unquestionably the high point of the career of Adrian Adolph Greenburg (1903-59), known simply as Adrian. But his designs were included in hundreds of MGM features, mostly between 1928 and 1941, including 34 other musicals. These included eleven Jeanette MacDonald pictures: The Cat and the Fiddle, The Merry Widow, Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, San Francisco, Maytime, The Firefly, The Girl of the Golden West, Sweethearts, New Moon and Bitter Sweet.

    Adrian was very active during 1929-31, designing for Marianne, Devil-May-Care,The Rogue Song, Montana Moon, In Gay Madrid, Madam Satan, New Moon andThe Cuban Love Song.

    Dancing Lady reunited Adrian with Joan Crawford a year after the white mousseline de soie dress he created for her in Letty Linton (1932) was copied commercially and sold over 500,000 units.

    Going Hollywood, Hollywood Party, Reckless, Broadway Melody of 1936, The Great Ziegfeld, Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1938, The Great Waltz and Honolulu led up to the triumph ofThe Wizard of Oz. Adrian then worked on Balalaika, Broadway Melody of 1940, Ziegfeld Girl andThe Chocolate Soldier before leaving MGM in 1941 to open his own fashion business.

    He continued to freelance for a variety of studios and returned to Metro for a final musical, the aptly-named Lovely to Look At.

  • Richard Schayer

    Richard Schayer (1880-1956) helped to write over 100 films during a forty-year career, and perhaps staked his claim to a place on the lower levels of immortality by co-writing the treatment that became Universal’s The Mummy (1932). 

    While at MGM, Schayer worked on four of the studio’s early musicals. He wrote the treatment for Hallelujah, developing King Vidor’s basic idea. In the same year he adapted a French play from 1851 into the Roman Novarro swashbuckler Devil-May-Care. He then displayed his versatility by scripting Free and Easy for Buster Keaton and turning a recent Crane Wilbur play into Children of Pleasure. 

    By 1932, Schayer was a member of the Laemmles’ team at Universal.

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