Song of the Flame (film)

Infobox Film
name = Song of the Flame (1930)

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producer =
director = Alan Crosland
writer = 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 = George Gershwin
Harry Akst
Jay Chernis
Grant Clarke
David Mendoza
Herbert Stothart
Edward Ward
cinematography = Lee Garmes "(Technicolor)"
editing = Alexander Hall
distributor = First National Pictures: A Subsidiary of Warner Bros.
released = May 25 1930
runtime = 96 min.
language = English
country = USA
imdb_id = 0021405|

"Song of the Flame" is a 1930 musical operetta film photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was the first color film to feature a widescreen sequence using a process called Vitascope (a Warner Bros. wide screen process). The film, based on the 1925 Broadway musical of the same name, was nominated for an Oscar for "Best Sound Recording."

Film

Alice Gentle has the sinister rôle 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.

Music

Noah Beery was widely praised for his deep bass voice, which he first exhibited it this film in the song "One Little Drink." This song was satirized in a Bosko cartoon entitled: "The Booze Hangs High" (1930). Based on the success of this song, the 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 Noah Beery to record songs from both of these films which were issued in their popular series.

Preservation

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.