I think the only films by David Manners I've seen are Dracula, The Mummy, and The Black Cat, and he plays basically the same clueless romantic lead in all of them.
My God, I'd forgotten he was in The Mummy. I only ever remember Boris Karloff.
You will really enjoy Crooner if you can find it. It's the earliest movie I've seen where success goes disastrously to a pop star's head; it's all about the way technology changes the face of pop culture. Manners plays Ted, the amiable saxophone-playing bandleader of a college-buddy jazz band—"Teddy Taylor & His Collegians"—who gets thrust out in front of the audience one night when the actual lead singer turns up too hungover to perform. He's no Caruso, but he can carry a tune; what he can't do is be heard over the music until a helpful drunk sticks a megaphone in his hand, at which point Ted's pleasant but unexceptional voice is transformed into pure amplified S.A. and the ladies go wild. Overnight, crooning becomes the new sensation. The straight female population of New York City beats a path to the Golden Slipper, then to their radio sets when the band makes the jump to the airwaves. Bedroom sets fly off the shelves. The fan mail pours in faster than anyone at the station can read it. And in the meantime Ted is turning into the classic fame monster, discarding his old friends, affecting a British accent (complete with French malaprops), even faking a concert-canceling throat ailment in order to shack up with a glamorous socialite. Manners is terrific throughout, sympathetic in the early scenes when he's just one more struggling musician, hilariously willing to turn the pretentiousness up to eleven as the grade-A buffoon Ted's inflated ego turns him into. The ending is slightly unconvincing, mostly because it isn't as cynical as the rest of the picture, but Manners sells it. I didn't realize he was in The Last Flight when I rented it, but he was definitely a contributing factor to my enjoyment. He co-stars with Barbara Stanwyck in The Miracle Woman (1931), so I feel I should check that out.
(especially compared to Lupita Tovar in the Spanish-language version)
I really need to see that!
Dwight Frye's Renfield is probably my favorite thing about it.
no subject
That's a very good way of describing it.
I think the only films by David Manners I've seen are Dracula, The Mummy, and The Black Cat, and he plays basically the same clueless romantic lead in all of them.
My God, I'd forgotten he was in The Mummy. I only ever remember Boris Karloff.
You will really enjoy Crooner if you can find it. It's the earliest movie I've seen where success goes disastrously to a pop star's head; it's all about the way technology changes the face of pop culture. Manners plays Ted, the amiable saxophone-playing bandleader of a college-buddy jazz band—"Teddy Taylor & His Collegians"—who gets thrust out in front of the audience one night when the actual lead singer turns up too hungover to perform. He's no Caruso, but he can carry a tune; what he can't do is be heard over the music until a helpful drunk sticks a megaphone in his hand, at which point Ted's pleasant but unexceptional voice is transformed into pure amplified S.A. and the ladies go wild. Overnight, crooning becomes the new sensation. The straight female population of New York City beats a path to the Golden Slipper, then to their radio sets when the band makes the jump to the airwaves. Bedroom sets fly off the shelves. The fan mail pours in faster than anyone at the station can read it. And in the meantime Ted is turning into the classic fame monster, discarding his old friends, affecting a British accent (complete with French malaprops), even faking a concert-canceling throat ailment in order to shack up with a glamorous socialite. Manners is terrific throughout, sympathetic in the early scenes when he's just one more struggling musician, hilariously willing to turn the pretentiousness up to eleven as the grade-A buffoon Ted's inflated ego turns him into. The ending is slightly unconvincing, mostly because it isn't as cynical as the rest of the picture, but Manners sells it. I didn't realize he was in The Last Flight when I rented it, but he was definitely a contributing factor to my enjoyment. He co-stars with Barbara Stanwyck in The Miracle Woman (1931), so I feel I should check that out.
(especially compared to Lupita Tovar in the Spanish-language version)
I really need to see that!
Dwight Frye's Renfield is probably my favorite thing about it.
I've heard nothing but good things about him.