It's hard to determine if this is a good example of film operetta because they are usually much different than their stage productions, less stagy and melodramatic than their Broadway versions. This movie has several different element in its narrative, which sometimes makes it seem like its moving all over the place and sometimes out of place with the fast-moving Warner Brothers films of the mid 1930's. This is the story of a Newark barmaid who is cast in the lead of an early Broadway operetta, her romantic issues with the film's composer, and the vindictive (and massively untalented) singer who sabotages her opening night. In a sense, this seems to be a full-length version of the musical shorts that Warner Brothers was making at the time, some of them streamlined versions of their early talkie musicals. Irene Dunne is a charming actress, her singing voice perfect for the few movie musicals she did, coincidently all based upon Jerome Kern Broadway hits. She is definitely perfect for singing the show's best known sing, "Why Was I Born?", originated on Broadway by her movie "Show Boat" co-star Helen Morgan.Torn between two men (Donald Woods and Louis Calhern), Dunne has no idea of the danger following her in the form of Winifred Shaw, unfortunately cast as one of the most vile spider women in film history. For this singer to sound so shrill (considering her participation in other Warner Brothers musicals of the mid 1930's), and be so sinister, she's like the character out of a silent movie. In smaller supporting parts, Ned Sparks, Hugh Herbert and Joseph Cawthorne are amusing, but underused. A hundred dancers got together for the movie's two big production numbers, choreographed by Bobby Connelly in the manner of Busby Berkley. At one point, the chorus girls seem to be floating in mid air. A minor subplot involving a spy ring is briefly brought into the story and seems out of place, as if some footage concerning this ended up on the cutting room floor.This will never surpass the magnitude of "Roberta" or "Show Boat" for its composer and star, or the originality and influence of Warners' other musicals of this period, but in spite of its extremely dated material, it remains an interesting curio in the career of its leading lady with those opulent production numbers and that horrifying bit of needless revenge, a true curtain faller.

It seems that great creative teams, while occasionally able to produce something which is perfect on every level, are just as capable of producing something which is an overall mediocrity. Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein had their greatest hit with Showboat, a set of beautiful songs for a stirring adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel, which in 1936 would be turned into a sublime (but sadly neglected) movie. They followed it up with Sweet Adeline, based around a hackneyed love story and featuring no such memorable numbers. However it would be among the first of their collaborations to be brought to the screen.Like so many classic musicals, Sweet Adeline is a nostalgic period piece set at the turn of the century. This wasn't really the sort of thing that Warner Brothers did, their game being more the world of pumping jazz and bare-legged chorus girls. It has to be said that even their lavish period sets have a slightly seedy look to them, like the rooms of some decadent aristocracy about to be carted off by the mob. Oddly enough though, Sweet Adeline is a "backstager", a show about putting on a show, which is what almost all the Warners musicals were. We even have Ned Sparks as a hatchet-faced impresario.In the director's chair we have Warner Brothers stalwart Mervyn Leroy. You can see why producers liked him. No-one had much cash to spare in these dark days of the depression, film studios included, but Leroy was a master at making a picture look fuller and more elaborate than it really was. In those opening scenes at the beer garden, he creates quite a lot of shots where there's someone in the foreground, a handful of extras milling about at the back, and Irene Dunne somewhere in the middle. It makes the place look crowded when actually we've only seen a dozen or so people. And while Leroy doesn't have much rhythm in his style he does know how to capture the emotions of a song, giving us some lengthy close-ups of Irene as she sings, or scanning over the faces of a rapt audience.Miss Dunne is one of the best things about Sweet Adeline. Not only a wonderful voice, but someone who could bring out the soul of a song. Donald Woods on the other hand is decidedly lacklustre, filling the role that normally would have gone to chirpy Dick Powell. Comedy supporting players like Ned Sparks and Hugh Herbert were normally there to add a bit of flavour to proceedings, but here it's more like they're filling the gaps in a rather empty movie. Sweet Adeline does have its moments. The final major dance routine is a passable take on both Ziegfeld and Busby Berkely (even though Warners had the real Busby Berkely at their disposal). It has far more troughs than peaks however, and too little variation. It's the kind of disappointing fare that even the strongest of teams give out from time to time.

The print recently shown on TCM was really bad. Of all the films that were lost due to deterioration of the film stock, this film should have been one of them.With composers Gershwin, Porter and Rodgers & Hart providing Broadway with fresh, original material in the 1920s, the original 1929 stage production must have been hopelessly corny even if successful, and its transition to film doesn't improve the corn factor.The one surviving song (and rightfully so), "Why Was I Born", is given to Dunne's character, and though she sings sweetly, it's a torch song more suited to later singers like Sarah Vaughn. It seems out of place in this story, since it's not used to advance the plot. The rest of the songs are just too dated and hokey for today's audience.Warner Brothers rounds up veteran character actors—Ned Sparks, Hugh Herbert, and Joseph Cawthorn—and even they can't help this film. Better if Warners had assigned Busby Berkeley to choreograph and/or direct, because the dance numbers are a very weak imitation of Berkeley's style without the interesting camera angles.Even hard-core Irene Dunne fans might find it hard to sit through this film.

SWEET ADELINE (Warner Brothers, 1934), directed by Mervyn LeRoy, released January 1935, continues the cycle of backstage musicals that began successfully with 42nd STREET (1933). Breaking away from the usual Depression-era backdrop, Warners obtained the rights to an earlier stage play starring Helen Morgan, shifted its story to the turn of the century, and acquired the music and lyrics not by the current team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin, but by the more legendary names of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. However, in true Hollywood tradition, the screen adaptation strays away from the original adding material of its own.Set during the Spanish-American war, circa 1898, the story, revolves around Adeline (Irene Dunne) a Hoboken barmaid and daughter of Oscar Schmidt (Joseph Cawthorn), a beer garden owner, who wants her to marry Major James Day (Louis Calhern), a man of title and wealth. However, Adeline loves Sid Barnett (Donald Woods), a struggling young composer who hopes to get his music published for an upcoming show for the Love Song Company. Barnett wants Adeline as his leading lady, but because her name isn't relatively known to attract an audience, he is forced to star Elysia (Winifred Shaw), a bad singer who happens to be a espionage spy. After the story shifts from Hoboken to New York City, Elysia, who loses the lead to Adeline, becomes resentful, coming between her and Sid, later making an attempt in having her meets with an "accident" during a performance.The Music and Lyrics by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein include: "The Polka Dot" (sung by Dorothy Dare); "There'll Be a High Time in the Old Town Tonight" (sung by chorus in background); "Here Am I," "We Were So Young." "Why Was I Born?" (all sung by Irene Dunne); "Oriental Moon" (sung by the unbilled Noah Beery as the Sultan); "Molly O'Donahue" (Sung by Phil Regan); "Lonely Feet" (sung by Irene Dunne); "T'Was So Long Ago" (sung by Joseph Cawthorn, Irene Dunne, Phil Regan, Hugh Herbert and Nydia Westman); "Pretty Little Kitty Lee" (sung by trio); "Lonely Feet" (sung by Dunne/chorus); "We Were So Young" (sung by Regan and Dunne); "Down Where the Wurtzburger Flows" (sung by chorus); "Don't Ever Leave Me" and "Don't Ever Leave Me" (reprize, both sung by Dunne). Of the handful of tunes, only "Lonely Feet" and "We Were So Young" are given the production number treatment as choreographed by Bobby Connolly.A backstage story with limited details of dress rehearsals, it's not precisely an exciting production, but does score points when it comes to nostalgia. Starring the sophisticated Irene Dunne, on loan from RKO Radio, it marked the beginning of her brief career in musical films. The others that followed: ROBERTA (RKO, 1935), benefited from the support of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers; while SHOW BOAT (Universal, 1936), succeeds as being the best due to its reputation. A gifted soprano as she was in dramatics and later comedy, Dunne adds dignity to a story much needed of a better script. Donald Woods, who is best as a secondary performer than a leading man, does what is necessary to bring life to his character; Winifred Shaw as the femme fatal, sports an unconvincing accent that's supposed to be Spanish, but sounds more like the French actress Fifi D'Orsay; Louis Calhern as the debonair major who comes between Sid and Adeline, who in turn uses him to make Sid jealous, becomes the show's backer in order to win her over; Nydia Westman supports as best Adeline's friend who's love interest happens to be the befuddled Rupert (Hugh Herbert); the cute and pert Dorothy Dare as a singing female bandleader who appears in the film's opening and closing, having no connection with the story, while Irish tenor Phil Regan vocalizes during the dress rehearsals.SWEET ADELINE amounts itself with some doses of amusement, including some inside humor, ranging from a little boy auditioning who turns out to be that Jolson kid, Al that is, along with reliable character actors Hugh Herbert and Ned Sparks (as the show's director) in their funny moments with their one-liners: Sparks: "See that step. It's a very hard step to do." Herbert: "Why do they do it?" (Sparks' reaction to that answer is priceless. Watch for it). And then there's Herbert's attempt to fool people with his disguises, now that he is Operator 66 for the Department of Justice, and being recognized anyway, does provoke some good laughs as well.SWEET ADELINE, distributed on video cassette around 1992, and currently out of print, formerly shown on Turner Network Television during its early days of broadcasting that began in 1988, can be seen on Turner Classic Movies, especially on December 20th, as a tribute to Irene Dunne's birthday. The movie may not be perfect, but being more like a nostalgic trip down melody lane makes this 87 minute operetta palatable. (***)