Joseph Stanley Smith (1903-74) started acting in stock theatre as a juvenile and worked steadily before making his first screen appearance in 1929. He was part of the influx of stage actors following the introduction of sound.
Smith worked mostly for Paramount, including playing the lead opposite Clara Bow in Love Among the Millionaires (1930). Immediately afterwards, he went to MGM to perform the same function for Mary Lawlor in Good News.
It was reported in 1932 that Smith was supplementing acting as the conductor of his own orchestra
By the end of his film career in 1943, Smith was taking small parts, often uncredited.
At Tait College, Babe tells her friends that old-fashioned Professor Kenyon has flunked Tom Marlowe in astronomy, which means he will not be able to play football for the college. Tom has another exam tomorrow, but he “doesn’t know a star from a chorus girl”.
Babe is being pursued by footballer Beef Saunders, who warns her to keep away from other boys, and especially Bobbie Randall, who is the substitute on the football team. Later, Babe tells Bobbie that he is now her boyfriend, but Bobbie is afraid of Beef.
Babe (Bessie Love) gives Beef (Delmer Daves) a piece of her mind
Beef tells Bobble to stay away from his girl, because everyone knows he cannot play football when he is upset. [Football].
Coach Bill Johnson decides they must find the best astronomy student on campus to prepare Tom for the exam. Tom suggests his girlfriend, Patricia Bingham. Coach’s assistant, Pooch Kearney, does not think that will work [I Feel Pessimistic].
In the girls’ house, Pat’s cousin, Connie Lane, is a drudge who does all the work. Pat is reluctant to spend the day teaching, and suggests Connie would be much better at it. Connie agrees to help, but Tom does not see how he can learn anything from “a four-eyed old maid”. But Connie’s friends give her a makeover, and Tom does not recognize her until she introduces herself. He immediately begins flirting with her. They agree to postpone the lesson until 8 o’clock by the boathouse.
That evening [If You’re Not Kissing Me], Tom tells Connie she has already taught him more than Professor Kenyon managed in three years [If You’re Not Kissing Me].
Tom (Stanley Smith) and Connie (Mary Lawlor), studying astronomy down by the old boathouse
The next morning, Tom tells his roommate Bobbie that he is in love with Connie. Bobbie is cynical, because Tom falls in love all the time. Tom also tells Bobbie that Beef may not be able to play in the game tomorrow, because Babe has got him so upset, so he has asked Beef to come over and teach Bobbie the signals. Tom leaves, and Babe enters through the window. When Beef arrives, Babe hides under a bed.
On the way to the exam, Tom meets Pat, who reminds him that they are engaged, and she has the proposal in writing. Pat tells Bobbie she is going to marry Tom if they win the game tomorrow.
In a Latin class, the students are left for quiet study, but Flo decides they should study dance instead of Latin [The Varsity Drag].
PLaying innocent, Babe wins all Bobbie’s money in a crap game [Gee, But I’d Like to Make You Happy].
Coach sends Pooch to ask Kenyon how Tom did in the exam. He failed, but Kenyon agrees to pass him, for the good of Tait College. Words spreads quickly that Tom has passed [Tait Song]. Tom tells the crowd that he is pleased to have beaten Professor Kenyon at his own game. Bobbie announces that Pat has promised to marry Tom tomorrow if he wins the game, causing Connie to faint.
That evening, Babe is pursuing Bobbie, who jokingly tells her that, like Tommy and Pat, they will marry if he wins the game [Gee, But I’d Like to Make You Happy].
Tommy tells Connie that he loves her but, because of his own stupidity, he has to go through with marrying Pat [The Best Things in Life Are Free].
[Good News]. Beef is injured during the game, which is not going well for Tait. At half-time, Coach asks Tom why he is not even trying to play well, but gets no answer. He agrees to let Bobbie start the second half.
Coach (Thomas E Jackson) tells Bobbie (Gus Shy) he is going on
Connie is secretly watching the game through a hole in the fence. With two minutes to go, she is happy that Tait does not have a chance and that Tom’s heart is not in the game. In the final seconds, Bobbie unexpectedly finds himself with the ball in his hands and scores a touchdown. Tait have won. Bobbie agrees to marry Babe. Tom is considered a certainty for the All-American team, but he says he does not deserve it.
At Tom and Pat’s wedding [Football], Tom lifts Pat’s veil to find that he is marrying Connie. Pat had realized that he loved Connie, and stepped aside. Tom and Connie kiss.
Call of the Flesh is the first musical at MGM to combine popular songs with extracts from Grand Opera, in the way so beloved of producer Joe Pasternak in the 40s and 50s. Sadly, the three Stothart-Grey numbers are instantly forgettable. Ramon Novarro was no Lauritz Melchior, but his renditions of Donizetti and Massenet at least deserve an A for effort.
Juan (Ramon Novarro) sings ‘Ah! fuyez, douce image’ from Manon
Tonally, the film shifts from being the light-hearted story of an arrogant young singer and his growing love for an innocent novice from the local convent, to a near-tragic final twenty minutes. It all works thanks to the acting of Raomon Novarro and Renée Adorée, and in spite of that of Dorothy Jordan. Jordan was not a bad actor, but her performance here is very laboured and one-note. She leaves inexplicable pauses before picking up her cues and relies too much on looking innocent.
Novarro, however, gives one of his best performances in a sound picture. The scene in which he heartlessly rejects Jordan because her brother has persuaded him she should return to the convent, is genuinely touching. Elsewhere, he succeeds in the difficult task of making a conceited, unlikeable character likeable and amusing.
Renée Adorée is also very good as Jordan’s jealous rival, but her performance is quite painful to watch. She was very ill with tuberculosis during the making of the film, to the extent that her friend Novarro tried to persuade her to stand down. She declined, but is visibly unwell. It was her final film, and she died a couple of years later.
Adorée does, however, combine with Novarro to deliver the MGM musicals’ first genuinely entertaining dance number. Both had worked as dancers when young, and it shows in the comic routine they deliver in the cantina.
Juan and Lola (Renée Adorée) perform the first entertaining dance in an MGM musical
The Technicolor sequences have not survived, but Call of the Flesh looks really good without them. Cedric Gibbons’s design is excellent and well photographed by Merritt B Gerstad. The scene in a church that looks like a cathedral is particularly impressive. There are even one or two stylistic flourishes from director Charles Brabin (or editor Conrad Nervig, perhaps). For example, the scene where the brother is persuading Juan to give up Maria Consuelo is truncated with dissolves, to force home the sense that Juan is being worn down.
Overall, Call of the Flesh–its terrible sexed-up title notwithstanding–is much more entertaining than might be expected.
George Westmore (1879-1931) was the founder of what is unquestionably Hollywood’s greatest dynasty. Five generations of Westmores, including six of George’s sons, worked as makeup artists for over a hundred years.
George Westmore was a hairdresser with a distinguished clientele before emigrating from the UK to Canada and then to the United States, where he worked in beauty parlours. In 1917 he established Hollywood’s first makeup department, for the Selig company, and can be credited with creating the profession of film makeup artist. In the 1920s, Westmore worked on some of the most notable pictures starring Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks, including The Sheik (1921) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924).
Shortly before taking his own life in a particularly unpleasant fashion (mercury poisoning), Westmore worked on three musicals at MGM: The Rogue Song, Call of the Flesh and New Moon.
Composer Paul Lambkovitz (1888-1953) was born either in Poland or Russia, and trained at the Petrograd Conservatory before working as both a conductor and cantor. He emigrated to America in 1922.
Lamkoff was qualified by both his professions to work as a vocal coach and choral arranger for the ‘Kol Nidre’ sequence of The Jazz Singer (1927), roles he also carried out for the 1952 remake.
He then had a sporadic career in the film industry, working as composer, orchestrator and vocal coach on a dozen or so pictures. These included Call of the Flesh, Here Comes the Band, A Night at the Opera, Rose-Marie and San Francisco. Alongside this he pursued his work as a cantor and expert on Jewish music.
Dorothy Farnum (1897-1970) acted in a couple of films as a teenager, but realized that her real strength was writing. In 1919 she sold an original scenario to producer Harry Rapf, who would later be a colleague at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After a few years of journeyman work in which she learned her trade, Rapf hired Farnum to write Beau Brummel (1924). Star John Barrymore told a newspaper it was the best part he had ever been given, and the film launched Farnum’s reputation as an expert adapter of literary works.
Farnum became one of MGM’s top-earning writers, In 1926 her adaptation of the potboiler The Torrent was the first of several collaborations with Greta Garbo. It was described at the time as “the first picture with an unhappy ending to win a box-office success”.
Dorothy Farnum wrote two MGM musicals, providing the stories for Call of the Flesh and A Lady’s Morals. Shortly afterwards she relocated to Europe, writing a screenplay in French (she was fluent in a number of languages, and had previously written the French version of A Lady’s Morals), and then working for Gaumont-British. In 1934 she retired to the south of France.
