The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: A Lady’s Morals

  • A Lady’s Morals

    The Synopsis

    World-famous soprano Jenny Lind and her party arrive at a Swedish inn. Jenny wants a room with a piano, but the only one suitable has already been taken by Paul Brandt, a young composer. Jenny’s companion, Pauline, demands that Paul surrender the room to the world’s greatest singer, but he pretends he has never heard of Jenny Lind. Jenny finds her friend’s behaviour embarrassing. Paul and Jenny meet and, after being arrogant and flirtatious, Paul agrees to let her have the room. Jenny is intrigued by him. 

    Jenny Lind (Grace Moore)

    At dinner, Paul presents Jenny with a song and asks her to sing it. She refuses, but then he makes it a condition of having his room. When Jenny sings [It Is Destiny], Paul constantly corrects her style. After the song, Paul kisses Jenny, who slaps him. He says he kissed her because he has always wanted someone to sing his song like that. He adds that he fell in love with her the moment he saw her and that they have not met by accident. Paul leaves, but he assures Jenny that they shall meet again. 

    In Malmo, Jenny performs in Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment [Rataplan]. During the performance, Jenny discovers that Paul is now a member of the chorus. She invites him to supper [Student’s Song]. Paul gets rid of Josephine, but Jenny says she cannot dine with him alone [Oh, Why?]. Paul reveals that, far from not knowing who she is, he has long carried her picture with him. He tells her again that he adores her, and Jenny admits she has been thinking about him since the inn. She says they must both be mad. She talks about marriage, but he says he could never be the husband of a great prima donna. Paul warns Jenny that one day the world will turn its affections elsewhere, but that he will always love her. She asks him to go. 

    Paul Brandt (Reginald Denny) and Jenny, falling in love

    Much later, in Italy at the end of a long tour, Jenny is about to perform Norma. She hears Rosatti, a famous Italian prima donna, get a rapturous welcome as she takes her seat in the audience. The performance begins [Casta Diva], with Paul also in the audience. An encore is demanded, but Jenny says she is exhausted and her throat hurts; she does not want to go back on. She is persuaded to sing again [Casta Diva], but her voice goes. The curtain is brought down and Jenny collapses. The crowd calls for Rosatti. Paul defends Jenny and a fight breaks out. Paul is struck hard on the head and passes out. Backstage, Jenny hears Rosatti complete the performance. 

    Later, Paul brings his uncle, the maestro Garcia, to help Jenny recover her voice. Paul is walking unsteadily. After Paul has left, the maestro accidentally reveals that his nephew’s sight has been impaired since the fight in the theatre. Paul will not get the help he needs because all he can think about is helping Jenny. 

    Back in Sweden [Swedish Pastorale], Jenny is with Paul, whose eyes have been bandaged for two months, following treatment. When the doctor removes the bandages, Paul pretends that he can see for the sake of Jenny, but confesses the truth to the doctor, who says the blindness will be permanent. Before Paul can tell Jenny the truth, she reveals that her voice has returned [It Is Destiny]. Paul slips away, leaving a note telling Jenny that he loves her but must go. 

    Jenny and Paul, following the operation intended to restore his sight

    Jenny makes her debut in the United States, where she is promoted by P T Barnum. Paul is also in America. He is blind, performing his music in a bar. Olaf, a fellow Swede and friend of Paul’s, breaks into Jenny’s dressing room. He has brought one of his blind friend’s songs, hoping that Jenny will buy it and sing it. Josephine takes the song and throws him out. Jenny sees Paul’s name on the manuscript and realizes that he is blind. Jenny tells Josephine to find Olaf. 

    While Jenny sings [Lovely Hour], Paul is in a huge crowd outside the theatre who are listening through the open windows. Later, Olaf tricks Paul into meeting Jenny. She gently admonishes Paul for not telling her about his blindness, and they embrace.                       

  • Boyd Irwin

    British stage actor Boyd Irwin (1880-1957) made his first films in Australia, starting in 1915. By 1920, he was working in Hollywood for pioneer filmmaker Bessie Barriscale.

    Irwin worked throughout the 1920s, notably playing Rochefort in Douglas Fairbanks’s The Three Musketeers (1921).

    By the 1930s, his screen roles had diminished, though he was featured as the Zeppelin captain in Madam Satan. He also appeared, without credit, as the Swedish Ambassador in A Lady’s Morals. Irwin’s later appearances were all uncredited. 

  • Reginald Denny

    A screen career that begins in 1915 at Famous Players-Lasky under the direction of Edwin S Porter, and ends playing Commodore Schmidlapp in the 1966 Batman picture, can be called a career. And such was the life of Reginald Leigh Dugmore (1891-1967).

    Denny started out as a stage actor in the United Kingdom, travelling to America and elsewhere on theatrical tours. It has been suggested he may have appeared on screen as early as 1911, but no titles have been suggested. He played the leads in many silent films, including in Leather Pushers, a series of boxing shorts made in 1922-23. The makers of the series had a liking for punning titles like The Taming of the Shrewd (1922) and Barnaby’s Grudge (1923).

    Denny transitioned to character roles in the 1930s, though he was the romantic lead in his two MGM musicals, Madam Satan and A Lady’s Morals. Later on, he played Algy in several Bulldog Drummond pictures, giving a more low-key performance than Claude Allister. He was also Maxim’s estate manager and friend in Rebecca (1940).

    Reginald Denny was an aeroplane gunner during the First World War, and had a lifelong interest in aviation. This included not only flying full-size planes (he worked as a stunt pilot on at least one occasion), but also models. He designed a remote-controlled ‘drone’ which was used by the US Army in the Second World War, and also established Reginald Denny’s Hobby Shop on Hollywood Boulevard (where Marilyn Monroe worked as a teenager).

  • Gus Shy

    Augustus Scheu (1893-1945) was a song-and-dance man in vaudeville and on Broadway, noted as an ‘eccentric’ dancer like Ray Bolger and Buddy Ebsen.

    Shy made his Broadway debut in 1915 and worked regularly throughout the 1920s. His biggest show was Good News (1927), in which he played Bobbie. He and the leading lady, Mary Lawlor, recreated their roles in the 1930 film version. 

    Unlike Lawlor, Shy stuck around in Hollywood, and featured in two further Metro musicals: A Lady’s Morals and New Moon. He had been in the original production of The New Moon (1927), but playing a different role.

    Gus Shy also worked as a dialogue director on a number of films before retiring from acting to become a Hollywood agent.

  • Dorothy Farnum

    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.

  • Frank Yaconelli

    No one would claim that Italian-born Francesco Yaconelli (1898-1965) had a distinguished film career, yet after his death a Senate resolution described him as “devoting a lifetime to unselfish service and entertainment to people all over the world”. 

    Yaconelli could most often be seen in cheap westerns, frequently as a Mexican, and sometimes playing the accordion, at which he was proficient. In the mid-twenties he and his brother set up their own studio, for which he both produced and directed a handful of pictures before it was wiped out by the Depression.

    Yaconelli had served in a US aero squadron during the First World War. In the Second World War, he worked as a USO tour director, also performing his vaudeville act. He did the same during the Korean War. It was these activities that secured the citation from the Senate.

    Yaconelli was in four 1930s MGM musicals: Call of the Flesh, A Lady’s Morals, A Night at the Opera and The Firefly. 

  • Judith Vosselli

    Judith Voselli (1895-1966) was born in Barcelona, but was playing supporting roles on Broadway throughout the early 1920s, including several musical comedies.

    Vosselli made her first film in 1926, and worked regularly until 1935. Three of her films were MGM musicals. One of these, The Rogue Song, gave her one of her best roles, as the scene-stealing Tatiana. She also made appearances in A Lady’s Morals and Naughty Marietta.

  • Sidney Bracey

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    Sidney Bracy [sic] (1877-1942) was a stage actor in his native Australia before moving to America and commencing his film career in 1909. Later in life he tended to be cast as authority figures and servants, including upwards of 54 butlers and a variety of valets and chauffeurs. 

    Four of Bracey’s MGM musical appearances were as butlers: Children of Pleasure, A Lady’s Morals, Hollywood Party and San Francisco. He also showed up uncredited in Broadway to Hollywood, The Firefly and Rosalie.

  • Theodore Lorch

    Theodore Andrew Lorch (1873-1947) was a busy supporting player who notched up over 170 screen appearances, most of those in the sound era being uncredited. His adaptability is indicated by a sample of his work in 1934: an abortionist (The Road to Ruin), a ringmaster (A Modern Hero), an executioner (The Affairs of Cellini), a jury member (Two Heads on a Pillow) and a native fakir (Kid Millions).

    Lorch found time to be in three Metro musicals: Free and Easy, A Lady’s Morals and Reckless. 

  • Lee Phelps

    Napoleon Bonaparte Kubuck (1893-1953) notched up over 660 film and TV appearances, most of them uncredited.

    Phelps was in twenty MGM musicals: They Learned About Women, The Florodora Girl, A Lady’s Morals, Flying High, Dancing Lady, Reckless, A Night at the Opera, Rose-Marie, The Bohemian Girl, The Great Ziegfeld, Sweethearts, Balalaika, Little Nellie Kelly, Born to Sing (a rare onscreen credit), Music for Millions, Anchors Aweigh, The Harvey Girls, Till the Clouds Roll By, Take Me Out to the Ball Game and That Midnight Kiss. 

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