This is a diagetic musical. "Diagetic" refers to sounds or music that has a source on the screen; when Gene Kelly starts dancing in his music and the music comes out of nowhere, that is not diagetic. In this one, about songwriter Lawrence Gray, who loves Judith Woods and is loved by Wynne Gibson, Gray sits at a piano or we see a stage in a theater. Everything is "realer". Is it better? Well, my taste runs towards the MGM musicals of the Freed era, which were not like this.
Still, this is a fine early musical, eked out with the production values that MGM put into its musicals in those days, with great if stagy choreography by Sammy Lee and big production numbers, all under the direction of the underrated Harry Beaumont. He could get great performances out of mediocre actors and Wynne Gibson is a ball of fire in this one: a revelation that makes you realize that she was reined in and misused at Warner Brother.
The technical people haven't solved all the technical problems of dealing with sound. The staged musical numbers sound thin in the higher register and the camera is almost entire immobile. Still, the editing under Blanche Sewell deals nicely with the issues; the songs offered are pretty good; and the parade of cameos is interesting.
Still, this is a fine early musical, eked out with the production values that MGM put into its musicals in those days, with great if stagy choreography by Sammy Lee and big production numbers, all under the direction of the underrated Harry Beaumont. He could get great performances out of mediocre actors and Wynne Gibson is a ball of fire in this one: a revelation that makes you realize that she was reined in and misused at Warner Brother.
The technical people haven't solved all the technical problems of dealing with sound. The staged musical numbers sound thin in the higher register and the camera is almost entire immobile. Still, the editing under Blanche Sewell deals nicely with the issues; the songs offered are pretty good; and the parade of cameos is interesting.