Although singing legend Ruth Etting did not make too many feature films, she did however make quite a number of musical shorts such as Artistic Temper which she did for Warner Brothers.
She's showing a certain stiffness in her performing here and I don't think it was a lack of talent. She never gets truly involved in her role as a wife and I tend to think that was as a result of a jealous husband offstage. If anyone saw the film Love Me Or Leave Me we all know how that one ended.
In Artistic Temper Etting plays a doctor's wife who has a real singing talent, but her husband Wilfred Lytell doesn't like show business or show business people. They come to a parting of the ways when she has her piano accompanist and several other performers over for a little informal gathering where she sings and wows the crowd with her voice. That's before the husband unexpectedly comes home.
But the film is about Ruth Etting's singing and she does do several numbers that include Lovable, What A Life, and That's What Heaven Means To Me. They do exhibit her homespun and intimate style of singing.
In the end show business and medicine do combine in a not so unusual way and everyone gets what they want.
For a look at the real Ruth Etting after seeing Love Me Or Leave Me, you could do far worse than Artistic Temper.