It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
A Lady’s Morals – Musical #735

Studio:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Director:
Sidney Franklin

Starring:
Grace Moore, Reginald Denny, Wallace Beery, Jobyna Howland, Gus Shy, Judith Vosselli, Karl Dane (uncredited), Cecilia Parker (uncredited), Linda Parker (uncredited)

Plot:
A biographical film of opera singer Jenny Lind (Moore).

Trivia:
• The first film of opera singer Grace Moore.
• Grace Moore reprised her role as Jenny Lind in a French-language version of the film, Jenny Lind (1931).
• Wallace Beery would again play P.T. Barnum in The Mighty Barnum (1934).
• While Grace Moore performs operatic arias, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer wrote new songs for the film, such as “It Is Destiny,” “I Hear Your Voice” and “Students Song” written by Clifford Gray and Oscar Straus; “Oh Why” by “Oh Why” written by Arthur Freed, Herbert Stothart and Harry M. Woods; and “Lovely Hour” written by Carrie Jacobs Bond

Highlights:
• Grace Moore performing operatic arias.
• The scenes set in Sweden

Notable Songs:
• “It Is Destiny” performed by Grace Moore
• “Rataplan” performed by Grace Moore
• “Casta Diva” performed by Grace Moore

My review:
Before starting this film, all I knew about Swedish opera Jenny Lind was in the 1961 children’s book “Jenny Lind and Her Listening Cat.” I’ve completed watching A LADY’S MORALS, an early sound biographical film on Ms. Lind, and I can’t say I know much more.

The film isn’t really what I expecting. Though early in talking pictures, I was thinking of a smaller scale “Great Ziegfeld” as we started with Ms. Lind as a youth and her rise to fame. However, the film starts when Jenny Lind was already an established singer. There are some tidbits that focus on the title — men try to persuade Jenny into unmarried romances, but her morals keep her from romance.

In the film, Lind meets the fictional character of composer Paul Brandt (Denny). The two fall in love, but when Brandt suffers a head injury, his eyesight is affected. Paul leaves Jenny so that she won’t be hindered by his loss of eyesight, but Jenny doesn’t know he can’t see.

While this film doesn’t have a good reputation, one scene that’s effective is when Jenny Lind has troubles with her throat during an encore. Interestingly, Moore also had issues with her throat, which is detailed in the film “When You’re In Love.”

However, it is an interesting film, because it’s the first time audiences saw Tennessean opera singer, Grace Moore. This is probably the weakest of the handful of films Moore made, but it is still a treat to hear her sing.

There are also interesting parallels between opera stars, Moore and Lind. For example, their nicknames: Moore was the Tennessee Nightingale while Lind was the Swedish Nightingale. Then both Moore and Lind having throat troubles during their career.

What I think is puzzling about this film is the fictional romance cooked up for the plot. Lind was married, perhaps their romance wasn’t interesting enough?

Really, the most lively and thrilling character of the film is P.T. Barnum played by Wallace Beery. Beery is a highlight playing the larger-than-life showman. Sadly, we see Barnum at the very end of the film.

I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed when I finished this film, because I was looking forward to a film celebrating Jenny Lind. The plus side? At least Lind is better represented in this film than the fictionalized account in “The Greatest Showman” (2017).

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