Song of the Flame

Plot

Aniuta, known as The Flame, is a peasant girl who incites the people against the Czarist regime and the aristocracy through singing her song. Prince Volodya is the leader of a group of Cossack troops who falls in love with the girl, even though she is part of a revolution that is opposed to his social class. Konstantin is a revolutionary who also falls in love with Aniuta, much to the anger of his lover, Natasha.

The revolutionaries succeed in overthrowing the regime, leaving the Prince and his aristocratic class in peril for their lives and fortunes. Konstantin becomes the new leader and his brutal treatment of the people make many regret having supported the revolution in the first place. After he attempts to seduce her, Aniuta flees to a village in her native Poland. The Prince, fleeing from the new regime, happens to arrive at the same village. When he meets the girl again, he decides to stay. They put their political differences aside and become romantically involved.

Hearing from his spies that the Prince is at a Polish village, Konstantin immediately goes there and arrests him, announcing that he intends to execute him. Aniuta desperately attempts to free the Prince by agreeing to have sex with Konstantin. The Prince is released from prison through this ruse, but when it is discovered that she had no intention of keeping her side of the bargain, she is thrown into jail. The Prince disguises himself and attempts to free the girl, but he is discovered and imprisoned again. Before they can be executed, Natasha, revealing the real reason behind Konstantin's execution order, tells the troops to release both the Prince and Aniuta. Konstantin is arrested by the troops soon after as a traitor to the revolution, and is executed, leaving the Prince and the girl free to pursue their romance.

Cast

Alexander Gray as Prince Volodya

Bernice Claire as Aniuta, The Flame

Noah Beery as Konstantin

Alice Gentle as Natasha

Bert Roach as Nicholas

Inez Courtney as Grusha

Shep Camp as Officer

Ivan Linow as Konstanin's Pal

Janina Smolinska as Dancer (uncredited)

Cast notes:

Noah Beery was widely praised for his deep bass voice, which he first exhibited in this film in the song "One Little Drink." Based on the success of this song, Warner Bros. subsequently cast Beery in a number of musical films, most notably in Golden Dawn (1930). The public was so enthralled by his singing abilities that Brunswick Records hired Beery to record songs from both of these films which were issued in their popular series.

Alice Gentle had to lose quite a bit of weight in preparation for her role as Natasha. This was the first feature film she acted in, as she was more of an opera singer than actress. Noah Beery was "pleasantly surprised by her powerful voice"

During a horse riding scene, actress Shep Camp fell off a horse, dying 2 days later from internal injuries at 47 years old.

There were a total of roughly 5,000 background actors employed for this film.

Thousands of the background actors were actual Russian immigrants. Many of which were former Cossack veterans from the Russian revolution. 6 Russian speaking directors were used to help coordinate the crowd scenes due to the high population of Russians on the set, who may have not understood English well.

Songs

"Song of the Flame" – words by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, music by George Gershwin

"Cossack Love Song" – words by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Herbert Stothart and George Gershwin

"One Little Drink" – words by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst

"When Love Calls" – words by Grant Clarke, music by Eddie Ward

"The Goose Hangs High" – words by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst and Edward Ward.This song is notably parodied in the 1930 Looney Tunes short "The Booze Hangs High". (Not to be confused with "The Goose Hangs High (play)", "The Goose Hangs High (film)", "The Goose Hangs High (1930s Song)", or "The Goose Flies High (1938 short)" )

"Liberty Song" words by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst and Edward Ward. Sung thrice by Alice Gentle as Natasha.

"Passing Fancy" – words by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst and Edward Ward. Sung by Alice Gentle as Natasha.

"Petrograd" – words by Grant Clarke, music by Harry Akst and Edward Ward. This song is used as the national anthem for the Czarist regime which rules over the first part of the movie. It is sung by Alexander Gray as Prince Volodya along with a choir of other loyalists.

"Wander Away" – words by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, music by George Gershwin, sung by Alice Gentle as Natasha.

Along with the songs created for the film, there were also 4 Russian folk songs utilized. These are "Prayer" and "Beriozka", both by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Grechanivi, and Schtchedryck, known as "Carol of the Bells" in English.

Production

The film was presumably produced between the final revision of the screenplay on October 24, 1929, and Shep Camp's death on November 20, 1929, and its release in May 1930. The movie was filmed for roughly six months. It was filmed at a cost of over $1,000,000, which was not uncommon for large films of the era. It, however, only grossed $900,000, losing money overall.

The film was fully made in two strip Technicolor and Vitaphone, one of the first of its time to do so, of the first score or so. Two different types of Technicolor cameras were used due to the differences with sunlight, night and indoor exposure. Five cameras in total were used on this production, occupying roughly half of the Technicolor cameras available in Hollywood at that time. This was due to multiple cameras being needed to record the lavish crowd scenes, as they were expensive to do multiple takes of. For this film, a 201 foot tall camera tower was built in First National Studio, to film some of the scenes.

Due to the limitations of the two strip technicolor process, fitting rooms during production were made to be blue-green, so actors could better understand how they would look to the cameras.

Throughout the movie, there is a live orchestra on set playing the songs, as due to technical limitations with the Vitaphone, it was very difficult to dub in audio after the fact.

Once a week throughout the filming, the main cast had to watch Czarist propaganda newsreel fragments from the Russian Revolution to better get an understanding of the setting and their characters. A total of 15 reels of Russian films were used as research for the film. A total of 28 large sets, and 50 smaller ones, were made for the film. These include recreations of parts of Moscow, Petrograd, Czarist palaces, and small farming villages. Construction of these was overseen by the films technical expert Nicholas Kobliansky, who was a former soldier and agent for the Russian government. Due to the hot lights needed for the Technicolor cameras, some of the sets were fitted with ammonia cooling systems to allow for filming. Some of the exterior scenes of the movie were shot on Warner Ranch, whilst certain other scenes were filmed in Vitagraph studios. Harry Redmond was the explosives expert on set for the film.

Critical response

The Song of The Flame received mixed reviews from critics.

Pare Lorentz described the music as good, but the story as forgettable, and the visuals blurry.

The Billboard described the story as "quite ordinary", and that the film was "lacking", though enjoys the acting and singing of Bernice Claire as Aniuta.

Richard Dana Skinner wrote in "The Commonweal" that "it runs a close second to The Vagabond King in general excellence" particularly enjoying the scenes of disorder and chaos, saying those scenes "stir not only the highest praise, but also the imagination". He says that it was a "thoroughly acceptable tale". He also mentions that the "concerted use of detail is staggering."

The New Age praises the crowd scenes and the music from the film. They criticize the use of technicolor, as it made the film more blurry, and would have preferred if it was filmed in sharper black and white film.

Harry Evans writes in Life (humor magazine) "There is little to recommend... ...other than the excellent color photography" blaming inconsistent recording quality as the main gripe. He also notes that the Aristocrats being shown in a positive light was unfavorable to him.

Creighton Peet complains in The Outlook that the movie is too silly giving its subject matter, and criticizes the fact that the aristocrats were shown as being kindly. He claims it was not worthwhile.

Harrison's reports says "Of the operettas that have so far been produced, this seems to be the best. Beautiful color, good acting, excellent singing, interesting plot." Motion Picture News claims that the colors and music are gorgeous. Variety claims that there is "No reason why this picture should not at least hit regular average in best houses."

Preservation

The film has been believed to be lost since at least 2004. Of its original nine reels (or 6,456 feet) of film, very little of the film is known to be extant today. The soundtrack was recorded separately on Vitaphone disks. Of the 9 original disks, 5 exist today, holding the audio of 52 minutes of the 70 minute film. All nine songs are preserved in the sound disc performances. There were four choruses as well, three of traditional Russian folk tunes and one drawn from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker

A 3-minute trailer for the film exists in the AFI and BFI catalogs.

An additional few dozen stills exist in the BFI archive.

The screenplay of this film is not publicly available online, though still exists privately in archives. One of the surviving copies is being held privately in the archives of Princeton University.

Looney Tunes connection

Song of the Flame is notable as the film that was accompanied in its initial release by Warner Bros.' first Looney Tunes cartoon short, Sinkin' in the Bathtub.

A second connection comes with "The Booze Hangs High", the fourth Looney Tunes cartoon short, parodying two songs from the film, "The Goose Hangs High" as well as "One Little Drink".

Similar movies

Despite being lost, there are other movies from this era which were quite similar in certain ways. The ones which are still extant can give further insight into what Song of The Flame may have been like.

The Flame Song (1934) is likely the closest film to be intact to Song of the Flame. It was essentially, the movie condensed into just 20 minutes, staring Bernice Claire and Alexander Gray, but notably Gray plays a different character. It seems to still be quite far off to what Song of the Flame was though.

Viennese Nights was a 1930 technicolor Warner Brothers film directed by Alan Crosland and starring Alexander Gray, based on a play by Oscar Hammerstein. It is probably the closest surviving film to Song of the Flame.

Song of the West was another Warner Brothers musical historical drama based on a play by Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach. It, however, is also a lost film. Like Song of The Flame, is was shot entirely in two strip technicolor. It was completed just two months before Song of The Flame.

The Desert Song (1929) was another Warner Brothers musical historical drama based on a play by Oscar Hammerstein and Otto Harbach following revolutionaries. Like Song of the Flame, it was also shot on two strip Technicolor and Vitaphone disks. It is fully extant today. The same story for this was used for the 1932 short "The Red Shadow" which starred Bernice Claire and Alexander Grey. It remains extant.

Spring Is Here (1930 film) was another Warner Brothers First National picture from just a month before Song of the Flame. It stars Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, and Inez Courtney like Song of the Flame. It is extant.

The Vagabond King is a full technicolor musical historical drama film from 1930, which was said to have similar crowd scenes to Song of The Flame. It remains fully extant.