Delicious (1931) User Reviews

It's delightful, it's delicious, it's...oops, wrong composer

[imogensara_smith · 7/10 · 11 July 2006]

Delicious is a word of four syllables ("De-li-shee-ous") as pronounced by our heroine and in the title tune. Not one of the Gershwins' better-known songs, and for good reason, it is nonetheless sweet, catchy, and disarming in its modest wittiness, just like the whole movie. This is a soufflé-type film: it could easily have fizzled into a flabby mess, with its improbable plot, creaky class stereotypes and heavy ethnic humor. Instead it's a delight from beginning to end, as irresistible as its leading lady.

Janet Gaynor plays Heather Gordon, a Scottish lassie immigrating to America on her own. We know from the first scene that the film is set in cloud-cuckoo-land, where steerage passengers are all colorfully dressed peasants who speak accented English, sleep in clean, cozy cabins and amuse themselves by playing the tunes of their native lands on deck. Heather has fallen in with a Russian family headed by Mischa Auer, a warm-hearted volatile bunch including composer Sascha (Raul Roulien), who is in love with Heather and writes the song "Delicious" for her. (Don't ask why they all speak English or how he learned to write tin pan alley songs.) While trespassing in first class, Heather meets Laurence Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a rich polo-player who is instantly smitten with her. On reaching Ellis Island, Heather is told she can't enter the country because her uncle has rescinded his offer to support her, but she slips away from the irascible immigration agents and escapes from the boat. The remainder of the movie follows Heather's efforts to evade the police, her budding but ever thwarted romance with Larry, and her friendship with the Russians, who take her in and make her part of their café act.

Janet Gaynor's Scottish accent slips on and off like a wobbly tam-o'-shanter, but she's so adorable it doesn't matter. I saw Delicious as part of MoMA's centennial retrospective of Gaynor's films, and I can't get over her talent. Not only was she a great actress, she was a charming dancer and singer. Here she sings "Somebody from Somewhere" to the accompaniment of a musical whiskey bottle(!) She's such an appealing waif, it's hard to buy the convention whereby she is invariably abused and mistreated in her films; at least here she's spunky. Charles Farrell is always handsome and likable, but his role is a bland nonentity. To make matters worse, his rival Sascha is also attractive, deeply in love with Heather, and a genius to boot—all of his music sounds just like Gershwin! It's hard not to feel that Janet falls in love with Charles simply because they're an established team. Heather's rival, on the other hand, a society husband-hunter played by Virginia Cherrill, is thoroughly hateful. Comedy is provided by El Brendel as Larry's bumbling Swedish valet. Despite an annoying "yumping Yimminy" accent, he has some very funny moments and a few mildly "pre-Code" lines, as when Heather says that some over-sized pajamas are better than nothing, and he responds, "That's debatable."

Delicious is smoothly and even gracefully made for an early talkie. Gershwin's Second Rhapsody is the backdrop for an expressionistic sequence in which the despairing Heather wanders around Manhattan, intimidated by crowds, looming buildings, the clatter of the elevated trains, riveters working on a skeletal skyscraper, and the misty, sinister docks. Obvious back-projection does not diminish this dream-like sequence, and neither the smashing music nor the dramatic imagery upstages Gaynor's expressive acting. Always understated and natural, she retains from silent movies a transparent face and the power to make a stone cry. For all her sweetness, she is never cloying. Her prettiness is distinctive, not conventional, and there's enough pepper in her characters to counteract the sugary plots. Though largely forgotten today apart from her roles in Sunrise and A Star is Born, Gaynor was on top in Hollywood for a few years, and it's easy to see why.

A Taste of American Life

[lugonian · 6/10 · 21 February 2004]

DELICIOUS (Fox, 1931), directed by David Butler, is a sugar-coated love story featuring the then highly popular romantic team of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in their ninth movie together. With the plot following the pattern of their initial talkie, SUNNY SIDE UP (Fox, 1929), DELICIOUS, is also a musical, but on a better scale largely due to the forgettable but yet somewhat interesting score by George and Ira Gershwin, and mainly because, this time around, Charles Farrell doesn't get to sing. Gaynor, like Farrell, is no professional singer, but unlike Farrell, her girlish vocalization gets by. As a Scottish girl, however, her accent sometimes strays away from her character, which in turn, when speaking as the Scots do, is not totally convincing.

Gaynor plays Heather Gordon, a lively as well as lovely young Scottish orphan, accompanied by her dog, Tammy, is traveling third class on the USS Maudonia bound for America to live with her Uncle Angus. During the ocean voyage, she is accompanied by fellow Russian passengers who take a liking to her, especially Sasha (Raul Roulien), who not only thinks she is "delicious," but loves her well enough to want to marry her, but she refuses. On the first class deck are Lawrence Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a wealthy polo-playing American, who is accompanied by his débutante fiancée, Diana Van Bergh (Virginia Cherrill), and her equally snobbish mother (Olive Tell). Diana becomes jealous when she finds Larry taking notice on Heather (whom she had mistaken for a groom in a horse's stable). Before the boat docks, Larry, entrusts Diana with a letter to give to Heather where she is to contact him if she is ever in need of his assistance, but when Mrs. Van Bergh learns of it, she takes the letter from her daughter, tears it up and throws the pieces overboard. Upon arrival on Ellis Island, Heather is surprised to learn from the passport agent that she must return to Scotland because her uncle has suffered some financial losses and is unable to support her. Believing she could take care of herself once she gets a job, Heather escapes Detective O'Flynn (Lawrence O'Sullivan) and other immigration authorities by running through the ship and takes refuge in a stall where Larry's horse, Poncho, is kept. The horse is then brought over to Larry's estate where she is secretly cared for by his valet, Kris Jansen (El Brendel), whom she had met earlier while on passage. But when Heather is discovered, much to the delight of Larry, she decides not to be a burden by locating Sasha and agreeing on becoming his bride. After Larry is injured in a polo match, Heather hears of this on a radio broadcast and comes to Larry's estate to be near him. But the ever more jealous Diana decides to put an end to this nonsense by notifying the authorities to take Heather away.

The musical segments include: "O Tchonya," "Delicious" (sung by Raul Roulien); "We're From the Journal" and The Melting Pot" (a musical dream sequence with Janet Gaynor, sung by reporters from the Journal, Statue of Liberty and others); "Somebody From Somewhere" (sung by Janet Gaynor); "Katinkitschka" (sung by Janet Gaynor and Mischa Auer); "Blah, Blah, Blah" (sung by El Brendel); and "New York Rhapsody" (instrumental segment featuring Gaynor's stroll through the New York City streets).

While the score for "New York Rhapsody" might not be in the same league as "Rhapsody in Blue" or as memorable as some of the other Gershwin masterpieces, this one that stands out in true Gershwin fashion, underscored by piano and orchestration, visually impressive with the city's lights and stylized sets and shadows, reminiscent to Gaynor's earlier silent classic, SUNRISE (Fox, 1927), but not as effective. Looking more European in style than New York City, it does include in the soundtrack sounds of honking cars and gathering of people talking as Gaynor's Heather tries to escape her problems by being taken back by the customs official O'Flynn. At times, resembling "film noir" due to its darkness, it's quite artistic to a point with all the ingredients for which Gershwin is famous. This makes DELICIOUS one of its few high points of the story. As with SUNNY SIDE UP, Gaynor does take time to sing a song, in this instance, "Somebody From Somewhere," to the movie audience by looking directly into the camera. But of all the songs presented, only the title tune is catchy as well as memorable, especially when underscored during the dialogued portions of the story.

Besides the fact that Gaynor and Farrell were a popular screen team, much of the focus in this presentation is more on Gaynor. El Brendel, the Swedish accented character actor of many Fox films who, at times, resembles silent comedian Harry Langdon, does provide some offbeat humor such as playing a deaf mute supplying his made up sign language. Brendel also partakes as the third part of the romantic couple, here as the love interest to Olga (Manya Roberti), Sasha's sister. Raul Roulien, a Brazilian performer, best known solely as the second leading man opposite Dolores Del Rio in FLYING DOWN TO RIO (RKO, 1933), with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers (in supporting roles. Virginia Cherrill, the memorable blind girl in Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece, CITY LIGHTS (1931), is believable as the attractive upper crustier girl, but fails to deliver herself as the fine actress here as she did under Chaplin's guidance.

At the time frame of 106 minutes (15 minutes shorter than SUNNY SIDE UP), DELICIOUS may not be for all tastes for contemporary viewers but on the whole, is an agreeable affair. This very rare find of DELICIOUS, at present, turns up sporadically either on cable television's The Fox Movie Channel or Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 14, 2011). (**1/2)

A primitive mix of comedy and romance about immigrants coming to America...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 27 June 2012]

Janet Gaynor is a pretty Scottish lass who has trouble maintaining her accent, but rather winsome nevertheless as a stowaway hiding from the authorities. Charles Farrell makes an engaging co-star, so it's no surprise when they find true romance by the final fadeout in which he declares her "delicious." El Brendel has a largely sympathetic role but gets a little too much screen time for my taste and some of his comic moments have a rather flat affect.

The songs are forgettable, particularly a little ditty Janet Gaynor sings without much voice or style. Still, she does a fair job of carrying most of the film with her own brand of charm, but the script is really a lot of hokum.

Contemporary audiences will find it hard to sustain interest in this tale. The TCM print was too dark for comfortable viewing, only accenting the primitive B&W photography and sound system.

Janet Gaynor truly is Delicious...

[barnettj · 6 March 2004]

Although I am not necessarily a fan of such cookie-cutter fare (same studio, same director, same stars, same premise, different setting, but once profit is made, keep em cooking until it burns you), I find this film enjoyable on several levels. Sure, there's Janet Gaynor at the peak of her adorability, and El Brendel, the first master of comedic talent in the talkies, but tossed into director David Butler's mixing bowl are this tale's little forays into the multitude of human emotion, all very well expressed, and captured, on screen. Oh, to see this one on the big screen! Perhaps I will get the chance one day, if you will help me scream loud enough, and buy enough tickets, to get these old gems circulating widely through the "retro" theater circuit.

Gaynor is woefully miscast and just awful in this film...which is crazy considering how popular she was when she made this.

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 19 September 2015]

In 1931, America was in love with Janet Gaynor. Not only was this lady very popular in films, but she had already won the first Oscar for Best Actress and played a sweet, diminutive sort of character. However, because she was so beloved, it presents a problem in "Delicious". The filmmakers picked her to play a part way beyond her abilities--a Scottish woman with an accent that comes and goes and sounds too much like a cute little cartoon character! It's ridiculous--and almost Scottish Betty Boop-ish!! I am pretty sure had it been made a few years after, the accents wouldn't have been this bad, but it was only a few years after talkies debuted and stilted dialog and bad accents were pretty common.

As for the film, it's an episodic picture set aboard a cruise ship full of immigrants heading to America. The idea of such a film is great--since this is something most viewers in the US could relate to. But the story comes off as very lightweight and, at times, clichéd...and incredibly dated and old fashioned. The singing is particularly bad. While many of Gaynor's films (particularly those with Charles Farrell--who is also in this film) are considered classics, this one is pretty much awful.

"Blah blah blah, love!"

[Maleejandra · 9/10 · 10 August 2007]

David Butler directed Delicious in 1931. Janet Gaynor stars as Heather, a Scottish immigrant to America. Charles Farrell plays wealthy Larry Beaumont. El Brendel provides comic relief as Swedish prankster Kris Jansen and Raul Roulien plays Sascha, a Russian immigrant in love with Heather. This film is a romantic comedy with musical segments written by the legendary George Gershwin.

Delicious begins on a ship to America. Heather and Sascha sing a song Sascha wrote for her called "Delicious." There is no piano in steerage, so they trespass to first class to find one. When discovered, they run away, and Heather finds herself in a horse's stable. There she meets Larry and the two connect immediately. When the ship docks, they lose contact, but find that fate intervenes. Heather discovers she cannot enter America on a formality, but she is desperate. She hides in Larry's horse's stall and is sent to his estate. There, Kris, Larry's valet, cares for her until Larry discovers her.

This film has four noticeable elements; sound, movement, costume, and acting. It is a realistic musical because no one bursts randomly into song. The first is sung during a celebration, a traditional song which displays the ethnicity of the performers. The title song exhibits the relationship between Sascha and Heather, but is appropriate because Sascha is a songwriter. The most elaborate number "The Melting Pot" is excusable because it is performed in a dream. It exemplifies another element, movement. Animation causes actors to appear and re-appear magically through stop-motion photography. The director utilizes motion in other scenes, like pans to establish new surroundings and zooms to highlight facial expressions. Later, a pull-back dolly exhibits Heather exiting the horse stall and a tilt follows Larry's eyes when he receives a letter. The stars' costumes are telling. Larry wears dark, solid suits while lower class characters like Sascha wear light, patterned suits. Heather begins in a plaid dress to reflect her Scottish heritage but changes to over-sized pajamas which emphasize vulnerability. Lastly, Brendel's stage-trained acting style exemplifies personality acting. He dons a comic Swedish accent in his films and here he sings his trademark and hilarious, "Blah Blah Blah." Musicals from the early 1930s are generally static, but this one is surprisingly innovative. The story is fun and the cinematic elements make it a joy to watch. Fans of classics and light-hearted comedies will love Delicious.

"New York Rhapsody" Makes It All Worth While!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 21 July 2011]

Although it did boast stars Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, "Delicious" is remembered today as the first musical with a complete score by George Gershwin. He and his brother had dabbled before - a song to accompany a silent western, "The Sunshine Trail" (1923), incidental music to "Song of the Flame" (1930) and he was then signed to write a score for an up coming Gaynor/Farrell film. Apparently George enjoyed his stay in Hollywood - golfing, tennis, playing the ponies - he spent more time having fun than putting in effort with the score. Still the songs spiced up (sort of) what was a pretty tedious romance, although the stars still had millions of fans, enough to make it a huge success. As with "Sunnyside Up", the message was clear - poor people are happier and have more fun.

This time Janet plays Heather Gordon, a perky Scottish girl (with an accent that comes and goes) on route to a new country - America!!! A new found friend, Sascha (Raul Roulien) has written a song for her - "Delishious", mimicking her mispronunciation of the word!! As they sing and dance in the steerage section rich boy, Larry Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a polo player, longingly watches them along with his snooty girlfriend, Diana, (Virginia Cherrill). "They look awfully happy" to which she sneers "The poor don't know any better"!!! Being made in what was the worst year of the depression there is also another message - that poor people are more patriotic, Larry is asked "I bet you don't remember the words to the "Star Spangled Banner" to which he replies "I don't even remember what show it was in"!!!

Heather and Sascha are "sprung" when they go looking for a piano on the first class deck and Heather meets Larry via his horse "Pancho". She then dreams about life in America - being met at the wharf by Mr. Ellis (of Ellis Island) and Uncle Sam in the elaborate "Welcome to the Melting Pot" dream sequence. The reality is very different - she finds she is not permitted to enter the country because her uncle is not able to support her. There are several scenes which show Heather pitted against the big bad city and villainous authority figures - a typical plot-line in the depression. With kindly Mr. Jensen's (El Brendel) help she escapes to Larry's house and all comfy and warm with a mug of hot milk she sings the enchanting "Somebody From Somewhere". Always one step ahead of the dreaded immigration officials, she finds a job with her Russian friends in their theatre cafe where they perform "Katinkitschka" - Heather is dressed as a doll, complete with round red cheeks!! When all hope of Larry seems lost, in a weak moment, Heather accepts Sascha's marriage proposal and El Brendel sings "Blah-Blah-Blah" - a parody Gershwin had written about the triteness and inaneness of love song lyrics. And just when you think this has to be the worst score that Gershwin has written, along comes the magnificent "New York Rhapsody". Played initially by Raul Roulien at the piano - it then follows Heather on her journey along the New York streets. The German expressionistic sets that Fox embraced in the late 20s are still in evidence as Heather, dwarfed by skyscrapers is accosted by various shady characters, "Where ya going' baby", "Are you lost, little girl", "Over there's the river". The city is also seen with grasping, reaching hands, wanting to pull Heather down to the murky, foggy depths. The music swells to a crescendo before Heather finds a police station and gives herself up.

The reviews of "Delicious" respectfully mentioned the Gershwin score but the film's top ranking for 1932 had more to do with the pairing of Gaynor and Farrell rather than the magnificent "New York Rhapsody" by George Gershwin. Also if Manya Roberti looks familiar, she was the sister of Lyda Roberti.

Recommended.

What's with That Accent?

[Michael_Elliott · 2 January 2012]

Delicious (1931)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Really bad musical/drama from Fox about a Scottish immigrant (Janet Gaynor) who arrives in America with a detective (Lawrence O'Sullivan) hot on her trail. She's able to duck him for the time and this is how she meets Larry Beaumont (Charles Farrell), a rich man and it doesn't take long for the two to fall in love. DELICIOUS was the ninth film to feature Gaynor and Farrell together so needless to say the duo were very popular and audiences loved them. I do wonder how audiences originally reacted to this film. I mean, it's so poorly made but I wonder if they would eat this type of thing up anyways. We've got a poorly made movie that runs way too long with a story with so much sugar on it that it almost caused this diabetic to go into a coma and to make matters worse it features some horrid and embarrassing songs from George and Ira Gershwin. We can start with the ugliness of the movie. Yes, production levels hadn't reached their highpoint in 1931 but there's still no reason for this film to look as badly as it does. The cinematography is among the worst I've seen from a major studio and even the editing is poor. The film, for some reason, was shot way too dark and the special effect dream sequences look poor as well. The music numbers are so small and silly that it almost seems like they took a camera into a local bar and just filmed some drunks trying to dance. The story itself is a very predictable one but what they did to the Gaynor character is make her so child-like and "sweet" that she almost comes across as being slow. The character is so fake and boring that you can't help but not care what happens to her. It also doesn't help that Gaynor is really bad in the role. She was one of the best actresses of this era so it's pretty sad seeing her work with nothing. Still, she deserves some of the blame as well and especially for that Scottish accent that goes in and out as the movie flows. Farrell and the rest of the supporting players are equally bad. Clock in at 106-minutes also shows that the producers just wanted to throw everything into the movie no matter if it worked or not. I'm sure DELICIOUS will have people interested due to the talent involved but sadly it's a complete misfire not worth anyone's time.