| Song of the Flame | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Alan Crosland |
| Written by | Gordon Rigby based on the 1925 operetta by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto A. Harbach |
| Starring | Alexander Gray Bernice Claire Alice Gentle Noah Beery |
| Music by | George Gershwin Harry Akst Jay Chernis Grant Clarke David Mendoza Herbert Stothart Edward Ward |
| Cinematography | Lee Garmes (Technicolor) |
| Editing by | Alexander Hall |
| Distributed by | First National Pictures: A Subsidiary of Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 25, 1930 |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Song of the Flame (1930) is a musical operetta film photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was the first color film to feature a widescreen sequence using a process called Vitascope, the trademark name for Warner Bros.' widescreen process. The film, based on the 1925 Broadway musical of the same name, was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording (George Groves).[1]
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Alice Gentle has the sinister role of Natasha.
The story, such as it is, runs from St. Petersburg to a small town where there is a fête. It happens at a time when The Flame is exhorting the populace to rebellion. As in most such narratives, the man who falls in love with this heroine is the Prince and the individual who would snare her away with the valuables he has pocketed for himself is the rascal Konstantin. Konstantin, however, as has been told, meets an inglorious end and the Prince becomes one of the masses to win the love of Aniuta, The Flame.
Noah Beery was widely praised for his deep bass voice, which he first exhibited in this film in the song "One Little Drink." This song was satirized in the Bosko cartoon entitled: The Booze Hangs High (1930). Based on the success of this song, Warner Bros. subsequently cast Beery in a number of musical films, most notably in Golden Dawn (1930). The public was so enthralled by his singing abilities that Brunswick Records hired Beery to record songs from both of these films which were issued in their popular series.
The film is believed to be lost. Only the soundtrack, which was recorded separately on Vitaphone disks, survives. The extant sound discs from this film reveal a very high quality Vitaphone sound - round, warm, and clear with good sound effects and a quality reproduction of speaking and singing voices as well as orchestrations. It would seem it fully deserved its Academy Award nomination for Best Sound. The score is a marvelously operatic one. All nine songs are preserved in the sound disc performances. There were four choruses as well, three of traditional Russian folk tunes and one drawn from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.
The stage musical opened on Broadway at the 44th Street Theatre on December 30, 1925 and closed on July 10, 1926 after 219 performances. the music was by Herbert P. Stothart and George Gershwin, book by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, and lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical was directed by Frank Reicher, dances and Ensemble pictures were arranged by Jack Haskell, and scenic design was by Joseph Urban. The cast included Phoebe Brune as Natasha, Greek Evans as Konstantin, Tessa Kosta as Aniuta ("The Flame"), and the 52-member Russian Art Choir. The musical takes place during the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917 and for several years thereafter.[2]
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