The Prodigal

I'm a big fan of Metropolitan Opera baritone Lawrence Tibbett, so I sat through this movie. It wasn't easy, though. Tibbett only gets a few numbers, and he doesn't do anything noteworthy with any of them, even Vincent Youmans' very beautiful "Without a song." He is often very stiff, and while it is true that the script is very bad, he doesn't deliver most of his lines very well. So, in short, it really isn't worth sitting through 76 minutes of bad melodrama to see him.

The rest of the movie is just bad. The melodrama is bad, as I said, and none of the other actors do anything interesting with it.

And then there is the depiction of the black characters, starting with Stepin Fetchit. Even for a 1930s movie, it's bad.

So, my recommendation: if you want to hear Tibbett sing, go to YouTube or your record collection - if you're old enough to have one. Don't regret not seeing him act. He really doesn't here.