Thread: Film Score of the Day

The Desert Song
Sigmund Romberg
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II & Otto Harbach
1929

DesertSong1929PP.jpg

Ah yes, the days of silent films were numbered.

The Desert Song was the first Warner Bros. film to be filmed partly in Two-Color Technicolor, and the score included Intermission music.

The film was based heavily on the very successful stage musical (actually an operetta) with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, Otto Harbach, and Frank Mandel.

While the film now only exists in a B&W version, and one of the musical numbers is missing, the score has astonishingly survived.

Obviously the source material is great, so much so that additional film versions were made in 1943 and 1953 (the latter starring Kathryn Grayson and Gordon McRae).

The 1929 version featured the talented and versatile Myrna Loy in the supporting role of Azuri. The film starred singer/actor John Boles and opera singer Carlotta King (in her film debut). Most folks probably haven't ever heard of King, as she decided to sign a contract with MGM rather than continue with Warner Bros., who had already cast her in an upcoming film. MGM left her potential films in development hell, and she instead went back to singing in Vaudeville.

Here's the eight minute Overture, taken directly from the Vitaphone disc. You might recognize some of the tunes.





Here's a small taste (under three minutes) of the score, The Riff Song:





And here's the entire 1929 public domain film The Desert Song.

One small item of note . . . Wikipedia's entry lists Irving Berlin as contributing to the score along with Romberg. There's no sourcing or explanation for his inclusion. Berlin, in 1929, was basically just a songwriter, so it's possible that the film included one of his songs, tunes, or some lyrics.