A man loses his memory whilst dressed in clothing totally unconnected to his everyday life. Now why does that sound familiar? Oh, yes, Pirandello, Henry IV. Great play but this can't be it because there were no songs in Henry IV. What we have here is a road company Henry IV by a writer who wrote only one other screenplay more than twenty years later. This is the movie that really rang the bell for Tino Rossi, who'd been in films - all musicals - since the mid thirties. Of all the Continental films I've seen so far this, I guess, comes closest to meeting their manifesto which was to offer escapist entertainment. In a nutshell Rossi plays Jacques Martin, a popular singer who is appearing on stage in a piece of fluff called The Singing Vagabond and whilst in costume as a bum he suffers total amnesia, takes to the road and winds up on a barge with a pretty girl. Nature takes its course and things are looking good until someone recognizes him and he is returned to his other life. Not to worry though, this is escapist fodder turned out in the middle of the war so everything ends happily. Tino Rossi was something of a French Dick Powell, in other words a joke as a singer but where Powell redeemed himself by proving reasonably adept at dramatic acting and even directing Rossi remained a one-trick pony. This was one of five movies that Richard Pottier directed for Continental and the one that need detain us the least.
2 Reviews
Barney on the barge
dbdumonteil18 February 2008
At the time,concerts were luxury and there was no TV.The only way for the fans to see their idol perform his songs "live" was the movies.So most of TIno Rossi's were musicals where he sang a little song every ten minutes:six or seven here in total;The best of the lot is perhaps "Madame la Lune" with nice backing vocals.
Tino portrays an exhausted singer who hits the road with a tramp and winds up on a barge ,while working as a lumberjack (a special way to have a rest ).The barge's owner has a daughter Marilou.Shall I have to carry on with the story? Ten years later ,singer Georges Guétary starred in a film the script of which was similar: a singer sick and tired of everyone and everything heads for the Cote D'azur incognito of course where he meets a girl ;the movie is aptly called "une Fille Sur La Route"
Tino portrays an exhausted singer who hits the road with a tramp and winds up on a barge ,while working as a lumberjack (a special way to have a rest ).The barge's owner has a daughter Marilou.Shall I have to carry on with the story? Ten years later ,singer Georges Guétary starred in a film the script of which was similar: a singer sick and tired of everyone and everything heads for the Cote D'azur incognito of course where he meets a girl ;the movie is aptly called "une Fille Sur La Route"
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