The Desert Song *** (1929, John Boles, Carlotta King, Louise Fazenda, Myrna Loy) – Classic Movie Review 10,641

John Boles cuts a dash as the Red Shadow (aka Pierre Birbeau) in director Roy Del Ruth’s rather beautiful if perhaps shakily scripted and filmed 1929 Warner Bros (as The Vitaphone Corporation) innovative first version of Sigmund Romberg’s tuneful operetta The Desert Song, which would have been the first full-talkie musical but Warner Bros inexplicably sat on it for five months, and MGM’s The Broadway Melody (1929) beat it into cinemas. A part-Technicolor, all-sound musical marvel, The Desert Song was complete and ready in November 1928 but not released till 8 April 1929. The Broadway Melody was premiered on 1 February 1929.

Carlotta King plays lovely, sassy French girl Margot Bonvalet, the mademoiselle who takes for ever to realise that her foppish milksop boyfriend Pierre Birbeau and the Red Shadow are but opposites of the same man. Myrna Loy plays the very striking-looking desert siren Azuri.

Hit songs: ‘The Riff Song’, ‘One Alone’, and ‘The Desert Song’.

It is shot in black and white, originally with one two-strip Technicolor sequence, as Warner Bros’ first film released in colour. The 306 feet of two-strip Technicolor footage, with the Red Shadow and his Arab horsemen riding across windswept sand dunes, opened the film but this scene now survives only in black and white, though it still looks good. John Boles sounds great, with the singing all live, and no playback.

The screenplay by Harvey Gates is based on the hit musical play with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto A Harbach, and Frank Mandel. It is faithful to the stage production, although some of the songs from the show have been omitted.

The film originally included a 10-minute intermission when music was played.

It is followed by two remakes: The Desert Song (1943) and The Desert Song (1953).

Also in the cast are Louise Fazenda, Johnny Arthur, Edward Martindel, Jack Pratt, Myrna Loy, Robert E Guzman, Otto Hoffman, Marie Wells, John Miljan and Del Elliott.

The original stage version of The Desert Song opened at the Casino Theatre on 30 November 1926 and ran for 471 performances.

A trailer was released, featuring John Boles who describes the story and introduces the other cast members.

It earned $1,549,000 in the US and $1,473,000 overseas, ie costing $354,00, it earned $3,022,000. So it was a big hit and Warner Bros quickly cast John Boles in an all-colour musical feature called Song of the West, completed in June 1929 but not released until March 1930.

Hilariously, it became impossible to exhibit it in the US after 1935 because of its pre-Production Code era content, including sexual innuendo, suggestive humour, and adult themes. Oh, and Johnny Arthur’s timid reporter character Benny Kidd is obviously meant to be gay.

It proved Carlotta King’s only film. She returned to vaudeville and lived till she was 101 in 2000.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,641

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