George Orville Hively (1889-1950) was a screenwriter and film editor in Hollywood from 1916. In 1935 he was nominated for the Best Editing Oscar for John Ford’s The Informer, but his finest achievement was probably on Howard Hawks’s Brining Up Baby (1938).
Devil-May-Care is significant as the first MGM operetta, a sub-gene in which the studio achieved considerable success during the thirties, largely owing to the success of the Jeanette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy partnership.
Ramon Novarro had been a popular action star in silent films, following his star-making appearance in Ben-Hur (1925). But he had trained as a singer and always insisted that performing opera had been his great ambition. He was certainly a gifted tenor, and a much better actor than Eddy, both of which attributes he demonstrates in Devil-May-Care.
Armand (Ramon Novarro) completes his caricature of Louis XVIII on the wall of the prison cell
The film is loosely based on The Ladies’ Battle, a three-act comedy by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé, written in 1851. Its opening section is entirely new, the play beginning at the point at which the hero is disguised as a servant and falling in love with Léonie. As its title suggests, the play has a greater focus on the two female characters, whereas Armand is the subject of Devil-May-Care, as befits Novarro’s status as a major star.
Barrios has drawn attention to the terrible inadequacy of most of the operettas produced in 1929-31, starting with Fox’s The Desert Song (1929). But he singles out Devil-May-Care as being “slickly produced,” both an artistic and financial success. This is largely attributable to Novarro’s personality and a score by Herbert Stothard and Clifford Grey that achieves no great heights but serves its purpose very well. This was Stothart’s first major project, early on in his career at Metro, and he is partnered well with Grey.
There is also a solid performance by John Miljan as DeGrignon, the villain of the piece.
Devil-May-Care has one of the interpolated two-strip Technicolor sequences that were ubiquitous at the time. It serves no purpose other than to slow down the film when it should have been building to its climax.
Armand learns about Bonaparte’s return from exile
Leaving that aside, Devil-May-Care is a musical still capable of being enjoyed, which is more than can be said for many of its contemporaries.
It’s a Great Life is, in almost every way, technically superior to The Broadway Melody, made only a few months earlier. But it was a flop, lost in the mass of backstagers which Richard Barrios holds partly responsible for the public’s turning away from musicals so soon after they were invented.
It is generally accepted that the Duncan Sisters would have starred in The Broadway Melody if they had been available, so the later film reworks its plot, though the love-object who is the subject of contention here is the younger sister, rather than the man. The relationship between the two sisters is cloying and somewhat incestuous, and this problematizes the cinematic cliché of the love triangle.
Jimmy (Lawrence Gray) accompanies Babe (Vivian Duncan) and Casey (Rosetta Duncan) in one of their several renditions of ‘I’m Following You’.
The film moves between often effective comedy (Rosetta Duncan was clearly a talented comedy performer) and drama verging on the tragic. The latter is handled less convincingly than the former. Bessie Love’s dressing room scene introduced a tragic moment organically into the generally light-hearted Broadway Melody. In It’s a Great Life, the rawness of the break-up between the two sisters sits uneasily alongside the humour.
In a bizarre moment, the delusional Babe’s ranting on her sickbed segues into one of the picture’s two Technicolor sequences, in which the Duncans, dressed as little girls, perform ‘Hoosier Hop’. The transition from black-and-white to colour involves an uncharacteristic stylistic flourish from director Sam Wood as a (presumably subjective) spiral pattern fills the screen.
Casey comforts the ailing Vivian as hapless Jimmy looks on
The Duncan Sisters were a top vaudeville act, but their fanbase was unable to put It’s a Great Life into profit. They had signed a three-picture contract with Metro but, apart from some footage shot for The March of Time, they made no further films.
It’s a Great Life has its moments, and there were many worse musicals made in the 1929-31 period, but its greatest merit today is that it preserved, and revealed something of, a top vaudeville act that would otherwise be lost to time.
France in 1814. Napoleon Bonaparte is to be exiled to Elba and bids farewell to his Old Guard. He singles out Armand de Treville, who looks forward to the day Napoleon will return from Elba [March of the Old Guard].
Some time later, Armand is in prison alongside other Bonapartists, awaiting execution. He entertains his fellow prisoners by drawing a caricature of Louis XVIII [Louie]. When he is placed before the fighting squad, which is commanded by Lucien DeGrignon, Armand’s last request is to give the order for his own execution. He gives a sequence of orders to the soldiers, ending with ‘about face,’ which gives him the opportunity to escape over a wall.
Armand (Ramon Novarro) bamboozles the firing squad
Armand steals a horse and is pursued by soldiers. Reaching a village, he climbs into the upper story window of an inn, entering a room occupied by a young woman, Léonie de Beaufort. Armand’s face is hidden in shadow. Léonie is frightened but, when they hear soldiers searching the inn, she let’s Armand hide in a side room. Armand tells Leonie she is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. But, when a soldier tells her he is searching for a Bonapartist, she betrays Armand.
Léonie (Dorothy Jordan) discovers a strange man in her room
The soldier enters the side room, there is the sound of fighting, and Armand emerges, wearing a uniform. He rides away with the troops and Léonie finds the soldier lying stunned in the side room. Armand soon separates from the other soldiers.
In the south of France, Countess Louise lives alone in a great chateau [Why Waste Your Charms?]. Armand, an old friend of Louise, arrives and asks for shelter. Louise is a Royalist, but she loves Armand; he loves her also, but only as a sister.They agree agreedthat Armand will pretend to be a servant.
Later, Léonie arrives as a guest at her cousin’s chateau; she does not recognize Armand because she never saw his face. Taking luggage to Léonie’s room, Armand hears Léonie telling Louise about the incident at the inn. He learns that she is so vehemently anti-Bonaparte because her father was guillotined and his lands confiscated by Napoleon.
Gaston, the butler, takes a liking to Armand and tells him that Louise’s maid is in love with him [Madame Pompadour]. A fellow Bonapartist tells Armand that Napoleon will soon return to France and he should hold himself ready.
Armand continues with his servant’s duties [Charming] and Léonie finds herself attracted to him. A letter arrives from DeGrignon, who is coming to court Léonie. Léonie asks Louise if it is ever permissible to love someone not of your station, not realising she is touching on Louise’s love for Armand [If He Cared; Charming]. Armand flirts with Léonie, who tries to admonish him, but without success.
Léonie is shocked to receive a love letter from the Bonapartist Armand de Treville. She concludes that he must be hiding nearby and asks Louise for a pistol, to use if he ever comes near her.
Armand tricks the groom into letting him escort Léonie on her morning ride. They stop to rest in the forest and Armand confesses his love [Shepherd Serenade]. They kiss, but Léonie immediately regrets it, preventing Armand from revealing his true identity. But Armand now knows she loves him.
Armand serenades Léonie
DeGrignon arrives to propose marriage to Léonie, and is surprised when Louise tells him how her cousin concealed her “maidenly trepidation” when she received his letter.
When Léonie returns and sees DeGrignon, she runs to her room. DeGrignon questions Armand in his guise as a servant, then returns to his headquarters, where he checks the description of the escaped prisoner, confirming that ‘Charles’ is really Armand. He takes men to arrest Armand.
Meanwhile, Armand receives news that Napoleon has landed in France and tells Louise he is leaving to join the Emperor’s army. Léonie will not let him into her room, so he tells her through the door that he is leaving, but also that he loves her. Léonie listens in tears. Louise tells Armand not to despair. As he prepares to leave, Armand hears Léonie singing [If He Cared] and climbs to her window, as he did at the inn [Shepherd Serenade]. They kiss and Léonie says she loves him no matter who he is. Before Armand can reveal his identity, DeGrignon and his troops arrive. Armand hides in her room and DeGrignon tells her that Charles is really Armand DeTreville. This time she does not betray him, but afterwards she orders him to go.
Armand is spotted and he and DeGrignon duel. Armand wins and escapes. Léonie tells Louise she hates him.
Armand meets up with the Bonapartist troops [March of the Old Guard]. They gather at Grenoble to greet Napoleon [Love Ballet]. Louise comes to Armand and tells him that Léonie has left for Paris with DeGrignon and begs him to stop her ruining her life.
Armand deserts and finds DeGrignon drinking with the innkeeper at the inn where he first met Léonie. He goes to her room, this time up the stairs. She tries to scream so he gags her and carries her out of the inn. When they finally stop, Léonie sleeps in Armand’s arms [Shepherd Serenade]. When she awakens, they kiss.
