pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...
film directed by Sidney Franklin. Its plot is a highly fictionalized account of opera singer Jenny Lind. The film features
Grace Moore
Mary Willie Grace Moore (December 5, 1898January 26, 1947) was an American operatic lyric soprano and actress in musical theatre and film.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', January 29, 1947, page 48. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee N ...
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' (1 ...
as P. T. Barnum. It contains operatic arias by Moore.
Wallace Beery would play Barnum again four years later in '' The Mighty Barnum'' (1934), with Virginia Bruce as Jenny Lind.
Plot
Cast
*
Grace Moore
Mary Willie Grace Moore (December 5, 1898January 26, 1947) was an American operatic lyric soprano and actress in musical theatre and film.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', January 29, 1947, page 48. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee N ...
Wallace Beery
Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in '' Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in '' Grand Hotel'' (1 ...
Gilbert Emery
Gilbert Emery Bensley Pottle (June 11, 1875 – October 28, 1945), known professionally as Gilbert Emery, was an American actor who appeared in over 80 movies from 1921 to his death in 1945. He was also a playwright, author of seven Broadway pla ...
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti (29 November 1797 – 8 April 1848) was an Italian Romantic music, Romantic composer, best known for his almost 70 operas. Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, he was a leading composer of the ''be ...
, sung by Moore
*"Student's Song": Music by Oscar Straus, lyrics by Clifford Grey, sung by students escorting Jenny home
*"Oh Why": Lyrics by Arthur Freed, music by Herbert Stothart and Harry M. Woods, played by Moore singing and on piano
*"Casta Diva" (from '' Norma):'' Music by Vincenzo Bellini, played at an opera house and sung by Moore
*"Swedish Pastorale": Written by Howard Johnson and Herbert Stothart, sung by a group in Sweden
*"Lovely Hour": Words and music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, sung first by Moore off-screen and reprised at P. T. Barnum's show in New York
*"I Hear Your Voice": Music by Oscar Straus, lyrics by Clifford Grey
Reception
In a contemporary review for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', critic
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.Mr. Franklin delivers some imaginatively conceived sequences, there are others that are emphatically old fashioned in design. ... It is too mindful of the old things in motion pictures."
Remake
The film was remade as the 1932 American French-language film titled '' Jenny Lind''.