Reviews

This picture is awful. It isn't funny. The only interesting part was the musical sequence from "It's a Great Life" (1929).

The Warner Archive found several negatives to Two Color Technicolor features from 1929-1930 at the same time they discovered this tripe of a short and yet it has been over five years and we have yet to see anything about those important features being restored or released. Meanwhile this garbage gets released in a manner of months! The features include "Golden Dawn" 1930 Sweet Kitty Bellairs" 1930 and "The Life Of The Party" 1930

Quote "Ned Price says a "deep search" of Warners' own vaults recently turned up "a few" two-color Technicolor negatives for features that were only believed to exist in black-and-white versions created for the early TV market (he didn't disclose any titles). "The belief was that we didn't keep any of them. But you can't take anything at face value.""

The acting is atrocious and the story is trite and predictable as to be expected from a poverty row studio. The portrayal of the Zulu natives is ridiculous and offensive especially in the final sequences which are utterly theatrical and unbelievable. Why this turkey was filmed in color is anyone's guess. I have to wonder if some of the reviewers here actually saw the film or were just excited because the film was photographed in color. If the film had been shot in black and white I'm pretty sure that even these color enthusiasts would agree this film is boring.The surviving color isn't very good as the film seemed to have many sequences which are too red and many scenes are out of focus. There is even one section where the film has been lost and only sound survives. If you want to see gorgeous early Technicolor I would suggest "Dixiana" 1930 or "Under A Texas Moon" 1930.

Evelyn Laye and John Boles are absolutely charming. The musical sections are quite beautiful my only complaint is that there isn't enough music. Much of the music seems to have been tragically cut out of the film before release due to the public's untimely distaste for musical at the time of the release of this film. By the time musicals became popular again, operettas of this classy type had unfortunately gone out of fashion. Rare chance to see one of the last of the first wave of musicals (1929-1931) from Hollywood (and in my opinion, it's best and most tasteful period). By the time the second wave came in 1932, musical films too a decidedly more low-brow approach with more emphasis being given to low comedy as opposed to classy tasteful music.

I love this film. The music is perfect. Alice Gentle has a gorgeous voice. Her rendition of "Africa Smiles No More" is lovely. I could listen to her singing for hours. It is such a shame that she only was only featured in two feature films and the other ("Song of the Flame" 1930) is now unfortunately lost. The only other extant film is a Technicolor Vitaphone short entitled "A Scene from Carmen" (1929) which features her singing but is not readily available.

The songs which were written by Otto A. Harbach & Oscar Hammerstein II are superb. I especially love the song "Dawn" as sung by Walter Woolf King who has a delightful baritone voice.

Noah Beery is great as the villain and his bass voice is amazing. Vivienne Segal has the least impressive voice of the cast but is still pleasing.

"In a Jungle Bungalow" sung by Lupino Lane and chorus is another pleasing song.

Some of the reviewers on here are clearly clueless. There is nothing racist about this film. As a matter of fact, the film was banned from many Southern states because it was the exact opposite. Racist audiences were offended by a white man (Walter Woolf King) falling in love with a woman (Vivienne Segal) who had a black mother (Alice Gentle). If you examine the period film trade publications made available by the Media History on the Internet Archive you can verify this fact.

Calling Noah Beery racist for portraying a black man is as absurd as calling Lon Chaney's portrayal of a Chinese man racist in the 1927 picture "Mister Wu." Anyone who knows anything about this period in film history knows that Noah Beery was typecast by Warner Bros. as the studio villain and he played pretty much the same character in all his early talking pictures. For example, in "Bright Lights" (1931) he portrays a villain who is supposed to be Portuguese while in "Oh Sailor Behave" (1930) he portrays a villain who is supposed to be Romanian while in "Song of the Flame" (1930) he was a Russian villain. Are these portrayals likewise racist since he plays for laughs and acts in a stereotypical manner? Absurd.

Very good story. Joan Crawford is lovely and Norman Kerry is pleasant and agreeable. It is a shame that some footage is missing from the early part of the film. No indication is made about what the missing footage contained in the print I saw. A few title cards with a summary stating what happened during the missing section would have been nice. Lon Chaney is very good and quite convincing as a man driven insane by unrequited love.

The story is rather distasteful as it has Lon Chaney, the foster father of Loretta Young, falling in romantic love with her. Loretta Young is rather homely looking and it hard to believe that Nils Asther would choose her over the Gwen Lee who is gorgeous. The laughing disorder from which Nils Asther supposedly suffers from is hard to take seriously. The final sequence of the film also falls flat and is very unconvincing. You would think that a man who raise a girl as his own daughter would have a little more sense. Ridiculous implausible story- line and plot holes ruin this picture. Not one of Chaney's best.

It is a little hard to believe that the original play on which this film is based had over 100 performance. The story is silly and not very believable nor plausible. Johnny Arthur does well in spite of the lame script and is the lead actor in this comedy. Gertrude Olmstead didn't impress me very much as the love interest. She has a rather homely appearance. Lon Chaney seems also like a secondary character actor in this film.

The special effects are poor and in a few cases laughably poor and unconvincing. Not one of Lon Chaney's best. Poor comedy and unbelievable story line.

Good entertaining film but as a viewer I completely lost sympathy with the Lon Chaney character after the way he treated his servant for simply reporting a fact. The removal of that scene would make the picture much better. Louise Dresser is great, especially in the last Pre-Code scene which would never had been allowed during the Breen era after 1934. It is made plain that the mother has to choose between her son being executed or she can save his life by allowing her daughter to be raped. Truly shocking for a 1927 film. Ralph Forbes (who plays as Louise Dresser's son) is quite handsome and effective as the love interest. Renée Adorée is OK as the daughter of Mr. Wu but hardly looks flattering in her makeup and costume. Anna May Wong (who is wasted in a servant part) is clearly more attractive and should have gotten the part.

Film is also hampered with silly ideas about the Chinese as if they blindly adhere to traditional laws in all circumstances. It is very hard to take that premise seriously. Holmes Herbert's boorish uncultured character is also rather offensive.

Rosetta Duncan has to be one of the most annoying actresses I have ever seen. Jed Prouty deserves an academy award for pretending to be in love with this *blank* .... must have been the most difficult acting job in his career. At one point, during the first Technicolor sequence, Lawrence Gray almost kicks Rosetta Duncan....and you can't help wishing he had and right off the stage at that. Rosetta Duncan is about as funny as a room full of cockroaches. The film would have been improved greatly if she had been entirely removed from the cast.

Lawrence Gray has a pleasing voice and it is a shame he doesn't get to sing more.. and he is really the only reason I don't give this picture a 1. His rendition of "Following You" and "I'm Sailing on a Sunbeam" (the second in Technicolor) are the highlights of the picture. Vivian Duncan has a pleasant voice, but she is unfortunately drown out by her annoying sister's croaks. Benny Rubin is pretty much wasted in his tiny part.

I enjoyed the film in spite of the rather somber depressing theme. I am not usually a fan of Ann Harding's rather theatrical over the top acting but she is surprisingly down to earth in this picture and enjoyable. Dudley Digges plays his part as her husband well manages to be both repulsive and disgusting in his portrayal. Ronald Colman is very good as the convict who falls in love with the warden's wife, played by Ann Harding.

The film only seems to be available in a post 1934 reissue print.... the original titles have ending have been replaced so I can only assume some Pre-Code footage is missing as the new titles look like they date to the late 1930's or 1940's.

I don't understand how Barbara Bedford didn't become a bigger star than she was. She is gorgeous and her acting is superb. Film is highly interesting. Lewis Stone is good as the husband who suspect his wife is having an affair and accidentally kills him (Lloyd Whitlock) when he catches his wife with him.

Watching in the 21st century, you have to wonder why Lewis Stone didn't suspect or realize that his wife was lying to save him from a murder charge if he really loved her. Also, if Bedford had wanted to avoid scandal and save her husband you have to wonder why she could not have said that Lloyd Whitlock maliciously tried to compromise her and they attempted to rape her instead of lying that she was actually having an affair with him.

Save for that plot hole, the film is quite entertaining and well done. The modern music score on the print I saw was terrible so I watched the film on mute while playing a Musical Score from the period recorded in 1928 (from "A Woman Of Affairs").

Very Entertaining. The first part is very suspenseful as the viewer is left wondering what exactly is going on. We see dead bodies and a hungry, thirsty peasant and out of the blue comes a beautiful woman who offers food in return for protection.

Barbara Bedford is elegant and plays her part well. Lon Chaney is very believable as an ignorant uneducated peasant with a good heart. It is easy to see why he would fall in love with Bedford...she is gorgeous in this film. His acting is superb.

Emily Fitzroy is hilarious as the conceited upper class snob who thinks the world was made to serve her. Mack Swain is less convincing. Ricardo Cortez plays his rather small part well as Bedford's romantic interest. Kai Schmidt seems to have huge amounts of makeup in some shots where he looks ghastly while in others he looks almost normal. Watch for an early appearance of Johnny Mack Brown who appears as an extra.

The modern score is terrible so I watched the film with a period musical score from 1928 ("A Woman Of Affairs") which fit nicely with the mood of the film.

It is hard for the viewer to find any sympathy for the main characters in the first half of the picture as the enemy hasn't been clearly defined. If the terrorist ISIS style tactics of the "Turks" had been clearly shown at the start of the film then the cast of "Cossacks" would have had the sympathy of the audience from the start.

Once the audience knows what kind of brutal savages the Cossacks are dealing with the film becomes much better. In the first half of the film Nils Asther appears to be the more attractive choice for Renée Adorée as he is more handsome, cultured and civilized in comparison to John Gilbert (especially as Gilbert treats her poorly, at one point even striking her). Once Nils Asther is out of the way, however, and the barbaric actions of the Turks is made known to the audience, it is easy to empathize with the characters.

The film would have been much better if the horrific barbaric nature of the Turks had been clear from the start. Otherwise it appears that the Cossacks and Turks are just bands of crazy violent people who attack each-other for no good reason.

Needless to say the modern score is terrible and anachronistic. I watched the film on mute and play a period Synchronized Musical Score (from the 1929 film "The Single Standard") and it fit nicely with the mood of the film.

The beginning of the film is really hard to take seriously. Lionel Barrymore was miscast in his role as the lover. It is hard to believe that someone as beautiful as Jacqueline Gadsdon could fall in love with him in preference to Lon Chaney. They really should have cast someone younger and more handsome.

That being said the story is rather sad... especially when Lon Chaney realizes he has made a big mistake... and has been wrong all along in his assumptions. He plays his part well and you can't help feel sorry for him. Mary Nolan is beautiful and plays her part well. Warner Baxter looks rather silly/crazy when he "goes native" and starts dancing but otherwise plays his part well.

The Synchronized Score with music and sound effects is pleasing and quite effective and sets the spooky/dark mood effectively.

Very Entertaining. Estelle Taylor is hilarious as the seductress/vamp. I love the way she moves her eyes. The Synchronized musical score is perfect. I especially love the theme song that plays every-time Estelle Taylor starts vamping.

Lupe Velez plays her part in a rather low brow manner so it isn't a surprise that her boyfriend (played by Lloyd Hughes) falls for her enchanting mother. Lon Chaney plays his part well but Estelle Taylor steals the picture away with her mesmerizing performance. And you can't really blame Lloyd Hughes, as Lupe Velez has the sex appeal of a country bumpkin in comparison to Estelle Taylor.

Entertaining film. I watched the film on mute as the modern score (by Carl Davis) is terrible and anachronistic. I played the soundtrack to "The Kiss" a Synchronized picture from 1929 along with the film to have a more authentic viewing experience.

The film would have been better with a few songs added from Romberg's 1924 operetta, but MGM didn't start adding talking sequences to their films until late in 1928.

Navarro and Shearer and great together. It's a shame they didn't make more films together.

The talking sequences in this Part-Talking film are unintentionally funny. I assume this was Tiffany's first attempt at making a film with talking sequences as I have never seen an early talkie with such slow speech, as if it was necessary for the actors to speak slowly in order for the audience to understand. The film would have been improved if the talking sequences were replaced with the Synchronized Score. The singing sequences are OK. The best songs are "My Mother's Eyes" and "Among My Souvenirs".... but based on his performance in this film, George Jessel was no actor. His singing is pleasing however, if a bit overly sentimental.

A very young Glenda Farrell appears in a bit role as a secretary and she is the best actor who has a speaking part. Her voice is natural and not slow and ridiculous like most of the rest of the actors. Margaret Quimby, for example, who plays George Jessel's love interest is terrible and her slow speech and overacting is laughable. Gwen Lee, Richard Tucker and Mary Doran (all of whom were superb actors in early talkies) are completely wasted in non-talking parts and not given a chance to speak. We hear Richard Tucker say exactly two words while he is off screen. Clearly Tiffany-Stahl was clueless about what actors had voices suitable for talking pictures.

Excellent entertainment. I watched the silent version of this Part Talking film. The murder takes place during a dinner party in which Hindu mystics have been invited to perform a seance and some magic tricks. I had a hard time guessing who the murderer was because a number of the suspects had motives so the film remained suspenseful until the end and was quite good. I assume the Part Talking version would have been even better but that version seems to have been lost.

Holmes Herbert is great as the Hindu mystic who is seeking revenge against his ex-wife for running off with his daughter with another man without warning years before. Margaret Livingston plays the part of a deceitful self-centered woman well. Hal Roach (Laurel and Hardy) fans will recognize Anita Garvin who plays the part of wife of a doctor. Even though Margaret Livingston has remarried she is now has plans of two timing her second husband and run off with the doctor.

As you can see this leads to a situation with many possible suspects and makes the film suspenseful to the surprising end. Highly recommended murder mystery.

Greta Garbo is great as the neglected wife while Lewis Stone portrays his part of husband too busy with his work to realize he is neglecting his wife. Nils Aster portrays a Javanese Prince who clearly has self control issues. He not only beats his servants but even attempts to seduce Greta Garbo when he realizes she is being neglected by her husband. His repugnant behavior towards her border on attempted rape.

The Synchronized Score is pleasing. I especially like the theme song "You Are Like Wild Orchids" which is played and sung several times. The native Javanese song and dance sections however are quite strange and features unpleasant discordant melodies. The removal of that sequence from the film would have improved the picture tremendously.

Charles King and Irene Delroy have great voices. Originally planned as a full scale musical, by the time that filming was coming to an end the Warner Bros. realized that the public was tired of musicals. It is a shame that the so called comics Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson were added to this picture in an attempt to sell this musical picture as a comedy. These men are about as funny as finger nails scraping against a chalk board. Their grating laughter is even more annoying. The picture would have been a lot better if all their parts had been cut out of the picture. Vivien Oakland surprised me with her voice... I had no idea she could sing. Her voice is pleasing. Noah Beery is hilarious as the villain. Lotti Loder and Charles Judels are amusing in their comic parts...

Unfortunately the presence of Ole Olsen & Chic Johnson completely ruins the picture....What Warner Bros. saw in them is beyond me. They went on the ruin two other expensive Warner Bros. productions in 1931 including the all Technicolor "50 Million Frenchmen" and the Winnie Lightner (planned musical) comedy picture "Gold Dust Gertie" --- I suppose fans of low-brow buffoons like the Ritz Brothers, The Yacht Club Boys or the Three Stooges might find them amusing.

This is a delightful Part Talking film with a beautiful Synchronized Score. I especially enjoyed the theme song "Just a Lucky Moment" which is played and sung several times in the film. Even though the story is a little silly, Billie Dove makes this film a delight to watch. Gwen Lee is hilarious as the (married!) gold digger trying to take Rod La Rocque away from Billie Dove.

It's a shame that although so many of her early sound films for First National survive --- including Night Watch (1928), Adoration (1928), Careers (1929), Man And The Moment (1929), Sweethearts And Wives (1930), Lady Who Dared (1931) --- only two are readily available...Only Night At Susie's (1930) and A Notorious Affair (1930). Hopefully more of her work becomes available in the near future. The existence of a print of "The Man and the Moment" in Italy has been known for decades so I don't understand why some reviewers are claiming it was previously lost. No doubt when one of the others are listed are made available - they will again claim the same thing. Must be a marketing ploy. Prints exist for the above mentioned films in Italy, the Czech Republic, Wisconsin-Madison, UCLA and the Library of Congress.

Dreadful picture. One of the worst pictures I have seen from 1929. The main characters awaken absolutely no sympathy from the viewer. Watching the 30 year old Colleen Moore trying to act like a dumb teenager is absolutely ridiculous. Furthermore, the thought of someone like Neil Hamilton (or any sane person for that matter) falling in love with such a silly ridiculous person (dressed in some of the most ridiculous fashions I have seen) is beyond belief. Almost every other women in the picture, including the extras, are much more attractive that she is. I am also shocked on how bad the Synchronized Score is, especially as this is a First National picture, as all other example of Synchronized musical scoring I have heard from 1928-1929 for First National pictures are quite elegant and tasteful. The music in the dancing sequences is crass and annoying and I find it hard to believe that the extras were dancing to anything even remotely sounding like that.

If you look at film trade reviews from the period, the film did very poorly upon release. I'm surprised that First National produced two expensive all talking musicals ("Smiling Irish Eyes" and "Footlights and Fools" with Technicolor sequences) in 1929 after this disaster.. again starring Colleen Moore... which are lost but frankly after seeing this film it is no great loss if her acting in those pictures was even remotely similar to that she gives in the disaster known as "Why Be Good"