ExclusiveBroadway Serenade (1939): Love, Music, and Dreams of Broadway Stardom

My sadness, alone and parted, far from joy, Time's boundless arch, I see, spread out above me, Not a distant street, or one who loves me, None but the lonely heart can know my sadness, Alone and parted, far from joy, Alerted, far from joy and gladness, My senses veil, a burning fire devours me, None but the lonely heart can know my sadness. Don't forget to pack a raincoat, whatever you do. They say it never stops raining over there. Still trying to discourage me, Judy? You'll discourage yourself when you've had nothing to do but drink tea for a couple of years. Might as well give up. I'll tell Cornelius who did your best. Okay, but I just hope you don't regret it. That's a wedding blessing. I don't think I'll have any more, thank you. You must feel awfully blue, giving up the stage and all the glamour and fun that goes with it. Oh, Judy, I won't miss giving up the stage any more than I'd miss driving a truck down Broadway. It's just that one's expressions get a little mixed up the second wedding. Wait until your third. You'll wear a dead pan. You should have seen me on my third trip. I looked like the Great Stonefish. Yes? Oh, Cornelius. She? All right, I'll tell her. That was Cornelius. He's coming up. He just bought a new composition and he says you're the only one who can do it. Now, Judy, I won't hear a word about it. You know that I... Well, before you make up your mind, I think you'd better hear who the composer is. What possible difference could that make? I... James Jeffrey Seymour. Jimmy? Doesn't matter. I'm leaving this afternoon just as we planned. Well, if you won't do it, Cornelius won't either. He'll just put it on the shelf. Put it on the shelf? But I can't do this to Jimmy. Yes, I know how that is. All right, Judy, I'll do it. One last Broadway serenade. I'm Tiffany Brannan. I'm Rebecca Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. In the golden era of Hollywood, MGM was the studio most known for making big, flashy musicals. One of their most popular film pairings was that of operatic baritone Nelson Eddy and semi-classical soprano Jeanette MacDonald. Once they had become a pair, Mac and Eddy, as they are affectionately known, only made a handful of films apart. Of their solo films, the strongest which Jeanette made after she began making films with Nelson Eddy are the ones where she was paired with a strong, dramatic actor. One of the best is San Francisco from 1936. But our personal favorite is the 1939 film Broadway Serenade. This is the story of a young married couple whose personal life gets waylaid by her rise to fame. Jimmy Seymour is a pianist and composer, and Mary, his wife, is a singer and his biggest champion. However, when they have to raise $1,000 so that they can take a trip to Italy for him to enjoy a music scholarship, things get complicated when she ends up getting a job in a musical review produced by Cornelius Collier Jr. You see, she gets this job because the show's backer, a charming Englishman named Larry Bryant, takes an interest to her. He doesn't realize that she's married because they keep it a secret. As Mary is on the road for weeks at a time, Jimmy remains back home, losing his job, struggling with a quick temper and mounting jealousy. Once Mary returns, she's now the star of the show. And Jimmy begins to believe all the gossip columns that there's more than just professional friendship between her and Larry. As they separate, Mary and Jimmy seem like they may never be able to get back together again. Can this young couple continue their Broadway serenade amidst the bustle of her vibrant performing career? This film, of course, was made by MGM. It was produced and directed by Robert Z. Leonard. It stars Lou Ayers, Jeanette MacDonald, Ian Hunter, and Frank Morgan. This movie was made for a very particular reason. Every year, the Chicago Tribune, with its large news syndicate, would have a survey to determine who were the favorite stars of the American public. And in 1939, they named Jeanette MacDonald queen of Hollywood. Interestingly, the king was not an actor with whom she ever performed, Tyrone Power. He was from a different studio, right? Yes, but he was also rising to stardom. As a result of this fame, they wanted to make a separate star vehicle with Jeanette, aside from Nelson Eddy, as they had made five very successful movies at this point. But now they were trying to explore having them make some separate movies that year. Did it coincide with his going on concert tour? Because I know sometimes, during that time, they would have her make another movie. I don't think that was the case in this year, because he made two movies without her that same year. They just didn't make a movie together that year. They were kind of separate in this year. So instead, they paired Jeanette with a somewhat unlikely leading man, because he wasn't musical at all. That's right. But this young actor was Lou Ayers, who was also a rising star at MGM because of his success in the Dr. Kildare series. That's right. The first Dr. Kildare movie came out in 1938, so he was still rising on that stardom, and another very successful one was made in 1939. But what I love about his being paired with Jeanette is, though not many people who have seen a lot of his movies would think of him as having any musical talent, is he played the piano, and he played the banjo in a band before he was an actor. That's actually how he was discovered. He was seen in this band when he was very young. So as opposed to in San Francisco with Clark Gable, where he's just not related really to the musical side at all, that's a way for Lou Ayers to be part of the music. And you can tell when he's playing piano. There's something about the way he's doing it. You can see that he has that real instinct for music, and that makes it an interesting dynamic between them. That she's not only his wife, she's also sort of this muse to inspire his music. You can tell they put a lot into this movie, and they didn't get much in return because it wasn't very successful. Really? Yeah, but it was an unusual film, and it remains a masterpiece and a great example of kind of a dying type of film. I think it's comparable to many of the movies that Eleanor Powell made in terms of the grand spectacle of the stage performances. It's like the Broadway melody movies. Maybe people would become very accustomed to seeing Jeanette in an operetta rather than seeing her in this more popular type of musical. They just weren't sure what to do with it, I guess. Probably. I think that's so sad. I didn't know that. That's a shame that it wasn't successful. But this is from the golden year of Hollywood, 1939. So many hits were made that year. Literally every film couldn't be successful. Yeah, 365 films in one year, some of them had to fall that way. So a lot of times, if these movies had been released other years, they may have been more successful. There just was a preponderance of masterpieces in this year. What do you think are some things that really stand out about this movie? Well, for one thing, it has a very climactic finale, which was directed by Busby Berkeley. That's true, and it's different from the rest of the film. Right. He is very well known now for the Esther Williams movies, I would say, when he did those synchronized swimming, those famous overhead shots he would do with interesting patterns of dancers. He did that back in the early 30s. Yes, he directed some pre-code musicals of Warner Brothers in 1933. But would you say he spent quite a few years just directing musical numbers before becoming more of a full film director, or was that he kind of did both? I think there is something to that, yeah. He often would be more of a director. It seems like there are quite a few, particularly musicals, where there's this number that's staged by Busby Berkeley. Similarly with some of the Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland movies. Yes, he did several of those at the grand conclusion, where they would just blow all the budget on the end. So in that way, I find it kind of comparable almost to like An American in Paris or something like that, where there's already been this pretty dramatic, epic movie, and then there's this last long sequence that is just this little masterwork in and of itself. No, the music throughout this movie is definitely noteworthy. It's, like many movies of this type, a blend of new songs that were written for this film by the MGM composers, and Herbert Stoddart did the music for this one. What a talented man. Not someone you hear about, like your friend Swaxman's Max Steiner, those great film score composers, but he wrote some amazing music. And he did not only scoring, but he wrote the music for a lot of the popular songs that were sung. And he arranged a lot of costumes. I think this movie really showcases what an amazing talent he was. You've got some really clever songs like One Look at You, High Flying, that are part of this musical review, as well as adaptations of various classical works, such as the piece that Jimmy writes that's played throughout the movie... And ultimately becomes the main theme of the finale. ...is openly based on a Tchaikovsky piece, None But the Lonely Heart, which is this beautiful Russian aria. That's always something that's been very special about this movie to me, because I love that piece, it's a very special piece to me, and to see the way it's used in this... And this film gives it this kind of interesting backstory, which I think was just sort of made up for the film. But it is an interesting idea that it started out as a little shepherd's tune, and then Tchaikovsky heard it and made it over in the style of his day. And now Jimmy comes along and makes it over again in the style of 1939. It's this popular piece. This particular work may not have actually been based on folk melodies, but he did incorporate Russian folk melodies into a lot of his compositions, so it makes sense. So many of the great old MGM musicals, particularly ones that had more classical singers in them, would take often well-known classical pieces and put English lyrics to them, even make them into little opera sequences. What I love about this one is that they say, that's what it is, it's actually an important part of the story, that he says people are very busy, they're working a lot and worrying a lot, they don't have time to learn new melodies. They want old melodies in modern dress. I think that's such a brilliant point and very true. And he talks about how that's kind of what's happening in the music scene at the time. And if you know anything about music of the time, that's really true. Besides that, there are many actual classical songs which she sings, particularly in this overview of when she's in this review. It's kind of... It's Jeanette's top hits. She sings Italian... It's kind of funny how many classical songs are in that, basically, Broadway musical review. And a lot of them are songs which were in earlier films she'd made. Now, in that overview, it's less that she's doing the show and more that she's doing radio appearances. She's doing a concert at Carnegie Hall. So she's sort of becoming a star in her own right. But she sings the Italian street song, which she sang in Naughty Marietta, her first film with Nelson Eddy. And she sings La Fia di Cadì, from Maytime. That's right. Their third film together, is that correct? And then, Quando men vo'a, from La Bohème. She'd not done that before, but just a very famous opera piece. And then the most dramatic would be, in the review at the New York opening, the added number where she sings Un Bel Di, the famous aria from Madame Butterfly. And what a set. It's crazy. It is wild. This giant bridge. There's an actual pool of water. And then all the little blonde geishas. With the accurate hairstyles, but blonde. And then she has the dark wig. It's not really what that scene would ever look like in the opera, but it's sort of like, dream Madame Butterfly. To say nothing of the intro to the number, with the 12 grand pianos. Yes. You can see them blowing the budget. And in some of those other numbers that are original songs for the movie, there are obvious nods to costumes she'd worn in her other films. Like there's a black feathery costume she wears, it's a lot like something from San Francisco. And then there's something where she sings with this young baritone, who's not really a character. And it looks exactly like the famous scene from Maytime. Yes, they're under the tree with the blossoms and the big skirt. I think it's interesting. It's something you'll see in a lot of musicals. Any time that a sort of lesser musical performer or non-musical performer is the star, there will often be this partner introduced. Sort of like in White Christmas, they had the assistant choreographer dance with Vera Ellen, since Danny Kaye wasn't as much of a dancer as Sarah Fred Astaire. Mm, that's true. So I think that's a similar example here. And it's interesting that it's a baritone rather than what we'd expect to be a tenor, but I think because people have become so used to hearing her with Nelson. Yes, that's true. So an interesting thing about this movie is it technically goes past when it was made. Because it covers about two years. Yes. Actually, a little more than two years. More like two and a half years. The dates are... There are a couple of lines thrown in that kind of mess up the timeline, because it clearly starts at Christmas. Right. And he says, I dressed it up for 1939. Now that could mean it's 1938, and he's talking about the New Year. That's what I've always assumed he meant. Although, why would he not say 1938? So then it's six weeks on the road, so it's probably February by the time it opens on Broadway. And then the big celebration is it's been two years on Broadway. Then the show closes. So I guess, yeah, it's... And then later when Jimmy comes to see her, he says, I love October. So we can only assume that it's now October of 1941. By the time they're preparing to open, that means that his show is going to open right around the same time as Pearl Harbor. I thought about that for the first time the last time we watched this movie. I was thinking about the timeline and how it does go into the future. It's like, okay, they're going to get back together, and then he's probably going to get drafted. But maybe he's older. Well, yeah, we don't really know how old he is. But it's interesting that they do technically go into the future, and especially looking at it now, we know that it was on the brink of World War II. They just kind of keep it like nothing happened in the next couple of years. People knew that the war was stirring in Europe, but I don't think anyone was sure, obviously, what was going to happen. They didn't know if we were going to... Exactly, we were going to join the war, what was going to happen with that. So it takes place in almost a mythic timeline in a way. Yeah, which is often the case. You want to show multiple years happening in the characters' lives, but you don't always want to show what actually was happening in the world, because things can change very quickly, fashion, political. But it is interesting that they didn't choose to say it started in 1937. You don't have them say, I dressed it for 1937 or 1936, so that we know it has not gone into the future. They do say this is very much current, but then two years have passed, so we are now in the future. It's an interesting point. But I would say that the costumes are very much of the late 1930s throughout. My outfit is inspired by the gown which Mary wears on the night of the closing of Collier's Review. It is an almost Grecian-style dress wrapped in the front with unusual sort of cape-like sleeves. She has sparkly decorative pieces at her waist and a matching hairpiece with a dramatic updo. My outfit is inspired by one which is worn by Judy, played by Rita Johnson, who is Mary's friend in the show and eventually Collier's wife. At that same party, she wears a pleated dress with a halter neckline, jewellery, a sparkly sash, and a 1930s-style lower updo. Going back to that finale, I think it's, I don't want to say groundbreaking, but very unusual. It's just unlike anything else with the use of symbolism, which Collier says he wants to do it very symbolically, and I think it does bring in that kind of modern Impressionism in style. And with the use of very unusual masks, which singers and instrumentalists are wearing, so we were wondering if they might have actually been done with some sort of prosthetics. And it really shows the blending, or really the battle, between the modern jive music and the old classics, but then it comes together for this very victorious finale, mirroring the reuniting of characters, not to spoil the ending too much. Why do you think this film would be a good one for modern audiences to watch? I think because it's a really good introduction to a genre we were talking about. This is the old style of musical. A lot of people have a very different idea of what a musical is, and I think this film, it's quite epic. A lot of modern films are epics, so I think people like that. It's longer, I would say, than a lot of, maybe your average classic film is. It's very dramatic, so it would go against people's feeling that old films can be silly or kind of fluffy, and people say the same things about musicals, so it really breaks a lot of stereotypes. It's an introduction to some great classic actors. This was really the first film we saw with Jeanette MacDonald, and it led us to discover her partnership with Nelson Eddy, which everyone should experience that, because it's amazing. And Lou Ayers, one of our favourite classic film actors. There might be a familiar face for a lot of people. Frank Morgan is most famous for being in The Wizard of Oz, so that's kind of an entryway for you, like, I know that guy, it's The Wizard, the man behind the curtain. And while there are elements of it you have to get used to, it's in black and white, I know that's strange to a lot of people, the style of music is different, but it really is this little window into the past. So I think if you're someone who's dead set against classic films, maybe this isn't the first one to see, but if you're really interested in seeing classic films, particularly seeing classic musicals, if you have heard of any of these actors, or even as an opera singer, there are some nice opera excerpts in there. So I think it is a very specialised film, but I think anyone could probably find something to enjoy in it, because it really is just such a masterpiece. I don't want to throw that word around too much, and apply that to everything, but this one is just really such an amazing film, such an amazing accomplishment by MGM. It's available to rent or to purchase for streaming on Amazon Prime Video and on YouTube. And you can buy it on DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Walmart. There has always been a very definite system in Hollywood of leading actors and character actors. However, every once in a while, a film comes along which calls for a character lead. In which case, the leading character is not the romantic interest, not that young, sort of a funny character, so a character actor is the right choice for it. Join us next time as we talk about a satirical comedy which started as a play and stars just such a character lead. Thank you for watching! Goodbye!