The Broken Melody (1934)

Although she's only third billed here Merle Oberon is the main reason to see The Broken Melody. She plays the faithful girl friend of composer John Garrick who gets himself in quite a jackpot.Garrick lives at the boardinghouse run by Oberon's father and both work singing and serving at a cheap Paris cafe. One night musical star Margot Grahame drops in and sees Garrick as her latest boy toy. Before you know it they're wed and she's given birth to their son.She tires of him quickly after a musical he wrote flops and shows him the way out. He responds by killing her paramour which wins him a trip to Devil's Island.The whole melodrama is told in flashback by Austin Trevor who thinks he recognizes Garrick on stage while Trevor is at the theater. What happens is for you to watch the movie for.Garrick sings well, I assume Oberon and Grahame are dubbed. But he truly is stiff. Tyrone Power would have been great in the role.The ending? Watch the John Garfield classic They Made Me A Criminal for a hint.

Paul Verlaine (John Garrick) is a struggling young composer in Paris. Most folks have little interest in his work, however, he's spotted by a rich and spoiled brat (Margot Grahame) who takes him under her wing. Despite the wonderful (but awful singing) Germanine (Merle Oberon) loving him, he is lured to the rich lady who he thinks loves him. However, their marriage soon sours and she begins cheating on him and partying all night long. During this time, he's amazingly dense until he happens to catch her with one of her lovers--then bad things happen.As I sat and watched "The Broken Melody" (a.k.a. "Vagabond Violinist"), I had to really struggle to keep paying attention. It's because despite the subject matter, the movie was incredibly dull. Part of it was the very emotionless acting, part of it was sloppy direction and part of it was because the film lacked any sort of punch. Even when the main character was sent to Devil's Island, the film seemed amazingly uninteresting. Much of it was because Paul seemed quite dumb and difficult to like. The most likable was Germaine, but she sang like a cow caught in an electric fence. Overall, an incredibly dated and dull film from start to finish. The only fun I had was listening to some of the characters forget their French accents in some scenes only to pick it up in the next!

How many times have you seen this plot? Leading man or woman marries the wrong person, kills either that person or their lover, suffers in prison, and then ends up with the right person at the very end. I can think of a few dozen movies, half of those made in 1934 when "The Broken Melody" was released. John Garrick, who creaked his way through two genuinely awful early musicals ("Just Imagine" and "The Lottery Bride"), doesn't sing much here. He's a composer (who ironically ends up in his own show) who leaves the very lovely Merle Oberon for the very self-centered Margot Grahame. It should be obvious that Oberon is the more suitable partner, even though Grahame has career connections that could get Garrick's music published. When it does (after they are already in the midst of a horrendous marriage), it is a bomb, and Grahame makes it clear she wants nothing more to do with Garrick, preferring instead her old lover Austin Trevor. She's already been dallying with him behind Garrick's back, even though they have a baby together. Oberon, with eyebrows that make her look like Sigrid Gurie in "The Adventures of Marco Polo", has already tried to cover for Garrick's wife by covering for his wife when she sees Garrick coming into a room where Grahame and Trevor are in the middle of a tete-a-tete. Then, when Trevor is murdered, Garrick immediately takes his child to Oberon, who agrees to take care of it for him. And the vengeful Grahame doesn't try to stop this? It's preposterous, but yet somehow it works because Grahame is so wrapped up in her own career that motherhood is something that doesn't interest her. Still, no mention of Grahame agreeing to this occurs, and as the years go by with Garrick in prison, Oberon has become the child's guardian. The prison scenes are very exciting and darkly realistic, making Devil's Island a hell on earth. Charles Carson is very good as the Devil's Island commander who happens to be at the presentation of Garrick's musical drama, and recognizing the music as some he heard in prison, narrates the back story to a colleague.It is all preposterous, yet somehow, once you get past that, it is really very entertaining. The DVD print is outstanding, crisp and clear and filled with excellent sound. Oberon and Grahame are beautifully dressed and made up, yet Garrick's brooding hero is never quite convincing as a screen lover. The musical drama that wraps around the flashback narrative gets better towards the end as the nonsensical plot really comes together. A nice little twist in the on-stage drama is the key that gives Carson's Devils Island Commander to make a judgement that morally makes much sense and gives a satisfying ending. Oberon, the British Kay Francis, could always make suffering in ermine fun to watch, even in the most unbelievable of plots, while Grahame overacts ridiculously at times. This is a movie that one can groan at a bit, yet come out not feeling cheated.

When I was about twelve years old, I saw "The Broken Melody" on TV and I thought it was absolutely wonderful. It was very romantic and had some really lovely music. From that day onwards I looked forward to seeing it again.For years I looked in the TV listings but it never came up. And then, the other day, it occurred to me that there might be a DVD available. So I looked on Amazon . . . and there was! I was so thrilled. I sent off for it and it arrived quite quickly. I sat down to watch it . . . and quite quickly realised why it had never been shown again on TV. It must be one of the worst movies ever made!!! It's not so much romantic as melodramatic. The music is nothing special. The acting is criminal - it's set in France so there's one character with an accent so thick you could cut it with a knife, one or two with slight accents and the hero and heroine have 'cut glass' 'fratefully frateful' accents.The story is ludicrous and the ending so sentimental that I could hardly bring myself to watch. But it's left me wondering how a relatively bright twelve year old (ie me!) could have thought it such a wonderful movie!