Catherine Dale Owen (1900-1965) was an American blue blood who trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She acted on Broadway from the mid-twenties and made her film debut in His Glorious Night (1929), the film blamed by some commentators for initiating the decline in the career of John Gilbert.
His Glorious Night was directed by actor Lionel Barrymore, who was also at the helm of Owen’s only MGM musical, The Rogue Song. Most of her performance is now lost, though it can be heard on the surviving full audio track.
Lawrence Mervil Tibbet [sic] (1896-1960) was one of the great American opera stars, and also one of the most glamorous. He combined a deep baritone voice, of the quality required by a leading singer at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, with good looks and acting ability. These attributes made it inevitable that, with the advent of sound, Hollywood would come calling. Tibbett had already performed many of the great operatic roles, and developed a successful radio and recording career, when he signed a contract with MGM in 1930.
Tibbett’s career in films did not last long. He starred in four Metro musicals, made a couple of pictures for Fox, and then returned full-time to the stage. But his Hollywood career was by no means a failure. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his debut performance in The Rogue Song, something achieved by few actors. Unfortunately, The Rogue Song, MGM’s first all-Technicolor musical, is now a lost film.
Following this success, Tibbett did not embarrass himself in his other assignments, New Moon, The Prodigal and The Cuban Love Song (in which he duetted with himself).
By the end of his career, Tibbett had been a leading man at the Met for 27 seasons and established himself in the operatic pantheon.
[The Rogue Song is a lost film. The following is a summary based on a few extant segments and the soundtrack, which has survived.]
The Russian Empire in 1910 [Beyond the Dawn]. Yegor is the chief of a bandit group known as the Robbing Larks, and they are celebrating a successful raid. They go to the inn of Ossman to trade stolen goods for gold.
Yegor (Laurence Tibbett), surrounded by his men
Two of Yegor’s henchmen are Ali-Bek and Murza Bek. The latter claims to have saved Yegor’s father from mountain lions by slapping them to death.
Ossman the innkeeper tells Yegor that he has two female guests: an Imperial Princess and a Serene Countess. Princess Vera and Countess Tatiana hear the bandits singing in the room below. Tatiana has previously seen Yegor from the window and tells their servant Petrovna to bring to them “the tall, strong one who sings”. [The Rogue Song].
Meeting Vera and Tatiana, Yegor denies the Robbing Larks are thieves because they pay for what they take with a song. Yegor tells them he is from a line of bandits [Love Comes Like Bird On the Wing]. Tatiana offers to pay for the song, but Yegor says all he wants is the young lady’s hat with a funny little feather on it. Vera refuses and goes to bed, advising Tatiana to send Yegor on his way. Tatiana flirts with Yegor and gives him a string of pearls. To her annoyance, Yegor then says good night and leaves.
Yegor asks Princess Vera (Catherine Dale Owen) for her hat
Ossman subsequently tells Tatiana she will never be able to find the bandits’ hideout, so she decides instead to wait until Yegor tries to dispose of the pearls, when she will get her revenge. Ossman agrees to signal the captain of Cossacks so that Yegor can be arrested.
Murza-Bek tries to show Ali-Bek how to close a door properly, causing snow from the roof to fall on him.
Yegor climbs in through Vera’s window. He tells her he has come for her hat, then leaves.
Murza-Bek falls into a barrel of ice water after Ali-Bek tries to help him mount his horse.
Yegor visits his mother and his sister Nadja. He gives his mother the pearls, which he tells her came from a countess, and gives the hat to Nadja. He tells his sister the hat came from the daughter of a Russian prince, and she replies that she wants nothing to do with princes. Yegor deduces that Nadja is in love. She says she “hates” someone, but will say no more. Yegor promises to bring her a Parisian nightdress from the thieves’ market.
Ossman is at the thieves’ market with a Cossack captain. He has been pointing out thieves to be hanged, but it is Yegor the captain wants. Yegor arrives at the market and leaves Murza-Bek and Ali-Bek in charge of his horse. [The Narrative].
Vera warns Yegor that the Cossacks are there to arrest him for stealing Tatiana’s pearls. She knows he did not steal them. Yegor sends Vera to a room to wait for him while he completes some business.
The captain questions Murza-Bek and Ali-Bek about Yegor’s horse and they deny knowledge of everything. He orders their arrest and they flee.
Yegor tells Vera about his mother and sister, the only women he allows in his house. He has always avoided other women but he tells Vera he could love her [The White Dove].
Ali-Bek and Murzak-Bek buy cheese, but are chased by insects. When Murzak-Bek tries to swat a bee, he accidentally slaps their mule, which runs away.
Ossman is found dead. A note (?) says “Yegor punishes his betrayers”.
Vera asks Yegor if he is running away and he replies that his head stays on his body, the better to kiss her.
The Cossacks pursue Yegor on horseback, but he loses them and heads for home. He finds his mother grieving, and Nadja bleeding from self-inflicted dagger wounds. She has been raped by Prince Serge.
Yegor’s sister Nadja (Florence Lake) commits suicide after being raped
Yegor searches for Serge. One of his men tells him Tatiana is holding a ball that evening and Serge is bound to be there. Yegor breaks into Tatiana’s room and finds her there. He returns the necklace and offers to sing at the ball. [Swan Ballet]. After a ballet is performed, Tatiana announces to her guests that they are to be entertained by a singing bandit.
Vera is introduced to Princess Alexandra, and in turn introduces her brother, Prince Serge. Vera is shocked when Yegor walks onto the stage. Yegor sings a song telling Nadja’s story [Once in the Georgian Hills]. As he sings, his anger increases towards the man who seduced Nadja. Yegor follows Serge from the room and chases him.
[Intermission].
Yegor confronts Serge, and strangles him. Vera enters and finds Serge dead. She will not listen to Yegor’s explanation. Vera screams and Yegor flees, taking her with him. He tells her she will stay with him in a place her world can never find. She has shown no pity for Nadja, so she will work as a servant.
Later, Yegor mocks Vera, but then sings to her [When I’m Looking at You], revealing that he still loves her.
The bandits cross the desert, and Ali-Bek attempts to shave Murzak-Bek.
Ali-Bek(Stan Laurel), about to get Murza-Bek (Oliver Hardy) into another fine mess
Yegor is unable to break Vera’s spirit. Yegor’s mother tells him no good will come of what he is doing to a woman he still loves.
Vera attempts to seduce Hassan, Yegor’s right hand man. Yegor sees what she is doing and warns her to stop. During a terrible storm, Yegor carries Vera to safety. Vera tells Yegor that she does not hate him, because only the living can hate. Yegor pleads with her not to be so unhappy, and offers to take her to a lake in the mountains that she used to visit as a child.
Vera persuades Hassan to help her escape, on the understanding that no harm shall come to Yegor. At the mountain lake, Yegor is captured, causing Hassan to kill himself. Yegor is whipped in public [The Lash; When I’m Looking at You ; The Narrative].
The public whipping of Yegor
Vera goes to Yegor in his cell and asks him to forgive her. He says there is nothing to forgive and that they are even now.
A tree concealing Ali-Bek and Murzak-Bek collapses, dumping them into the lake.
Vera has Yegor released and says goodbye to him. They express the hope that, at some future time, they can be together. Yegor rides towards the sunset [When I’m Looking at You].
Murzak-Bek tells the bandits that Yegor is dead and he is now their leader. The bandits laugh, then hear Yegor singing [The Rogue Song]. Ali-Bek and Murzak-Bek resume their normal duties.
May Blossom Boley (1881-1963) was a successful actor and dancer on Broadway whose film career started late. She was 45 when she featured as ‘the Strong Woman’ in The Wagon Show.
Despite her background in musical comedy, Boley only made one musical for MGM, when she played Broadway star and husband hunter Fanny Kelly in Children of Pleasure.
Blanche Irene Sewell (1898-1949) died far too young, but had become one of the most talented of all Hollywood editors and a seminal influence on the MGM musical style . After training under pioneer Viola Lawrence, Sewell became a full-fledged editor at MGM in 1925 and spent the rest of her career there.
She was the sister-in-law of Walt Disney, and it is generally accepted that she tutored him on the principles of editing and was very influential, in particular, on the form of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Sewell cut some of Metro’s most memorable pictures of the 1930s, including Grand Hotel, Red Dust and Queen Christina. In the 1940s, she edited twenty films, fourteen of which were musicals.
Sewell’s involvement with musicals began in 1930 with Children of Pleasure, after which she cut Naughty Marietta, Broadway Melody of 1936, Rose-Marie, Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1938, Rosalie and Listen Darling.
In 1939, Sewell was chosen to edit The Wizard of Oz, and it was claimed that this was in the hope she could bring to it some of the magic that Disney had produced in Snow White.
After this cameBroadway Melody of 1940, Go West, Ziegfeld Girl, Ship Ahoy, Panama Hattie, Seven Sweethearts, Du Barry Was a Lady, Best Foot Forward, Bathing Beauty, Easy to Wed, It Happened in Brooklyn, Fiesta andThe Pirate. Sewell’s last work, shortly before her death, was on Take Me Out to the Ball Game.
Percy Hilburn (1889-1946) had a career as a cinematographer lasting only from 1915 to 1931, but still managed to shoot over 70 pictures. Most notable amongst these was MGM’s Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), on which he was one of several DoPs.
During the remainder of his career at the studio Hilburn shot two musicals, Children of Pleasure and Good News.
It is difficult to find any information about George Ward (????-????), the co-writer of songs featured in Children of Pleasure, Good News and the uncompleted The March of Time. Most online sources seem to confuse him with George Warde, a child actor during the 1920s.
Lyricist Howard Johnson (1887-1941) both served in the First World War and wrote popular songs about it, including the immortal ‘I’d Like to See the Kaiser with a Lily in his Hand’:
I’d like to see all mothers free from sorrow,
I’d like to see poor Belgium free from pain;
I’d like to see this cruel conflict ended,
I’d like to see my daddy once again.
I’d like to see the Yankees win this battle,
I’d like to see France get back her promised land;
I’d like to see this whole big world United,
And I’d like to see the Kaiser with a lily in his hand!
Johnson was capable of better than this, and his best-known song is probably ‘What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?,’ written in 1916 and made a UK chart hit by Shakin’ Stevens 70 years later.
Johnson co-wrote numbers for Children of Pleasure and the abandoned March of Time. His songs are also featured in Madam Satan, A Night at the Opera, For Me and My Gal and Hit the Deck.
British actor Herbert Prior (1867-1954) made his screen debut in 1907. He had featured roles in hundreds of silent features and shorts, including as Mr Jaggers in Great Expectations (1917), but the prominence of his parts declined after the introduction of sound.
Prior was in Children of Pleasure, Flying High and Student Tour.
