The Flame Song is a weirdly fun royal mess

If you have a Sunday afternoon with absolutely nothing to do, The Flame Song is worth a look. It is mostly for people who like those old-fashioned royal dramas where everyone breaks into song for no reason. If you hate movies where the plot depends on people being **really bad at recognizing faces**, you will probably want to turn this off after twenty minutes. 📺

Prince Henry is the main guy, and honestly, he is kind of a wet blanket. He is supposed to be the hero, but he lets his cousin Basil just... take the kingdom? Basil doesn't even have to try that hard. He just looks mean and Henry pretty much packs his bags for Paris.

The Paris scenes are some of my favorite parts because they look so fake. You can tell they are on a stage with some painted backgrounds that look like they were finished five minutes before the cameras started rolling. It reminds me of the sets in The Painted Flapper, where everything feels a bit too shiny and new.

Henry spends his time in Paris moping. Then he gets the idea to go back to Florestan, but he can't just walk in because Basil has the guards looking for him. So he decides to pretend to be a chauffeur. This is the part where the movie gets really silly. He is driving his own manservant around, and the servant is pretending to be a rich playboy. 🏎️

I kept waiting for someone to notice. Henry doesn't even change his voice that much. He just puts on a little hat and some goggles and suddenly he is invisible to the people who grew up with him. It is one of those movie tropes that makes you want to yell at the screen. Like, **come on**, his cousin should know it's him the second he sees his chin.

The music is actually the most interesting thing about this. You have big names like George Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein II on the credits. You expect it to be this masterpiece, but it feels more like they were just doing a job. It’s good music, don't get me wrong. But it feels a bit disconnected from the story, like they wrote the songs first and then someone tried to cram them into a script about a weak prince.

Bernice Claire is in this, and she has a very pretty voice. She does that 1930s singing style where everything is very high and vibrates a lot. It’s charming in a way. It makes the movie feel like a dusty old postcard you found in your grandma's attic. 💌

There is a scene where Henry is looking at the border of his kingdom and he looks so sad. The camera stays on his face for a really long time. It starts to feel a bit awkward, like the director forgot to yell cut. I think we are supposed to feel his deep longing for home, but he just looks like he’s trying to remember if he left the stove on in Paris.

Basil is played by Daniel Makarenko, and he is just great at being a jerk. He has this way of sitting in the throne that makes you want to kick him out yourself. He’s much more interesting than Henry. Usually, in these movies, the villain is just a cardboard cutout, but Basil seems like he’s actually having a good time being a tyrant. 👑

I noticed the costumes are a bit hit or miss. Some of the royal outfits look heavy and expensive. Then you see a background guard and his uniform looks like it’s made of thin felt. It’s those little details that remind you this wasn't a huge budget production. It has that same slightly cheap feeling as The Lady Lies, where you can see the edges of the movie magic.

The pacing is a bit weird too. It takes a long time to get Henry back to the kingdom. But once he’s there, everything happens so fast. It’s like the writers realized they only had ten minutes left and had to wrap up the whole revolution. One minute he’s a chauffeur, and the next, everyone is cheering. It’s a bit of a head-spinner.

I do like the way they filmed some of the outdoor scenes. Even if they are mostly backlots, they have a nice atmosphere. There’s a bit with a carriage that feels very classic. It reminded me of the travel scenes in Fighting Caravans, though obviously on a much smaller scale. 🐴

Is it a masterpiece? No way. But it has a certain heart to it. You can tell everyone was trying their best with a story that is, frankly, a bit ridiculous. It’s the kind of movie that makes you miss when stories were allowed to be this simple and strange.

A few things I wrote down:

• The servant really loves being the playboy. He gets way too into character.
• There is a dog in one scene that looks very confused to be there.
• Basil’s office has some really cool looking lamps. I want one.
• The ending happens so fast you might blink and miss the actual coup.
• Why does the chauffeur hat cover so little of his face? It’s basically just a normal hat.

The movie it just ends on a big musical note. No real epilogue. We just assume everything is fine now that the "right" guy is back. I guess that’s how it worked back then. If you like seeing a bit of film history with some famous names attached, give it a watch. Just don't expect it to make a lot of sense. 🤷‍♂️