Harry Russell Hopton (1900-45) was an actor who managed to accumulate over 100 screen appearances in less than twenty years, though his parts had declined to mostly uncredited bits by the time he took his own life in 1945.
Hopton was in two MGM musicals, most prominently as Dorothy Jordan’s brother in Call of the Flesh. Strangely, in the same year he appeared without credit in New Moon.
Online sources also cite Russell Hopton as the director of two Poverty Row ‘B’ films for Conn Pictures in 1936. He certainly did acting work for that studio, so it may well be the same person. If so, and given that he acted in ten films released in 1936, it was a busy year.
Mathilde Comont (1886-1938) started working in French films for the Gaumont studio in 1908, later working for Max Linder.
After moving to Hollywood, Comont found regular work, most notably playing the Prince [sic] of Persia in The Thief of Bagdad (1924). She notched up around sixty supporting roles for various studios, including two appearances in Metro musicals, Call of the Flesh and The Cuban Love Song.
French actor Jeanne de la Fonte (1898-1933) began performing as a child when she joined her parents in their circus act. As a teenager, she toured as a dancer, making her first film in Australia while on tour there in 1918.
Adorée arrived in America in 1919 and worked both in vaudeville and the legitimate stage, performing in musical comedies. In 1920 she starred in Raoul Walsh’s The Strongest, based on a novel by French politician Georges Clemenceau.
A Hollywood star, Adorée appeared opposite John Gilbert in nine films, including The Big Parade (1925), and made four with Ramon Novarro.
In spite of her French accent, Adorée made a successful transition to talking pictures, but her career ended abruptly after she contracted tuberculosis. She was cast in Call of the Flesh at Ramon Novarro’s insistence, but was extremely ill throughout production. She died shortly afterwards at the tragically early age of 35.
Ernest Torrance-Thomson (1878-1933) was born in Scotland and trained at the Royal College of Music, being a highly-gifted pianist and baritone singer. He toured with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company until developing an untreatable problem with his vocal cords.
Torrence emigrated to America in 1911 and worked successfully on the stage, including on Broadway. He made his first film in 1914, working steadily thereafter as a character actor, with occasional leads. He is most often seen today playing Buster Keaton’s father in Steamboat Bill Jr (1928).
Torrence’s sole MGM musical was Call of the Flesh, in which he played the hero’s mentor.
In Seville, a lively cantina is located across the street from the Convent of St Augustine. Captain Enrique Vargas, who has been in Africa for seven years, calls at the convent to see his sister Maria, who is a postulant. Their mother died while Enrique was away, leaving Maria Consuelo alone until she entered the convent.
Enrique looks forward to Maria Consuelo taking her vows. Maria Consuelo is about to say that she expected to go with him when he returned, but she is distracted by music from the cantina; she loves “the sweet, sweet songs that they sing in the world out there”. Enrique says she is better in the convent, away from the evil world. Maria Consuelo asks how the world can be evil with such music in it.
Juan (Ramon Novarro) performs at the cantina
After Enrique leaves, a despondent Maria Consuelo goes into the garden to listen to the music. She is in ecstasy at the singing, and prays to the Virgin to let her know if Enrique is right about the world being evil. Then she prays for another song, which draws her to look over the convent wall. She sees Juan de Dios performing in the cantina [Just for Today]. Juan is joined on stage by Lola [dance].
Juan drinks with two young women while Lola stands jealously watching. Maria Consuelo is still watching at midnight, when Juan and Lola leave the cantina. Juan insults Lola, but she accepts it because she loves him. Lola believes nothing is important in life apart from having fun.
Juan lives with a music teacher, Giuseppe Esteban, who had discovered Juan blacking shoes and took him in because he thought he had talent. Esteban was once the greatest opera singer in Spain, but he squandered his talent and lost everything. He is trying to prevent Juan from doing the same, and wants to take him to Madrid, to introduce him to the impresarios he used to know. Juan promises to work harder and see Lola only once–or twice–a week.
Esteban (Ernest Torrence) berates Juan for wasting his talent
At the market, Juan steals oranges and a mantilla and then hides in a courtyard, believing the police are after him. He finds Maria Consuelo, who has run away, putting on a dress. She recognizes Juan and tells him she would follow him anywhere to hear him sing and to hear people laughing. Maria Consuelo leaves payment for the dress.
Later, after giving Maria Consuelo the mantilla, Juan finds that she has nowhere to go and asks her to go home with him; she innocently accepts. He gives her his supper and she asks him to sing [Not Quite Good Enough for Me]. Maria Consuelo confesses that she used to watch Juan every night and that she ran away from the convent to find him. She tells him he has shown her that the world is not wicked. Lola arrives, but Juan manages to get rid of her without her seeing Maria.
Next morning, Juan hears that the police are looking everywhere for Maria. He persuades Esteban that they should all go to Madrid, with Maria Consuelo as their cook.
Lola goes to Enrique with Maria’s convent clothes, which she had found in Juan’s room. Enrique decides he will follow them to Madrid.
Later, in Madrid, Juan and Esteban continue with their singing lessons. Their landlady, La Rumbarita [Cavatina from L’Elisir d’Amore] accompanies them to the opera house, where Juan auditions for Esteban’s friend, the impresario Mischa [Questa o quella from Rigoletto]. Mischa is unimpressed, believing Juan to have “neither heart nor soul”. He says great singers must be capable of having their hearts broken. After Juan storms out, Esteban offers to pay Mischa to allow Juan to perform; it is to be their secret.
That evening, Juan takes out his anger on Maria Consuelo, criticizing her cooking. But he relents [Lonely] and tells her how much he loves her. The next morning they go to church and Juan asks the priest to arrange their marriage. Esteban tells Juan he is to sing at the opera that night.
Juan performs ‘Ah! fuyez, douce image‘ by Massenet
Enrique waits for Juan in his room. He tells Juan that he has made a harlot of his sister and that he is taking her away. Lola enters and taunts Juan. Juan convinces Enrique that no harm has come to Maria Consuelo, but the brother is still determined to take her back to the convent. Juan is finally persuaded that he must give Maria Consuelo back to God.
When Maria Consuelo returns, Juan convinces her that he has reconciled with Lola. Believing that the world is as wicked as she was told, Maria Consuela returns to Seville with her brother. Esteban persuades Juan that he must still sing at the opera that evening. [Ah! fuyez, douce image from Manon]. The performance is a triumph and Mischa offers him a contract, but Juan is still heart-broken.
Juan does not leave his bed for many days and Lola sees that he is dying. Lola returns to Seville and sees that Maria Consuelo is also ill. Lola explains that Juan tricked Maria Consuelo because her brother persuaded him it was the best thing for her. Maria Consuelo returns to Madrid with Lola and is reunited with Juan.
So sings Chip in On the Town, reading from his forty-year-old New York guidebook. He has to miss out, unfortunately, but a glimpse of the show can be caught in The Florodora Girl, a fictional tale about one of the original six chorus girls in the Broadway production of Owen Hall and Leslie Stuart’s Florodora.
The show opened on Broadway in 1900 the film, as its subtitle ‘A Story of the Gay Nineties’ makes clear, is set in the late-Victorian period. This is certainly the period of most of The Florodora Girl’s songs. The then-ubiquitous Stothart-Grey partnership only wrote two numbers for the picture, with the assistance of Andy Rice. The rest are popular songs from the period. But the new songs blend in comfortably as pseudo-Victorian, especially ‘Pass the Beer and Pretzels’, which is part of a three-minute medley performed by Marion Davies and chorus.
Daisy (Marion Davies) throws herself into a performance of ‘Pass the Beer and Pretzels’
Robert Barrios suggests that the film’s music is “present less for its own sake than to provide atmospheric upholstery”. There is a degree of truth in this, but it is not the whole story. For example, ‘Don’t Wake Me Up, I’m Dreaming’ (which may have a third set of lyrics by Clifford Grey or Andy Rice), is sung over, and mirrors, Daisy’s yearning looks at Jack after she refuses his flowers. And ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’ not only involves Jack’s intrusion into the on-stage performance, but the lyrics and movements of the singers are utilized to become Daisy’s half of their conversation.
This reflects Harry Beaumont’s growing comfort with the musical. His staging and framing is much more inventive than in his earlier efforts, especially in the sequence at the Bowery slumming ball.
Dancers at the Bowery slumming ball
Marion Davies is clearly more comfortable as Daisy than she had been as Marianne, and her lively performance won deserved praise from critics. And as the film’s producer, she benefited from having a star who happened to own a private beach suitable for shooting a lengthy portion of the first half. Davies’s staff were able to provide catering that was a cut above what the cast and crew were used to in Culver City.
James Davis (1853-1907) was a solicitor who allegedly chose the pen name Owen Hall because it sounded like ‘owing all’, reflecting his frequently bankrupt state.
Hall achieved greater success as a librettist, helping to write some of the most successful British musical comedies of his day. Amongst these was Florodora (1899), for which he provided lyrics to Leslie Stuart’s music.
The show’s breakout song, ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden’ is performed by Marion Davies and chorus, with interruptions by Lawrence Gray, at the end of The Florodora Girl.
Thomas Augustine Barrett (1863-1928) has been called one of the most gifted composers of musical comedy on the British stage. His early hits, written for the music hall, included ‘Lily of Laguna’ and ‘Soldiers of the King’.
Stuart’s first West End musical comedy, which became an international success, was Florodora (1899), and it had two quite different impacts on MGM musicals. Firstly, the show formed the background for The Florodora Girl, a fictional story about one of the original Broadway chorus girls. A song from the show, ‘Tell Me Pretty Maiden,’ features at the climax of the film.
Decades later, Florodora, misnamed Florodora Girl, is one of the many no-longer-relevant New York sights featured in Chip’s out-of-date guidebook in On the Town and mentioned in ‘Come Up to My Place’.
