The Red Shadow (I) (1932) User Reviews

"The Thunder Of The Shadow And His Band"

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 11 December 2007]

This two reel short from Warner Brothers is a real find if you can get it. Alexander Gray and Bernice Clare did a number of early sound musical adaptations for the screen of some of the great operettas back in the day. Their brief moment of popularity was passing when this abbreviated version of The Desert Song was done. But the fact that Alexander Gray appeared in the original stage production, replacing the original Pierre/Red Shadow is a chance to see a Broadway star recreate his stage performance.

The Desert Song was topical back in the day with news of the Riff revolt in colonial French Morocco under Abdel Krim. It took the combined forces of two European governments, France and Spain, to put the Riff revolt down. American coverage had Krim as a most romantic figure and I'm sure the coverage of Krim may have also been responsible for Rudolph Valentino's emergence as a screen star in The Sheik. Krim was not a terrorist by any means, he was a real warrior in the tradition of Saladin.

The acting is stagy to say the least, but we're only in it for the songs folks.

A little too much story to stuff into twenty minutes

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 25 November 2009]

The original film version of the Desert Song was actually made in 1928. It was an antique by the end of 1929, but the music was beautiful, even through the fog of the primitive Vitaphone recording. Thus, with technology greatly improved, Warner Brothers went for a remake of their dawn of sound operetta. However, musical pictures were out of fashion in 1932, so the film was made into a twenty minute short. This story of a perceived weakling who is constantly disappointing his soldier father and the weakling's alter-ego, the brave renegade known as The Red Shadow, was overly long in 1929 at 123 minutes. Likewise, 20 minutes is just not enough time in which to stuff the story, much less all of the beautiful music. This is a pretty good short for those of us who have seen any of the feature film versions. However, for those who haven't, you'll probably perceive this short as overly busy, which it really is.

Not to mention that Alexander Gray really can't hold a candle to the original Red Shadow - John Boles. I wish Warner Bros. could have had him reprise his role here, it really would have improved matters. Then there is the matter of Azuri the Arab vamp. Originally she was played by Myrna Loy, who was always getting stuck with playing the vamp over at Warner Brothers. She delivers a delicious campy performance in the original, but there is not much for the character of Azuri to do here - there simply isn't enough time.

Watch the original 1929 film first, in all of its primitive glory, then observe this short and think of what might have been if the original cast could have been reassembled four years later for a remake of reasonable length - 60 minutes should have adequately done the job.

A Little Desert Song

[wes-connors · 5/10 · 22 October 2014]

Warner Bros. got the rights to the hit Broadway operetta "The Desert Song" (1926-1928) and released the first of several big productions in 1929. "The Red Shadow" is an odd version of the classic as it was made in the "short musical" format and featured Alexander Gray and Bernice Claire. The two performers had been starring in several full-length, big budget musicals for the studio and this was unmistakably a change in fortunes for Mr. Gray and Ms. Claire. On a more positive note, publicists could say it kept the duo in the public eye during a time when audiences were bored with movie musicals. If that was the intention, it didn't work...

Although they were superior vocalists, young and physically attractive, Gray and Claire were old hat when their genre was re-popularized only a couple years later, by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy...

In the shortened plot, mild-mannered Gray (as Pierre Bierbeau) is sent to Morocco to fight Arabs. His father hopes Gary will become manlier. Our hero pulls a "Robin Hood" and joins the other side. He turns out to be very manly, adopting "The Red Shadow" as a secret identity and literally sweeping Claire (as Margot Fontaine) off her feet. Yes, it's reminiscent of "Zorro" and pre-dates comic book heroes "Superman" and "Batman". The long, sandy shots look like they are from "The Desert Song" (1929) and the sets are probably not original, either. While a letdown for Gray and Claire, director Roy Mack's work is good for a mini-musical.

***** The Red Shadow (12/3/32) Roy Mack ~ Alexander Gray, Bernice Claire, Reginald Carrington, Gracie Worth

The Desert Song

[Michael_Elliott · 4 December 2009]

Red Shadow, The (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Abbreviated version of "The Desert Song" from Warner and their Vitaphone productions. The film has Pierre being sent to the French Morocco so that he can toughen up. He's there to fight the Arab insurgents but he soon takes on the identity of "The Red Shadow". The opera by Hammerstein and Romberg had been filmed by Warner as a full length movie in 1929 so I'm not sure why they needed to rush another version out there but this here isn't too bad. I haven't seen the original to compare this to but the music here is quite nice and the production values appear to be rather high for a two-reeler. Alexander Gray plays The Red Shadow and has a pretty good voice, although it's certainly not the strongest I've heard. Bernice Clare is his love interests and I found her voice and acting abilities rather weak here.

The Desert Song In Two Reels

[boblipton · 6/10 · 30 January 2021]

The French General worries that his son Alexander Grey spends all his time sitting at the piano playing Otto Harbach tunes, so he sends him to French North Africa. North Africa is a sound stage in Brooklyn where he can sing the words by Oscar Hammerstein II in this cut-down version of the popular operetta, THE DESERT SONG.

All of which reminds me of the time Harbach's wife boasted that her husband had written "One Alone" from the operetta; whereupon Mrs. Hammerstein said "No, your husband wrote a bunch of notes. My husband wrote "One Alone."" Grey sings it in duet with Bernice Claire here, which strikes me as bizarre. Anyway, there's a skeleton of the story here, traveling Jewish tourists, saber dancers, and it's all over soon enough.

An abbreviated version of "The Desert Song".

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 30 April 2001]

Already filmed in 1929, "The Desert Song" made its way to the screen for its second version (entitled "The Red Shadow", the nickname of the mysterious hero) with this Warner Brothers/Vitaphone short. Most of the show's hit songs are heard, but the plot line is too abbreviated to cover the entire storyline. Still, it's always nice to hear "One Alone" and "The Riff Song", and Bernice Claire and Alexander Gray sing well in this curio. Warner Brothers obviously never tired of this story, as it filmed it as well in 1943 (with a Nazi setting) and in color in 1953. Those versions are more thorough than this version, which makes this "The Desert Song" for "Dummies". I'd still prefer it over the antique 1929 version which I believed was lost but unfortunately I found.

Severely truncated Desert Song with fine singing

[bbmtwist · 3/10 · 26 October 2013]

A 19:32 minute version of their full length film adaptation (1929) of the popular Romberg/Hammerstein operetta from Warners. This features four of the songs, not the three listed here in the soundtrack section: The Desert Song; The Riff Song; One Alone; One Flower. Footage from the earlier film is used to augment the four stage settings used here.

Claire and Gray sing wonderfully. He only appeared in ten films before retiring to the concert stage and two of his films are lost (only the Vitaphone discs to the Coming Attractions of NO NO NANETTE and just over half of the discs to THE SONG OF THE FLAME have survived, but no visuals of these two). He has one song at the end of MOONLIGHT AND PRETZELS and is seen only briefly introducing the finale to THE SHOW OF SHOWS.

His remaining leading roles are but three: SALLY, SPRING IS HERE and his best role, VIENNESE NIGHTS.

THE FLAME SONG, his last film is another short subject version of an operetta, this time of his very own THE SONG OF THE FLAME. I have not been able to locate this to view it. The title of his tenth film escapes me. He and Claire paired in a number of his films. He is as good as Nelson Eddy was later and even handsomer with a similar gorgeous singing voice.

Seek this oddity out for him alone.

An incredibly funny film....too bad they didn't intend it to be!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 31 January 2021]

The story is set in French Morocco and concerns the French Foreign Legion stationed there. Pierre is seen by his father, the General, as a disappointment as he's meek and ineffectual as a soldier. However, what they don't know is that Pierre is actually the Moroccan bandit, the Red Shadow!

Soon Pierre's snookielumps, Margot, comes to visit him. In the guise as the Red Shadow, he vamps Margot...and she naturally falls in love with him.

The film is much like the silent movie "The Sheik" and an operetta combined. Add to that no French accents, out of place song and dance numbers, dancing girls who look about as Moroccan as Jean Harlow and you have a very silly film...though unintentionally so. It's really a silly, campy sort of production...one that might make you laugh at the film and its naivete concerning other cultures...as well as what the American public wanted to see on the big screen. I am pretty sure audiences of the day either used the short as an excuse to go to the restroom or buy some popcorn...because corn it really is! And, overacted corn at that!!

A Musical Soupçon

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 10 December 2003]

A VITAPHONE Short Subject.

The daughter of a French general falls in love with THE RED SHADOW, the mysterious masked man who leads his Muslim tribesmen against colonial injustice in Morocco.

This two-reeler showcases the musical highlights from Hammerstein & Romberg's 1926 operetta, The Desert Song, which had already been given the full screen treatment by Warner Bros. in 1929. The plot is tremendously truncated, but the singing by Alexander Gray & Bernice Claire--especially of the famous tune, ‘One Alone'--is nicely done.

Operettas were ideal subject matter for early talky two-reelers. They were swiftly paced, colorful (even in black & white) and rather cheap to produce, utilizing as they did the sets & costumes of the feature films. Their brief length negated any need for character exposition and the stories were easy to follow, even when sung by heavily accented voices. Best of all, they were full of Sound, and that was still enough of a novelty to keep most audiences from becoming overly critical or expectant of anything smacking of real art.

Often overlooked or neglected today, the one and two-reel short subjects were useful to the Studios as important training grounds for new or burgeoning talents, both in front & behind the camera. The dynamics for creating a successful short subject was completely different from that of a feature length film, something akin to writing a topnotch short story rather than a novel. Economical to produce in terms of both budget & schedule and capable of portraying a wide range of material, short subjects were the perfect complement to the Studios' feature films.

Sloppy Short Subject

[st-shot · 3/10 · 23 November 2009]

This insipid mini operetta featuring a Eddy-McDonald prototype in a Valentino scenario is so bad it becomes an endurance exercise after five minutes. It's silly from the get go as this brevity opens two military men discussing the lack of manliness in the son of one of the officers. In under a minute he is packed off to Morrocco where he lives a double life as the Red Shadow; the leader of an Arab tribe that would rather sing than fight.

Alexander Gray and Bernice Clare possess fine light opera voices (with little acting ability) and there's a decent bass in there as well but the acting is so haphazard scenes so ill prepared you get the feeling they are making things up as they go along.

This two reeler was part of a larger stage production that lists six writers. With more room to spoof and warble the show may have had some entertainment values but this rushed quickie is little more than an insult to an audience waiting for the feature presentation.

This film would not only be more gripping . . .

[cricket30 · 5/10 · 31 January 2022]

. . . but also far more realistic if it featured a lot more shooting, and a lot less kissing. THE RED SHADOW allegedly is a fighter, NOT a lover! Yet by the end of this lackluster story, this gorilla insurgent is unmasked as a languorous Lothario, a cheap Casanova and a rumpled Romeo. If you're looking for gripping gun-play, skill with the shooting irons and magical marksmanship, skip out on THE RED SHADOW.