Film Crooner

It concerns the abrupt rise and fall of a popular crooner, Teddy Taylor.

Crooner
Teddy Taylor (David Manners) conducts his band
Directed by	Lloyd Bacon
Screenplay by	Charles Kenyon
Story by	based on a story by Rian James
Produced by	Lucien Hubbard
Starring	David Manners Ann Dvorak
Cinematography	Robert Kurrle
Edited by	Howard Bretherton
Music by	Vitaphone Orchestra conducted by Leo F. Forbstein
Production company	First National Pictures, Inc.
Distributed by	First National Pictures
Release date	August 20, 1932 (1932-08-20)
Running time	67 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

A print is held by the Library of Congress.

Teddy Taylor is the leader of Ted Taylor's Collegians. One night, his usual singer can't sing. He decides to try out singing. However, his voice can't be heard over the band. A dancer stops and jokes with him by handing him a megaphone. Taylor sings through it, and he is heard. The ladies are enamored with his soft voice while the men are disgusted. Taylor becomes a big star over night, but his ego becomes inflated. Things come to a head when Taylor loses his temper and punches a heckler in the audience, who he didn't realize was a cripple. Shunned, he loses his girlfriend, his band, his fame, and his dignity.

In the final scene, as a drunk and unhappy Peter Sturgis, who promoted Teddy Taylor into a singing star and gave up his fiancée Judy Mason to him, continues to drink heavily in a speakeasy, an announcer on the speakeasy's radio proclaims, "…And now, it is our great privilege to bring to you the new sensation of the air, Bang Busby, who will croon for you in his inimitable manner, 'Sweethearts Forever'". As the song, which had already been sung a number of times by Teddy Taylor, begins to be heard, Sturgis grabs a bottle and hurls it at the radio, breaking it.

Brick Holton provided Ted Taylor's singing voice. Rudy Vallée was originally considered for the role of Taylor, but contracts prevented this.

"It hands a loud but quite amusing razz to all such radio performers," wrote a critic for Photoplay. "Ken Murray and Ann Dvorak help to make this bright and entertaining."

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Wiki Commons has media related to Crooner.

• Crooner at IMDb  
• synopsis at AllMovie