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The Rogue Song

THE ROGUE SONG

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CREDITS

1930, 115 minutes, Technicolor.
Producer, Lionel Barrymore; Directors, Lionel Barrymore and Hal Roach; Writers, Frances Marion and John Colton; Cinematography; Percy Hilburn, C. Edgar Schoenbaum; Musical Direction; Dimitri Tiomkin; Dance Direction, Albertina Rasch.

CAST

Yegor, Lawrence Tibbett; Princess Vera, Catherine Dale Owen; Nadja, Florence Lake; Tatiana, Judith Voselli; Princess Alexandra, Nance O'Neill; Ali-Bek, Stan Laurel; Murza-Bek, Oliver Hardy; Prince Serge, Ullrich Haupt; Ossman, Lionel Belmore; Pelrovna, Kate Price; Yegor's Mother, Elsa Alsen; Hassan, Wallace MacDonald; Frolov, H.A. Morgan; Count Peter, Burr McIntosh; Azamat, James Bradbury; The Albertina Rasch Ballet.

SONGS

When I'm Looking at You, Song of the Shirt, Rogue Song by Herbert Stothart and Clifford Grey; The White Dove by Franz Lehar and Clifford Grey.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

"[Lawrence Tibbett] played the part of Yegor, the tribal chief of a group of mountain bandits in Southern Russia. . .Catherine Dale Owen played Princess Vera, who flogs Yegor for kidnapping her (he sings more passionately with each stroke of the lash!). . ."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

NOTES

"For The Rogue Song. . .MGM recruited baritone Lawrence Tibbett from the Metropolitan Opera for the occasion. . .and it was a felicitous piece of casting which thrilled cinema audiences who had never heard such a powerful voice emanating from the screen before."
- Clive Hirschhorn, The Hollywood Musical

"Slow unto dullness outside of Tibbett's singing; Laurel and Hardy names draw but their comedy is very weak."
- Variety

"The Rogue Song, if it ever reappears, will likely never be judged a recovered gem,nor even the best of early operettas. But the sight and sound of Tibbett in full cry would doubtless make an impact."
- Richard Barrios, A Song In The Dark

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION:
Best Actor - Lawrence Tibbett

The screenplay was adapted from the stage show Gypsy Love, by Franz Lehar, A.M. Willner and Robert Bodansky.

The Rogue Song is considered a "lost film" - although the soundtrack and several scenes from the movie have been discovered, an entire print of the film is no longer known to exist.

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