Antonius Block
It was a real chore to watch this one. The script is silly, the acting is beyond poor, and the musical performances are tedious. There's no charm here; steer clear.
efisch
This film is an interesting curio of the progress of early sound films and the musical glut that killed off the genre for several years. The original film (in Technicolor--no longer) is lavish and is very much an operetta with sung dialogue, connecting musical sequences, and musical underscoring. It's all way-overplayed and the morals on display are rather questionable. What is interesting is the continuity of music and scenes, outdoor recording and camera work, camera movement, and tracking shots which required pre-or post recording after the film had been finished. The whole picture is edited and recorded very professionally probably by the most advanced studio in these techniques at the time. The film is technically impressive and if you're into old movies its worth 63 minutes of your time.
ccmiller1492
Altogether lavish, silly, trite and dull...this is the sort of thing that is handled best by Sheridan, Congreve and later by Oscar Wilde. The script lacks the charm and wit of those masters to put it over. Without that it's only very dull trifle, looking good but tasting terrible. The opening chorus is overladen, cumbersome and sluggish like most of the music and acting. Labored and graceless.On the plus side, the sets and costumes are lavish and great fun can be had in seeing a very young Walter Pidgeon in knee britches and periwig warbling his love song, Claudia Dell warbling hers, and then the two of them intertwining their separate songs in a resulting duet. For me, that was the high and sole enjoyable point of this unfortunate enterprise.
drednm
A musical mix-up of identities, duels, and love, SWEET KITTY BELLAIRS takes place in the English city of Bath in 1793. The plot involves jealous lovers, intrigues, a highwayman, and masks as Kitty (Claudia Dell) tries to unscramble a few mysteries and win a shy lord (Walter Pidgeon). Amazingly this fluff comes from hard-boiled Warner Brothers.Not a bad film at all, this one simply got lost in the glut of musicals in the early talkie period. Originally shot in Technicolor, this film survives only in B&W and was one of many "operettas" to get released after the success of RIO RITA.Dell is very pretty but has only a so-so singing voice. Pidgeon seems oddly cast but handles the songs well. Ernest Torrence is a surprise as the blustering husband. June Collyer plays Julia. Flora Finch plays the old gossip. Lionel Belmore, Tom Ricketts, and Arthur Edmund Carewe also co-star.A highlight is the ribald song "Peggy's Leg."
AD
