Metropolitan

1935
6.7| 1h19m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 08 November 1935 Released
Producted By: 20th Century Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Opera prima donna leaves the Metropolitan to form her own company with Tibbett as leading man. She leaves this company too which means Tibbett and company must carry on without her.

Genre

Drama, Music, Romance

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Director

Richard Boleslawski

Production Companies

20th Century Pictures

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Metropolitan Audience Reviews

Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Console best movie i've ever seen.
ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
donlemc Virginia Bruce was one of those,I know the face but i cant remember the name stars.She deserved better.A very pretty young woman, and a convincing actress, was Miss Bruce.She was however overshadowed by the Irene Dunnes, Norma Shearers,Greta Garbos that reigned Hollywood supreme.She was of those able and sometimes forgettable actresses such as Karen Morley,Frieda Inescort,Kay Johnson. However in Metropolitan, she shines in her own gentle, ladylike way.Lawrence Tibbett the great operatic baritone has some glorious moments and some great arias and songs.Miss Bruce is his love interest and if that is her singing ,which I doubt; she had a lovely voice as well. The great silent star, Alice Brady is brilliant, as the temperamental opera diva.The movie moves along at a good pace and has a nice 30's plot.It is an enjoyable film for the cultured, over 40s viewer.What a joy to not be immersed in political correctness or cringe at 4 letter words. With a cast like Tibbett, Bruce and Brady how could you go wrong?
sryder-1 No one should expect a well-wrought, intricately developed plot from a film that was designed as a showpiece for the American baritone Laurence Tibbett,any more than one would expect it from a Warner's backstage musicals from the 1930s. Tibbett was one of the few stellar performers of the Metropolitan Opera who was equally at home and successful in popular music. (I believe at one time, toward the end of his opera career, he was featured on "Your Hit Parade", singing what were supposedly the five or six most popular songs of the week, judged by record sales.) At the Metropolitan Opera he played the lead in the premieres of American operas such as Merry Mount, Emperor Jones and The King's Henchmen. I believe that he made the first commercial recordings from Porgy and Bess as Porgy, using the same dialect as in this film when he sings the Negro spiritual "Glory Road" in a perhaps over-dramatic rendition. The role of Bess is sung by another Caucasian opera star. Helen Jepson,who made one more Hollywood appearance in the pathetic Goldwyn Follies.The supporting cast of experience character actors,as often happens, manages to give the claptrap plot a measure of credibility. Virginia Bruce, the leading lady, was an actress/singer who never broke through to stardom, despite a lengthy filmography. She had a beautiful soprano voice and a lovely appearance, but did not project much warmth as in the manner of top stars, even in her one solo from Carmen, as the timid and loving Micaela. Her voice belonged in operetta, not in either opera or show business tunes. Jeanette MacDonald has the former cornered, and there were many with more sensuous voices who succeeded with the latter. But she did look terrific at the top of the "wedding cake" number in The Great Ziegfeld, the most prominent role of her career.
blanche-2 "Metropolitan" is a real find for opera lovers, with its absolutely glorious music and the heroic singing of opera star Lawrence Tibbett, one of opera's very brightest lights in the 1930s. Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, "Metropolitan" showcases Tibbett in an absolutely ridiculous plot that features actors Alice Brady, Cesar Romero, Virginia Bruce, Walter Brennan and others. Brady, who later won an Oscar as Mrs. O'Leary in "In Old Chicago" is the stereotypical temperamental diva who forms her own opera company and keeps changing the premier opera every five minutes. First, it's Barber of Seville so we can hear Tibbett do "Largo al Factotum" - and Tibbett's is the version I was raised on; then after an angry fit, she decides to do Carmen - thus, we hear Tibbett do "The Toreador Song." Finally, after hearing Virginia Bruce sing "Micaela's Aria," she decides to banish the company. The group gets back on its feet before opening and decide to do "Cavalleria Rusticana" and "Pagliacci" instead! Those poor ticket holders! No idea what they were going to see, but we got to see Tibbett rehearse those glorious numbers plus perform "Si puo" at the end. One wonders what the vicious diva considered herself. In the beginning, she's angry that the Metropolitan Opera did not cast her in "La Sonambula" - a patently coloratura role, then she assigns herself "Barber," a coloratura role, and finally a mezzo role, Carmen! Hello.Singing styles have changed over the last 70 years - no more fast vibrato, no more white high notes from sopranos, and the declamatory type of singing in opera, done a little bit by Tibbett in "Si puo" is reserved for very old, dried out singers close to retirement. But nothing diminishes the magnificence of Tibbett's gift. It's so wonderful to have him on film to appreciate.Tibbett was an excellent actor as well as singer, and on stage he must have appeared quite attractive. But though his career overlapped that of Nelson Eddy and they were separated only by four years in age, Tibbett could not have achieved what Eddy did in films. While not anywhere near as good an actor, Eddy was considerably handsomer, younger in appearance, and his beautiful voice was more accessible to audiences. But if you have any interest in opera at all, try to catch this on Fox Movie Channel and listen to Tibbett sing "De Glory Road." You won't hear anything like that again.
pompierson This 1935 film showed recently on a TV movie channel and proved an innocent delight. The story line is simple, the ending happy, the people snappily dressed and the sets splendid. A fading prima donna is fired from the Met and starts her own opera company. A renowned conductor comes from retirement to conduct, and hires baritone Lawrence Tibbett, one of America's first operatic super stars, whose superb singing is the chief attraction of the film. He has a rich, focused voice and agreeable good looks. When the prima donna's voice fails, the conductor quits and all is about to fall apart, until the heroine Alice Brady, who wanted to be an opera star on her own, turns out to be an heiress and saves the day.The sound track suggests that someone has done a spectacular job of restoring the print; Tibbett's ringing voice impresses in baritone favorites, "The Road to Mandalay," "Largo al factotum" from Barber of Seville, "The Toreador Song" from Carmen, and "Si puo," from I Pagliacci.