The second episode of the "House of Hammer" podcast covered the 1936 Musical "Song of Freedom". In their second year of production, Hammer tried to catch on the trend of musical films that were popular during that decade and landing the legendary Paul Robeson to play the lead was another coup, but the film itself is one of two halves. The second jarringly different to the first.
Johnny Zinga (Paul Robeson) lives a happy life as a London Dockworker. Zinga's singing voice makes him popular amongst his friends and neighbours and eventually catches the ear of Impresario Gabriel Donozetti (Esme Percy). Now wealthy and successful, circumstances allow Zinga to head to the African Island nation that his family originate from. There he finds a culture based on myth and magic and bluntly tries to teach them what he knows of modern Western living.
As with "Phantom Ship" I watched this film on Youtube, so I'm reliant on the versions that have been uploaded and with that in mind, despite only being a year later "Song of Freedom" looks much more like a contemporary movie of the time than "Phantom Ship" did. The performances are better, the audio is much more perceptible, and the editing is much less brutal. It was not, for me, a better film though. The first half was, with a couple of songs from Robeson and a story that made sense and was progressing nicely. I liked the odd mannerism of Donozetti's assistant and his embarrassed feelings for his secretary. The relationships on the docks were engaging (if perhaps, probably not realistic for the time).
It just falls apart for me when the story moves to Casinga. Zinga goes far too quickly from wanting to see his homeland, to demanding that they change. Which puts him at odds with the Witch Doctor, who is the de facto ruler at the moment and played by James Solomon. Everything in this second half felt rushed, and the character of Johnny notably changed from the one I feel I was introduced to in the first half.
Though Robeson's performance is strong, the second half of the film really lets it down, to the point I don't think I could honestly recommend it.
Johnny Zinga (Paul Robeson) lives a happy life as a London Dockworker. Zinga's singing voice makes him popular amongst his friends and neighbours and eventually catches the ear of Impresario Gabriel Donozetti (Esme Percy). Now wealthy and successful, circumstances allow Zinga to head to the African Island nation that his family originate from. There he finds a culture based on myth and magic and bluntly tries to teach them what he knows of modern Western living.
As with "Phantom Ship" I watched this film on Youtube, so I'm reliant on the versions that have been uploaded and with that in mind, despite only being a year later "Song of Freedom" looks much more like a contemporary movie of the time than "Phantom Ship" did. The performances are better, the audio is much more perceptible, and the editing is much less brutal. It was not, for me, a better film though. The first half was, with a couple of songs from Robeson and a story that made sense and was progressing nicely. I liked the odd mannerism of Donozetti's assistant and his embarrassed feelings for his secretary. The relationships on the docks were engaging (if perhaps, probably not realistic for the time).
It just falls apart for me when the story moves to Casinga. Zinga goes far too quickly from wanting to see his homeland, to demanding that they change. Which puts him at odds with the Witch Doctor, who is the de facto ruler at the moment and played by James Solomon. Everything in this second half felt rushed, and the character of Johnny notably changed from the one I feel I was introduced to in the first half.
Though Robeson's performance is strong, the second half of the film really lets it down, to the point I don't think I could honestly recommend it.