I watched this movie because I'm very interested in opera, and in seeing how opera has been portrayed in film. I also enjoy a lot of Irene Dunne's movies.
I was suspicious, though, when I saw that Adolphe Menjou was the romantic lead. He's fine in supporting roles, and even in non- romantic leads. He was, after all, nominated for a leading-man Oscar that same year for his role in *The Front Page*. But I have never been able to see how any woman could have found him even remotely attractive sexually, even back in 1923 when he starred in Chaplin's *A Woman of Paris*.
In this 1931 feature he was 41 years old, and looked every bit of it. That is not to suggest that men 41 and even much older cannot look sexually attractive. We have lots of examples to prove the contrary.
Nor does the age difference between Menjou and Dunne - only 8 years, though it appears greater - bother me. I had no problems with Audrey Hepburn appearing with male leads considerably older than she at the beginning of her career, such as Cary Grant (25 years older) in *Charade*, Gary Cooper (28 years older) in *Love in the Afternoon*, or even Fred Astaire (30 years older) in *Funny Face*.
But, to me, Menjou as a romantic lead looks slimy. It was impossible for me to believe that he had attractive women chasing after him, which he does in this movie. And if you can't buy that, the movie pretty much falls apart, as you can imagine with the title *The Great Lover*.
Dunne is fine as the not-too-scrupulous American soprano who, just back from two years of study in Italy, is hoping to break into opera in New York City and is willing to play with Menjou's expectations in the hope of landing an audition. We get to hear her sing a little, but not nearly enough to make it worth sitting through this picture. A shame. She had a good voice, and it would have been nice to hear what she could have done with some lyric soprano pieces.
The rest of the cast consists of the standard clichés about (Italian) opera singers, conductors, etc. They are all self-centered divas. Nothing new or interesting there.
We get very little in the way of staged opera. No production numbers such as Jeanette MacDonald or Grace Moore got in some of their pictures.
In sum, there really isn't anything here to justify sitting through even the short 71 minute run-time of this picture.
This movie is based on a play that ran 245 performances on Broadway in 1915-16 and then was revived in 1932. There must have been something more to it than this movie suggests, but I can't guess what.
I was suspicious, though, when I saw that Adolphe Menjou was the romantic lead. He's fine in supporting roles, and even in non- romantic leads. He was, after all, nominated for a leading-man Oscar that same year for his role in *The Front Page*. But I have never been able to see how any woman could have found him even remotely attractive sexually, even back in 1923 when he starred in Chaplin's *A Woman of Paris*.
In this 1931 feature he was 41 years old, and looked every bit of it. That is not to suggest that men 41 and even much older cannot look sexually attractive. We have lots of examples to prove the contrary.
Nor does the age difference between Menjou and Dunne - only 8 years, though it appears greater - bother me. I had no problems with Audrey Hepburn appearing with male leads considerably older than she at the beginning of her career, such as Cary Grant (25 years older) in *Charade*, Gary Cooper (28 years older) in *Love in the Afternoon*, or even Fred Astaire (30 years older) in *Funny Face*.
But, to me, Menjou as a romantic lead looks slimy. It was impossible for me to believe that he had attractive women chasing after him, which he does in this movie. And if you can't buy that, the movie pretty much falls apart, as you can imagine with the title *The Great Lover*.
Dunne is fine as the not-too-scrupulous American soprano who, just back from two years of study in Italy, is hoping to break into opera in New York City and is willing to play with Menjou's expectations in the hope of landing an audition. We get to hear her sing a little, but not nearly enough to make it worth sitting through this picture. A shame. She had a good voice, and it would have been nice to hear what she could have done with some lyric soprano pieces.
The rest of the cast consists of the standard clichés about (Italian) opera singers, conductors, etc. They are all self-centered divas. Nothing new or interesting there.
We get very little in the way of staged opera. No production numbers such as Jeanette MacDonald or Grace Moore got in some of their pictures.
In sum, there really isn't anything here to justify sitting through even the short 71 minute run-time of this picture.
This movie is based on a play that ran 245 performances on Broadway in 1915-16 and then was revived in 1932. There must have been something more to it than this movie suggests, but I can't guess what.