Because there is nothing of tots or titillation in this film. I will give it this. For an early talkie, it managed to transition between scenes without one title card. This is probably of interest only for film historians, and particularly those interested in the early sound era. And that is because it demonstrates just about everything wrong with the early talkie musical craze that so quickly turned movie goers off the genre for two years.
The cast is obscure unless you are really into that era of film history. Probably the cast member with the biggest future was Wynne Gibson, the best of the tough blondes of Depression era film. Almost emblematically, she is a brunette here. And yet she is the performer you will remember, and fondly.
This is often and oddly compared to "Lord Byron of Broadway", and I can't imagine why other than both films are MGM movies about songwriters. Except Lord Byron's songwriter is a heel and this songwriter, Danny Regan (Lawrence. Gray) is just romantically rash. In fact the entire film is about his confusion over picking the right woman. Because Regan is a songwriter and publisher at least the plot escapes being a complete backstager by being able to move between productions and not tethered to just one. But the featured musical numbers are very odd - the first number is an operatic song with minstrel accompaniment (???) and the second number has everybody dressed in felt with a single metallic barb coming out of the top of their costumes. And you haven't lived until you've seen Wynne Gibson and Benny Rubin try to sing a duet. Unfortunately the songs are just not memorable.
To pad the plot, for some reason Benny Rubin is inserted as the piano playing employee of an overweight middle aged diva whom he obviously finds repulsive and yet she chases the poor man tenaciously. Maybe they were going for a Margaret Dumont/Groucho Marx dynamic and just got way off target?
You can't say MGM didn't give Lawrence Gray plenty of opportunities. He played the lead in five of these early sound films before they gave him the boot, because although he had a great voice he just had no screen presence.
Jack Benny shows up in a short scene at the very beginning, I think mainly to explain to the audience just who Gray's character is. Benny wasn't a radio star yet, and I think this was the period of time where Benny was under contract to MGM, Irving Thalberg liked him but couldn't figure out what to do with him next, and Benny was getting bored.
Some say that this film was based on the marriage of Irving Berlin to heiress Ellin Mackay. If so, Berlin should have sued.
The cast is obscure unless you are really into that era of film history. Probably the cast member with the biggest future was Wynne Gibson, the best of the tough blondes of Depression era film. Almost emblematically, she is a brunette here. And yet she is the performer you will remember, and fondly.
This is often and oddly compared to "Lord Byron of Broadway", and I can't imagine why other than both films are MGM movies about songwriters. Except Lord Byron's songwriter is a heel and this songwriter, Danny Regan (Lawrence. Gray) is just romantically rash. In fact the entire film is about his confusion over picking the right woman. Because Regan is a songwriter and publisher at least the plot escapes being a complete backstager by being able to move between productions and not tethered to just one. But the featured musical numbers are very odd - the first number is an operatic song with minstrel accompaniment (???) and the second number has everybody dressed in felt with a single metallic barb coming out of the top of their costumes. And you haven't lived until you've seen Wynne Gibson and Benny Rubin try to sing a duet. Unfortunately the songs are just not memorable.
To pad the plot, for some reason Benny Rubin is inserted as the piano playing employee of an overweight middle aged diva whom he obviously finds repulsive and yet she chases the poor man tenaciously. Maybe they were going for a Margaret Dumont/Groucho Marx dynamic and just got way off target?
You can't say MGM didn't give Lawrence Gray plenty of opportunities. He played the lead in five of these early sound films before they gave him the boot, because although he had a great voice he just had no screen presence.
Jack Benny shows up in a short scene at the very beginning, I think mainly to explain to the audience just who Gray's character is. Benny wasn't a radio star yet, and I think this was the period of time where Benny was under contract to MGM, Irving Thalberg liked him but couldn't figure out what to do with him next, and Benny was getting bored.
Some say that this film was based on the marriage of Irving Berlin to heiress Ellin Mackay. If so, Berlin should have sued.