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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
In the depths of the Depression, Lady Port-Huntly (Rossellini) takes to the radio airwaves and beckons the world to
compete for the title of the world’s saddest country in Winnipeg, the world capital of sorrow. She presides over the
event like a Roman Empress, giving the thumbs up or thumbs down. In the first round, musicians from Siam and
Mexico go toe to toe. “Nobody beats the Siamese when it comes to dignity, cats, or twins,” gushes a radio
commentator. Performing a ballad about a dead baby, the mariachis win and take the victory plunge into a vat of
beer. “In a world competition, ordinary tears are not enough,” admonishes the announcer.
Although a double amputee, Lady Port-Huntly rules her brewery, the contest’s sponsor, like a lascivious Joan Collins
crossed with a no-nonsense Barbara Stanwyck. She even has a pajama-clad boy toy at her beck and call. But the
main story line involving Chester Kent (McKinney), a cocky down-on-his luck Broadway producer, bogs down this
otherwise flighty film. Chester happens to be Lady Port-Huntly’s ex-lover and the one she blames for the loss of her
legs. He sees her competition as his chance to regain glory by delivering American “sass and pizzazz.”
Accompanying Chester is girlfriend and songbird Narcissa (de Medeiros). In the film’s center piece, she breaks into
the Jerome Kern standard, “This Song is You,” and the entire town takes part. Although an affectionate send-up, it is
also infectious. Unlike Chicago, this musical number is unapologetically corny, with no irony.
Saddest Music is a visual kaleidoscope of tinted or black-and-white images shot through a gauzy filter. Part camp
parody, backstage musical, and B movie melodrama, not all of the elements jell. The latter, which includes the
arrival of Chester’s raving father and estranged brother (once married to Narcissa), is nonsensical. Most of these scenes are glum and leaden.
While McKinney, as Chester, is as wooden as any B actor from the early thirties, both de Medeiros and Rossellini
seem human despite the plot’s artifice. Bathed in light, de Medeiros could easily pass as Marlene Dietrich in The
Scarlet Empress.
Saddest Music is like a Saturday Night Live spoof that has a promising
beginning, but doesn’t know how to end. It’s not nearly as engaging as director Maddin’s Dracula: Pages From a
Virgin’s Diary, newly released on DVD. Essentially a silent film shot in Maddin’s singular visual style with a Mahler score performed by
the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Dracula is uniformly macabre and lyrical. Kent Turner
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