Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: A small-town bandleader is mistaken for a famous person by a Long Island society matron and her attractive niece.COMMENT: Although hardly making an auspicious visual debut, (Vallee is presented as a youthful, droopy-eyed wooden-face, complete with white pancake make-up), from a sound point of view Rudy is a rousing success. In fact, our only complaint is that we don't hear enough of him. Not only are many of the numbers cut short by the Dressler story, but Rudy is often content to show of his skills as a saxophonist rather than his vocal talent. And even here, he gives himself no solos, but blends in with the band. Nevertheless, the Connecticut Yankees is one terrific band! Marshall Neilan's somewhat pedestrian direction disapoints. Admittedly, camera movement was hampered by the microphone, but the flat effect of a photographed stage play is reinforced by the shooting of every scene, bar one at a railroad, on the studio floor. Aside from one or two attractively composed shots, the photography would rate as a wash-out, if not presented as it is here, on the original attractive green-tinted stock. All Neilan presumably did was to direct his cast - and this he has done rather poorly. By way of contrast to the somewhat wooden, lacking-in-confidence acting of star, Rudy Vallee, we are treated to atrociously hammy, overburdened with self-approval, "comedy" turns contributed by Marie Dressler. From the moment she appears on screen, Miss Dressler never stops chewing the scenery with an appetite that knows absolutely no constraints whatever. Fortunately, heroine Sally Blane displays plenty of charm as well as acting ability.

calvinnme This film is for those who are interested in early talkies, and early talkie musicals in particular. If you are not in that group, then skip this film.The plot has Rudy Bronson (Valee) and his band going to Long Island to attempt to audition for Ted Grant, who has loaned his name to a musical correspondence course that Bronson took and according to a newspaper clipping is looking for new talent. Promptly thrown out by the butler, the band members decide to break into Grant's home through the garden entrance, set up their instruments, and play for Grant anyway. However, Grant has already left to go back to New York. A series of misunderstandings has Bronson mistaken for the famous Grant by a neighbor, Mrs. Ethel Bertha Whitehall (Marie Dressler). A series of musical performances and comic misunderstandings later, and Mrs. Whitehall's niece has fallen for Bronson, with everyone still thinking he is Ted Grant. However will he get out of this dilemma? The musical performances are quite good and include several big hits of that time including the title song which Valee also performs in "Glorifying the American Girl" which also came out in 1929. There is also a dancing performance by a group of chorus girls that involves some interesting formations that are photographed from a top view several years before Busby Berkeley made this sort of thing an art form. Rudy Valee and the other players leave much to be desired in the acting department, leaving plenty of room for Marie Dressler to steal the show as the comic society matron.

mukava991 This dreary but not too lethal attempt at light-comedy-with-songs succeeds only to the extent that some musical numbers are performed by an actual band, The Connecticut Yankees, and a few of the supporting actors are up to - and in Marie Dressler's case, even beyond - the demands of the genre. Director Marshall Neilan, despite a batch of silent classics under his professional belt, is unable to get any life out of his romantic leads, Rudy Vallee and Sally Blane. Vallee in particular is barely able to register any facial expression other than a sort of frozen melancholy, as if he was posing for a painted portrait. Unless absolutely necessary, he never moves either. (He redeemed himself splendidly 13 years later in Preston Sturges's THE PALM BEACH STORY in one of the most sublime comic turns of Hollywood's golden age.) Blane recites her lines as if she is reading them from cue cards in a run-through for a high school production she would rather not be in. As Blane's mother Marie Dressler is animated enough for both. Whenever she is on screen hardly a second goes by without her twitching, grimacing, eye rolling or doing double-takes; her vocal range is vast as well. Perhaps she knew she was among corpses and was trying to save the show. Charles Sellon as a cop and Nella Walker as a snooty socialite also bring some zest to the proceedings, as does Edward Nugent as a member of Rudy's band. The songs crooned by Rudy include the title number and "If You Were the Only Girl in the World." At times the uninteresting plot (about Rudy's amateur band pretending to be a more famous grouping) takes a long breather for such interludes as a quartet of little girls singing a very annoying kiddie number or a troupe of dancers swirling around in flowing white robes in an ineffective attempt to to embellish a performance of the title song.Visually there is nothing going on outside the efforts of individual performers to give some life to the camera lens and the mikes. The sound is quite good for 1929, though applause sequences tend to sound strangely metallic, as if the density of vibrations was too much for the recording equipment. So as cinema there is little to recommend. As sociological artifact it's worth a look.

lugonian THE VAGABOND LOVER (RKO Radio, 1929), directed by Marshall Neilan, is an appropriate title to one of the most popular vocalists of the time, Rudy Vallee (1901- 1986). As with many singers making a screen debut, Vallee's performance is somewhat stiff, reciting his lines as if he were reading from cue cards, but satisfactory with his vocalizing. Unlike future crooners as Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra, Vallee's screen career in leading roles were limited but acting overall improved through the passage of time. By the 1940s, however, Vallee started a new chapter in his career playing stuffy millionaires starting with Preston Sturges' comedic masterpiece, THE PALM BEACH STORY (Paramount, 1942) starring Claudette Colbert and Joel McCrea. As for THE VAGABOND LOVER, this is where the Rudy Vallee of motion picture screen began."Every small town has its small town band with big town ideas," is its opening title before introducing Rudy Bronson (Rudy Vallee), the lead vocalist and organizer of a college senior band who's been studying on developing his own orchestra by Ted Grant's mail order guide. Feeling Grant to be a remarkable man and speaking of him as he if were an old friend to his band members, Rudy heads over to Grant's Long Island home with his band for an audition. As Ted Grant (Malcolm Waite) prepares on leaving town for a vacation with his associates, Rudy, initially thrown out of Grant's home by the butler, intends not giving up enters Grant's home through an open window with his band members behind him. By the time Rudy gets his band organized, Grant who has already gone, ends up orchestrating his band to an empty house. Having been spotted by Ethel Whitehall (Marie Dressler), a wealthy matron, and her niece, Jean (Sally Blane), for entering through the window, the next door neighbors notify Officer George T. Tuttle (Charles Sellon) to investigate housebreaking. Confronting the "burglars," members of the band cover up by telling Tuttle, Mrs. Whitehall and Jean that Rudy IS Ted Grant and that they accidentally locked themselves out of the house. With one thing leading to another, Mrs. Whitehall soon engages "Ted Grant's Orchestra" to perform at a charity benefit for orphans. Rudy becomes successful, but feels guilty about his false pretense. At the advise of his band, Rudy remains silent, going on with his masquerade, even with the possibility of being exposed as a fraud and losing Jean, whom he's very much interested.During its brief 65 minutes, THE VAGABOND LOVER manages to squeeze in a handful of popular tunes, old and new, including "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" (voiceover sung by Vallee during opening credits); "I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now" (sung by band); "I Love You, Believe Me, I Love You," "Georgie Porgie" (sung by orphans); "If You Were the Only Girl in the World, and I Were the Only Boy," "A Little Kiss Each Morning, A Little Kiss Each Night," Instrumental dancing to "I'm Just a Vagabond Lover" and "Sweetheart, We Need Each Other," "I Love You, Believe Me, I Love You" (reprise by Vallee) and "I'll Be Reminded of You."Unlike some 1929 releases consisting of faded photography and distorted sound, the production values of THE VAGABOND LOVER are quite good. What may hurt the value of this movie today is the wooden acting of Rudy Vallee. Considering this to be his first screen appearance, with sound techniques still relatively new, this could be overlooked. Another bonus is the plot not focusing heavily on melodramatics with tearful solutions, but an overly familiar but an amusing mistaken identity plot that makes this antique more palatable. For anyone unfamiliar with the Rudy Vallee method, his singing singing style stir up chuckles with contemporary viewers, particularly watching his facial close- up with makeup on lips and eye-lids while singing with his eyes closed and mouth wide open. THE VAGABOND LOVER is redeemed somewhat by Marie Dressler (1869-1934) in the early stages of her sound career. Unlike the lovable characters she performed so well later on at MGM, she presents herself here more like a Margaret Dumont (of the Marx Brothers fame) type than anything else, but she's still Marie. Watching THE VAGABOND LOVER comes as a blessing as to something new, considering how the Dressler legend lies more on the frequent revival to the excellent sophisticated comedy-drama, DINNER AT EIGHT (MGM, 1933). To see more of Dressler and other films (such as her Academy Award winning performance in MIN AND BILL in 1930) is to learn more about her gifted talent of long ago. The performance of Sally Blane (sister to actress Loretta Young) has her mostly sitting back and listening with awe to Rudy's singing. ("When you sing like that, I wish you'd go on forever."). Charles Sellon, whose Officer Tuttle could have easily been played by Ned Sparks, adds a little spark as the crusty old policeman who suspects Rudy as a phony. Rounding out the cast of reliables are Nella Walker (Mrs. Todhunter); Norman Peck ("Swiftie"); Edward J. Nugent ("Sport"); and Rudy Vallee's Connecticut Yankees. This rarely shown item was first introduced to public television in its weekly film series, SPROCKETS (1982). After that series expired, THE VAGABOND LOVER was later shown on American Movie Classics, and then on Turner Classic Movies. Formerly distributed on video cassette, it's availability can be found on DVD. THE VAGABOND LOVER, an Rudy Vallee song-feast at best, is of sole interest for those interested in early talkies. According to legend, the screenplay used in THE VAGABOND LOVER is based on Rudy Vallee's own career. Did he actually climb through an open window to success? We'll never know. (**)