The Musicals of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Category: Main Crew

  • 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.

  • Charles Brabin

    Charles J Brabin (1882-1957) emigrated from Liverpool to New York in 1900 and found work as a stage actor. In 1908 he joined the Edison company, first as an actor, and later taking up writing and directing. 

    Brabin directed for a variety of studios throughout the silent era, generally with success. The major exception was MGM’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1924) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Brabin began shooting the film in Italy, with George Walsh playing the title character. Irving Thalberg did not like the rushes that were being sent back to Hollywood, and decided to replace both Brabin and Shaw with, respectively, Fred Niblo and Ramon Novarro.

    It would seem no long-term grudges were held on either side, as Brabin did work subsequently for the studio, including on two musicals, Call of the Flesh and Stage Mother. He also had considerable success for MGM with The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932).

    Charles Brabin was married to screen star Theda Bara for 34 years, until her death, one of the most successful of Hollywood marriages.

  • Call of the Flesh

    The Crew

    Charles BrabinDirector
    Dorothy FarnumStory
    John ColtonDialogue
    Herbert StothartComposer
    Clifford GreyLyricist
    Hunt StrombergProducer (uncredited)
    William AxtComposer
    Merritt B GerstadCinematographer
    Cedric GibbonsArt Director
    Conrad A NervigEditor
    Douglas ShearerSound Recording Director
    Ralph ShugartSound Recording Engineer (uncredited)
    David CoxCostume Designer
    Paul LamkoffOrchestration
    George WestmoreMakeup Artist (uncredited)

  • Owen Hall

    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.

  • Directors N to Z

    Nigh, William
    Ober, Robert
    Pollard, Harry A
    Reisner, Charles F
    Roach, Hal
    Rogers, Charley
    Sedgwick, Edward
    St Clair, Mal
    Van Dyke II, W S
    Vidor, King
    White, Jules
    Wood, Sam

  • Directors A to M

    Barrymore, Lionel
    Beaumont, Harry
    Berkeley, Busby
    Brabin, Charles
    Cabanne, Christy
    Conway, Jack
    DeMille, Cecil B
    Franklin, Sidney
    Grinde, Nick
    Houston, Norman
    Leonard, Robert Z
    MacGregor, Edgar J
    Mack, Willard

  • Leslie Stuart

    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’.

  • Paul Dresser

    Johann Paul Dreiser Jr (1857-1906) is considered one of the most important American songwriters of the late nineteenth century. Like many of his contemporaries, he started out performing in minstrel shows, and ended up as a music publisher.

    In between, Dresser wrote an estimated 150 songs. Like Stephen Foster from an earlier generation, he leaned heavily on sentimental themes such as motherhood, the home, and patriotism.

    Dresser’s best-known song is ‘On the Banks of the Wabash,’ which featured in many Hollywood films, including The Florodora Girl. A bridge over the Wabash River now bears his name.

    Dresser was the older brother of novelist Theodore Dreiser, whose career he supported financially.

  • Alfred E Rick

    I can tell you nothing about Alfred E Rick (18??-19??) except that he and Maurice Scott wrote the comic song ‘Swing Me Higher, Obadiah,’ as performed by music hall artiste Chummie La Mara and, later, by Marion Davies in The Florodora Girl.

  • Maurice Scott

    Only one fact is known about composer Maurice Scott (1878-1933). In 1917 he composed a song that forty-something years later would lend its title to an internationally-acclaimed stage musical and an award-winning film: ‘Oh, It’s a Lovely War’ was written by Scott and John P Long for the music hall entertainer Ella Shields. 

    It was another music hall artiste, Chummie La Mara, who sang Scott’s ‘Swing Me Higher, Obadiah,’ later performed by Marion Davies in The Florodora Girl.

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