HUDDLE (1932)

Diligently groomed by director Rex Ingram at Metro Pictures to handle the exotic male leads Rudolph Valentino left behind when he moved to Paramount, Ramon Novarro made an impossible task look easy in grand entertainments like SCARAMOUCHE/ ’23; BEN-HUR/’25 and especially THE STUDENT PRINCE OF OLD HEIDELBERG/’27 for Ernst Lubitsch. (Maybe more, two or three important Ingram titles are effectively lost films.) But M-G-M fumbled his transition to sound, overworking a light pleasant tenor into something quasi-operatic and in whiplash casting that moved between swooning romantic nonsense and ‘Regular Joe’ types. This one takes the ‘Regular Joe’ approach, sending his immigrant coal stoker thru four years at Yale where he never quite fits in, falls for Madge Evans’ rich girl, and finally leads the football team to victory in spite of a burst appendix. Yikes! Hard to believe seven writers worked on this puerile crud while Novarro, a bit long in the tooth for college at 33, seems to be gaining, not losing, his Mexican accent. One good scene shows campus Pledge Night as various Frat houses sing their house song and dash up dormitory stairs to offer a hand to their newest brother of choice. A fascinating lost tradition; made more interesting here when no one picks Novarro and his roomie declines his own pledge offer to stay true to his pal. (A bond of brotherly love that dare not speak its name?) Director Sam Wood does nicely with a couple of close-quarters fights, but flunks out on the football field. Another miss for Ramon who was fast running out of opportunities.

DOUBLE-BILL: While it can seem as if M-G-M was out to deliberately sabotage their older silent stars (seven hacks scribbled out this one), it wasn’t by design. Two years on, they‘d figure out how to use Novarro properly in the delightful CAT AND THE FIDDLE/’34 (dir. Wm. Howard; Jeanette MacDonald). Though by then it was too late.