Stingaree (1934)

Memorable, crazy movie

Lack of good storyline.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Don't waste your time on this. Irene Dunne could do much better. As for Richard Dix, he looked like a combination of a poor man's John Barrymore and Clark Gable who was trying to act like Douglas Fairbanks. Spoilers follow: They would have the audience believe that Hilda would throw away a career as the 19th century equivalent of a rock star, staying at luxury hotels with her personal maid and her manager--a nice guy who loves her and wants to marry her--to go off and live on the lam with a convicted felon who escaped from prison and his idiot sidekick, setting herself up as an accomplice and risk going to prison herself. What a load of crap! I finished it only because I was waiting for him to get killed so she would come to her senses, since the 30's were full of "crime doesn't pay" movies, but the last scene was so awful it was funny and I don't think it was intentional.

This RKO picture benefits from William Wellman's direction, the re-teaming of Irene Dunne and Richard Dix, and a nice blend of music, adventure and romance. Miss Dunne is particularly suited to play an opera singer, and only MGM's Jeanette MacDonald could have performed the lead nearly as well. As for the love interest, Mr. Dix essays the title role of a dashing bandit, the first time he has worked with Miss Dunne since the studio's earlier hit, Cimarron.Mary Boland does a fine job as an obnoxious snob, proving her worth as a would-be member of the cultural elite who makes things a bit difficult for Dunne. And don't miss Andy Devine turning on the charm as Stingaree's high-pitched loyal sidekick (what else?).

This rare RKO film from their golden age is an above average operetta that only suffers from the casting of its very American and British cast as Australians. Irene Dunne and Richard Dix, reunited from the western epic "Cimarron", play star-crossed lovers, a promising singer and the wanted outlaw she falls in love with. Dunne has been taken in by the outrageously vain Mary Boland who keeps singing whether anybody wants to hear her or not (presumably the latter). You soon realize that every time she starts chirping, "Yo Ho! Yo Ho! Yo Ho!" she's really shouting out of frustration of her lack of discovery. Boland, who played a nag better than anybody in the films of the 30's (just ask Charlie Ruggles' characters who were paired with her in a dozen films), emphasizes this female's phoniness, her constant cheeriness as a total fraud. When Dunne finally has enough and starts imitating this fish-wife, you can see why producers started looking at her for screwball comedies rather than the soap opera she had been playing for several years.Dix, as the titled character, is a bit over the top, his acting more out of a silent film with characteristics that most silent film stars still working in movies in 1934 had gotten rid of. He's also less romantic than the character should be. Andy Devine is always good for a laugh, and there are some good moments for the British Henry Stephenson and Reginald Owen as well. As always, Una O'Connor is a delightful screechy presence, her Irish maid not afraid of putting the boorish Boland in her place.This isn't a film for purists, but as entertainment, it really shines brightly among a few newly discovered "lost" films that even diligent collectors had been searching for over decades.

Highwayman Stingaree ( Richard Dix) is the terror of down under as he plunders travelers and humiliates the local constabulary with his audacious crimes. When he becomes smitten with Hilda Bouverie (Irene Dunne) he risks his freedom to make her a great opera singer.Preposterous as the plot is in this piece of costume claptrap directed by William Wellman, Dix is dashing, Dunne exhibits a decent set of pipes and Marie Boland remains wonderfully oblivious to give Stingaree a certain degree of life and humor. Wellman directs like he's doing a silent though and the film ends up in an ill fitting time warp between pre-talkie swashbuckler and the musical pairing of Eddy and Mc Donald.