Musical Monday: Sweet Surrender (1935)

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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:
Sweet Surrender (1935) – Musical #811

Studio:
Distributed by Universal Pictures

Director:
Monte Brice

Starring:
Frank Parker, Tamara, Helen Lynd, Russ Brown, Arthur Pierson, Otis Sheridan
Themselves: Jack Dempsey, Abe Lyman

Plot:
When radio singer Danny O’Day (Parker) loses his job and dancer Delphine Marshall (Tamara) needs a rest, they both end up on a sea voyage to Paris. Delphine travels in disguise as a mousy woman named Martha so she isn’t bothered by fans. So thief Maize Marshall (Tamara) takes the opportunity to pose as Delphine in order to rob people. Meanwhile, Danny, who is smitten with Delphine, is trying to romance the wrong woman.

Trivia:
• One of four feature films Frank Parker made. This was his final film until 1955.
• The last film Monte Brice directed, but he went on to write screenplays.
• One of only two films that Tamara appeared in.
• Working title was “Romance Unlimited”
• Filming locations included NBC Studios and Jack Dempsey’s restaurant in New York and on the S.S. Normandie

Highlights:
• When it ended

Notable Songs:
• “Twenty-Four Hours Today” performed by Frank Parker
• “When Morning Comes” performed by Frank Parker
• “Sweet Surrender” performed by Frank Parker
• “Please Put On Your Wraps and Toddle on Home” performed by Helen Lynd and Russ Brown
• “Let Us Have Peace” performed by Frank Parker
• “Appassionata” performed by Virginia Verrill

My review:
If you were looking over the cast and crew and thinking, “I don’t know a soul in this movie,” it’s for good reason. The leads were only in a handful of films and this was their last. And for good reason.

SWEET SURRENDER (1935) feels like the most random musical and the plot never went as I expected it to. The film begins with radio crooner Danny O’Day (Frank Parker) performing on the air and his sponsor swooning for him. O’Day doesn’t play workplace politics, however, and always ducks her before the end of the broadcast. This mixed with him arriving tardy for a performance causes O’Day to be fired. The reason he’s late? Because he’s swooning over dancer, Delphine (Tamara), and he escorted her to her car that made him late for work.

It only makes sense that in his state of unemployment, O’Day hops on the U.S.S. Normandie and heads to Paris. Little does he know that so does Martha, but in fear of being mobbed by fans, she puts on glasses and poses as Martha Smith. And while Delphine is impersonating another persona, someone is impersonating Delphine. Thief Maizie Marshall looks astonishing like Delphine that she decides to pretend to be her. Also on the boat is peace advocate, James P. Hargrave, which is just a random plot point thrown in. The mistaken identity may work on ship, but what happens when they arrive in Paris?

What a random movie. To me, the most interesting fact about it is that it was filmed in New York, rather than Hollywood, and most of the cast did not continue in films after this.

If you think, “Who the heck are Frank Parker or Tamara?” I don’t know, because this was one of the few times either one of them were ever seen in a film. And it’s no wonder why. Parker is incredibly boring – he just can sing well. The marionette that Parker plays with in one scene has about as much personality as he does.

Tamara has slightly more to do playing a dual role, where she speaks with her native Hungarian accent or in an Americanized tough girl voice. Though she’s supposed to be a great dancer in the film, however, I can’t say much for her dancing ability.

Secondary character Helen Lynd was the only fun character, who got to play a fun, zany character.

The film is directed by Monte Brice, who also directed MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS (1933), which is more fun than SWEET SURRENDER. Like MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS, the film attempts a few Busby Berkeley-like numbers, but not even to as grand a scale as MOONLIGHT. SWEET SURRENDER attempts two, large scale numbers but they end up being dull and poorly executed.

Also, like MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS, SWEET SURRENDER ends with an anti-war number with footage from World War I. It’s fine, but feels a bit random compared to the rest of the film.

By the end of this film, you will be ready for it to end.

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