Le Chanteur Inconnu (aka The Unknown Singer) (1931)

A French traveling salesman (Jim Gerald) is in Russia when he discovers a Frenchman (Lucien Muratore) with a magnificent singing voice. But the man suffers from amnesia and has no memory beyond the last 10 years when he was picked up by a whaling ship. The salesman brings the singer to Paris where he becomes a sensation as the masked Unknown Singer. But a pretty reporter (Simone Simon) is assigned by her editor to investigate who the man really is. Co-written by Georges Henri Clouzot and directed by Viktor Tourjansky. This melodrama with songs (music by Rene Sylviano, lyrics by Serge Veber) is on the creaky side. The musical interludes pad out the hoary plot and the acting isn't especially notable though it's nice to see the fresh faced Simone Simon in an early ingenue role. Too bad MGM didn't obtain remake rights for Mario Lanza and rewritten with it with a better script, it might have been a good part for him. With Simone Cerdan and Jean Max.