Reviews

While I was excited that TCM finally played a Gaynor-Farrell Fox musical, I was dismayed that the film ended with an abrupt fade-to-black and a "The End" sign that was obviously not the original. It had "Western Electric System" on the bottom, when this was a Movietone film! Fox did not convert to Western Electric until late '30 or '31! The same thing was done at the end of "In Old Arizona", the first Movietone filmed outdoors. Both films then follow with the main song (in this case "I'm a Dreamer") sung to a blank screen. It was black film, since you could see white wear spots.

Did Fox restore this film or an independent lab? What happened to the original Fox "The End" title card? Also, Movietone was not mentioned in the opening credits--did Fox not list it the way Warner Brothers displayed Vitaphone on their talkies?

One of the actors making a cameo in Road to Bali is missing from the credit list--Humphrey Bogart! Bogie is seen pulling "The African Queen" through the marsh just as he did in the movie "The African Queen"! This film is full of site gags like the earlier Road pics, including Martin and Lewis in a dream and Bing's brother Bob shooting wild game! There have been various versions of this film released on video. TCM just showed a great copy in its original form with the Paramount logo. Earlier versions had cut the logo. This film must have fallen into public domain since it was produced by Bing (and Bob?) and only released by Paramount. The interesting thing about the new TCM version is that it has an early-'50s Columbia logo at the start! They must have gained access to it as the did Road to Rio years earlier.

The part was originally written for Bing Crosby. He turned it down and allegedly recommended his good friend Gary Cooper for the part. By this time, Bing was into dramatic roles--Little Boy Lost, The Country Girl, Man on Fire. Bing was freelancing by this time. His Paramount contract had expired. I can see Bing being great in this film, but Gary was superb! Tony Perkins claimed that Gary resented him getting the part due to his age and inexperience. He ignored him through the entire filming!

If Bing had made the film, I wonder if he would have sung the title song instead of Pat Boone? While his role in Man on Fire was not a singing one, he sang the title song during the opening credits. Stagecoach was his only theatrical film where he did not sing.

While this film is a silent with synchronized score, there are two short scenes where Novarro sings a portion of the theme, "Pagan Love Song". First, when he is thrown off the boat by Donald Crisp and toward the climatic end when he lays down, humming the tune, and finds Crisp's cane.

You can hear him tapping the cane against the bamboo hut "live", not added sound. Both of these scenes are in perfect sync (probably Vitaphone--sounds like disc surface noise). You can usually tell the "sound stage sound" as opposed to studio sound added later.

The reason for these two short sequences is probably because the film was filmed "on location" in the Pacific. At that time, location sound recording would have not been practical. The scenes were most likely shot on a sound stage at M-G-M. Many silents were still in production in 1929. Adding sound sequences, or "goat glands", as they were called, was a transitional way of making silents "part-talkies", as referred by Photoplay magazine.