Movie review - "The Broken Melody" (1938) **1/2

Lloyd Hughes is spectacularly miscast as an Aussie uni student (they don't have any explanations for his age or accent), son of a sheep farmer (who is meant to be in debt up to his eyeballs but still has a lush property, can afford to send his kids to uni, has dinner in jackets), who rows and is a violinist but gets in one drunken brawl... which sees him disowned, unemployed and living in the Domain. But luckily he can play the violin so he's no sooner down and out than up again and a highly successful composer and conductor in London. He comes home, dad has a heart attack, a flamboyant singer (the best performance in the movie) sulks, the show goes on with Hughes' ex singing.

This is a fascinating out and out melodrama, with a bit of everything - social commentary (Hughes is accused of being a Bolshevik), rare Australian cinematic depiction of the Depression, homeless city in the Domain, comic relief from Alec Kellaway as a loveable pickpocket, flamboyant theatrical types, brawl in nightclubs, Gough Whitlam as an extra, opera, violin performances, estranged fathers... The original novel was a best seller and although thus was changed a lot, much of it remains.

Hughes is an awkward poor lead and his female co star isn't good or pretty (Shirley Ann Richards is badly missed), and some of the minor support parts (e.g. his sister, father) are sketchy but there are excellent support turns from Frank Harvey, Rosalind Kennerdale, and Kellaway. Visually rich - an opening rowing race (real footage), spectacular opera finale, nightclub, the Domain. A bit hokey but watchable and fascinating.