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Oh, For A Man!

1930, Movie, NR, 78 mins

Oh, For A Man!: Review

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A bright, fast, and funny farce that shows off MacDonald's comedic abilities, with hardly any singing. MacDonald and Denny make a fine pairing and win over the audience despite a very skinny story. She's a diva with a huge operatic following and her life has become filled with ennui. She's doing "Isolde" on stage and is angered by the indifference of the crew. She also hates the attentions of the stage door Johnnies and has her maid, Skipworth, keep everyone away from her. Davidson adores MacDonald and would like to marry her, but she puts him off by saying that her career is her total focus in life. She goes home to bed after the show and is visited by second-story man Denny, who is there to rob her residence. He's about to chloroform her when she pushes him away, saying that he might ruin "the world's most beautiful voice." Now Denny recognizes his victim and it turns out that he is her biggest fan. They are soon pals and he asks if she will give him her opinion of his voice. He sings an old standard and his voice is not bad, although a little rough in the high register. She thinks she can reform this thief and make a singer out of him, so she arranges to have her conductor and her manager listen to him the next day. Denny worries that she may be trapping him, but she allays those fears by giving him a pearl ring as a token of her sincerity. Next day, Denny sings for Conti and Lugosi in German, but they are not impressed. She thinks they are just prejudiced and demands they sign Denny for the opera. (Denny was faking his lousy notes and really could sing. At one point, he'd been considered for the male lead in THE MERRY WIDOW.) She prevails on them to give Denny a job in the chorus (at $100 per week, a prince's ransom in those days) and let him move up in the ranks. When Conti, who runs the opera, sees he has no choice, Denny gets the job and begins his singing lessons. MacDonald's own teacher, Cheron, takes on the task as Denny leaves his regular vocation because he doesn't want to expose his golden throat to night work. Denny is as disgusted with his lessons as Cheron is in giving them, and the thief is about to leave when MacDonald proposes to him. Much as Denny has fallen for MacDonald, he can't picture himself carrying her luggage and doing all the things stage husbands do, so she agrees to stop working and devote herself to him. They go off to Italy where she owns a villa. Soon enough, they are on each others' nerves as she practices scales in one room, while he pounds a punching bag in another. She's invited to a local charity bazaar where she agrees to sing, while Denny grumbles. It's there she runs into White, an old friend who has married one of Denny's pals, Hymer, a boxer. MacDonald sings; then White does a tune. Denny walks out on MacDonald and she goes back to New York where she is going to sing again. Late one night, she is once more visited by Denny, back at work as a thief it seems. He'd been to the opera that night, liked the first act, but didn't care much for the last and just wanted to tell her. They kiss and the picture fades out with the two of them reunited. Based on a story in The Saturday Evening Post by Mary F. Watkins, it was shot before the Production Code made it necessary for criminals to have retribution. Once that code was established, the movie could not be reissued and the studio lost a bit of money because MacDonald became quite popular and it might have turned a handsome penny. Lugosi had already established himself as a stage star in "Dracula," but his film version was not out yet and so audiences didn't laugh when he limned the Italian singing teacher. Music includes: "Liebestod" from Tristan and Isolde (Richard Wagner, sung by MacDonald), "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms" (traditional, Thomas Moore, sung by Denny), German art song (composer unknown, sung by Denny), "On a Summer Night" (William Kernell, sung by MacDonald), "I'm Just Nuts about You" (Kernell, sung by Marjorie White). leave a comment
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