Main Cast: Adolphe Menjou, Kathryn Carver, Lawrence Grant, Lina Basquette, Martha Franklin
Release Year: 1927
Country: US
Run Time: 53 minutes
Plot
Harry D'Abaddie D'Arrast, one of the busiest of Hollywood's Ernst Lubitsch imitators, warmed the director's chair for Serenade. Adolphe Menjou is cast as Franz Rossi, a brilliant composer blessed with a beautiful wife, Gretchen (Kathryn Carver). For reasons that defy explanation, Rossi insists upon "playing the field" with other women, and this is why he endeavors to keep Gretchen at home and away from his "work." Eventually, however, Gretchen finds out what her husband has been up to, whereupon she completely disappears from view. Following a thin (and carefully planted) trail of clues, Rossi catches up with his wife at a fancy hotel, where all evidence points to the possibility that Gretchen herself is enjoying the favors of a gentleman caller. What he doesn't know is that Gretchen has stage-managed a phony liaison to teach her errant husband a lesson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Serenade tells the story of a poor vineyard worker who becomes an operatic tenor, and is involved with two women — one a high society hostess, the other a Mexican bullfighter's daughter. Highly melodramatic in nature, the film features a large amount of operatic music, all of it sung by Lanza. Of note is the monologue from Verdi's Otello (with Lanza in blackface) featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Licia Albanese. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, A.H. Weiler wrote that, "Mr. Lanza, who was never in better voice, makes this a full and sometimes impressive musical entertainment."
The movie differs greatly from the James M. Cain source novel. In the book, Juana (Montiel) is a prostitute and she and Damon (Lanza) set out to open a brothel together. She comes into conflict with the local police and the two flee to Los Angeles and then move to New York, where Damon struggles to overcome his bisexuality. Obviously, none of this material could be made into a popular movie in the US in 1956, so the story becomes merely that of an opera singer torn between a bitchy, worldly patron of the arts (Fontaine) and a Mexican bullfighter's daughter. The tenor has a breakdown because of his unrequited love for the society woman, but finds love (and a happy ending) with the Mexican girl.
References
Cesari, Armando. Mario Lanza: An American Tragedy. (Fort Worth: Baskerville 2004)
