Movie Review "The Rouge Song"

M.G.M. ( 1930 ) 115min
Cast: Lawrence Tibbett, Catherine Dale Owen, Nance O'Neil, Judith Vosselli, Ulrich Haupt, Elsa Alsen, Florence Lake, Lionel Belmore, Wallace McDonald, Kate Price, H. A. Morgan, Burr MacIntosh, James Bradburry Jr., Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Harry Bernard
Produced and Directed by: Lionel Barrymore
Laurel and Hardy segments directed by: Hal Roach

In this M.G.M. Technicolor musical Lawrence Tibbett is the bandit Yegor who leads a resistance group against the ruling Cossacks lead by Prince Sergei ( Ulrich Haupt ). Yegor falls in love with Sergei's sister Princess Vera ( Catherine Dale Owen ) and spends most of the movie attempting to woo her. Bandit and princess eventually do hook up, but then break up after Yegor kills Sergei for raping his sister and driving her to commit suicide. The Cossacks capture Yegor and nearly beat him to death when Vera interferes and saves him. Interspersed in the movie is vignettes with Laurel and Hardy who play bandits in Yegor's gang. The only scene they share with Tibbett is in the beginning of the movie. Yegor is with a group of his men including Ali-Bek ( Stan Laurel ) and Muzar-Bek ( Oliver Hardy ). He orders Muzar-Bek to tend the horses. Muzar-Bek claims that Yegor owes him a debt because he once saved his father from mountain lions using only his knife, a story that sounds almost credible until Ali-Bek adds that he helped by slapping the lions. When Yegor leaves the inn Muzar-Bek tells Ali-Bek that there is a proper way to close the door without causing the snow to fall. He demonstrates by closing the door to the inn and a load of snow on the roof falls off on his head. While the rest of the bandits are leaving Muzar-Bek has trouble mounting his horse. Ali-Bek suggests he stand on a rain barrel to get on his horse. Muzar-Bek does so and ends up falling into the barrel and getting soaked.

Later on they are standing next to the gang's horses when some Cossack guards show up. Muzar-Bek tries his best to pretend they know nothing about who's horses they belong to but Ali-Bek has a slip of the lip and gives it away. Ali-Bek and Muzar-Bek run away just barely avoiding arrest. Later on they find a cheese merchant and buy some cheese covered with flies. Ali-Bek flicks the flies off the cheese and eats it, but then hears a buzzing noise and assumes he ate a bee. Muzar-Bek thinks he knows were the buzzing is coming from and swings at it with a stick, but instead hits a mule who chases after both of them in anger. Another scene has Ali-Bek shaving Muzar-Bek. While lathering Muzar-Bek's face he manages to shove the soapy brush into his mouth. Then while sharpening the razor Ali-Bek drops the sharpening stone on Muzar-Bek's foot, and while shaving him drops the razor down the back of his shirt. During a freak storm Ali-Bek and Muzar-Bek take refuge in a cave only to find something big and furry growling in the dark. While spying on the Cossacks from the branches in a tree Ali-Bek and Muzar-Bek overhear some of them saying that they had just executed Yegor. The tree breaks and they both fall into the lake. They both return to the bandits camp and deliver the bad news that their leader has died. Muzar-Bek says that Yegor's last words were that he wanted Muzar-Bek to take over as the new leader. No one believes this. Then they hear Yegor singing and realize he is still alive. Ali-Bek and Muzar-Bek are ordered to return to tending the horses, which involves them carrying shovels to clean up the droppings.

M.G.M. signed opera star Lawrence Tibbett and then proceeded to write a musical for him based on the 1910 operetta "Gypsy Love". A film was made and for whatever reason M.G.M. did not want to release the directors cut. According to Hal Roach the movie was too somber and did not test well with audiences. Studio head Irving G. Thalberg decided the only way to save the film was to add comedy scenes and asked Roach if they could borrow Laurel and Hardy. But another explanation was that Lawrence Tibbett was unknown in Europe, and the theaters over there were not interested in booking a movie starring unknown actors. By adding Laurel and Hardy they made the film more acceptable for foreign distribution. Hal Roach rewrote the movie and handed Thalberg an outline for the new version. Thalberg told him that he had no interest in changing the movie they had and only wanted to bring Laurel and Hardy into the movie in additional scenes that would fit in between existing scenes. The original idea was that Laurel and Hardy would be funny stagecoach drivers. Roach convinced Thalberg that he could film scenes that would make Laurel and Hardy look like part of the bandit gang. Tibbett was brought back to Hollywood to shoot a single scene with Laurel and Hardy. Most of Laurel and Hardy's scenes have nothing to do with the rest of the movie, with exception to a single scene where they announce to the rest of the bandit gang that Yegor is dead.

This movie has been lost for decades. Different stories of it's demise include that the early Technicolor film was unstable and the images vanished from all prints of the movie, to it being misplaced. M.G.M. claims their master print of the movie was lost during a vault fire while Technicolor claims their check print was thrown out when they thought it was no longer needed. Rumors surfaced that the movie was shown on television, and that a print was shown in Germany during the 60's before being taken away to Moscow. Bits and pieces of the movie have since been located, including it's trailer, it's complete soundtrack, a complete reel without Laurel and Hardy, and a clip from the movie with Laurel and Hardy interning a cave with a bear in it.