Review of The Prodigal

Lawrence Tibbett was a major MGM contractee when they cast him in this, and it's built all around his capabilities-most notably that voice, a fine operatic baritone. A little funny-looking, he was nevertheless a capable leading man, and he's well cast as a black-sheep Southern aristocrat who's done some hobo-ing (with pals Roland Young and Cliff Edwards), done some time, and returns to the plantation (how his family survived the crash so well is never explained). Most of the Faradays hate him, especially his brother (Purnell Pratt), who beats his wife (Esther Ralston), but his mother (Emma Dunn) adores him-I've never seen so much lip-kissing between mother and son. Tibbett falls for his sister-in-law, and, uncharacteristically for the era, the movie stays on his side, with his mom eventually aiding in the bust-up of her other son's marriage. There's also a picturesque fox hunt sequence, rather pre-"Love Me Tonight" and "Auntie Mame," and much vocalizing. Tibbett does a splendid "Without a Song," which was then a new Vincent Youmans song, and engages in a long spiritual sequence, aided by some now-offensive plantation workers; there's a big production number about chitlins, I'm not making this up. Stepin Fetchit does his usual thing, the sound equipment failing to capture his lines in an understandable way, and what's meant to humanize Tibbett-look how well he gets along with the folk of other color-now comes across as patronizing. The comedy doesn't work and neither, really, does the romance, but Tibbett's quite watchable, and if the whole thing now looks incalculably racist, well, enjoy it as a history lesson.