The Vagabond Lover is a 1929 American pre-Code black-and-white musical comedy-drama film about a small-town boy who finds fame and romance when he joins a dance band.

The Vagabond Lover is an early example of a vehicle created for a popular music star, in a style echoed by later films such as Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley and A Hard Day's Night with the Beatles.

Rudy Bronson is a senior in a small college in the Midwest who completes a correspondence course in the saxophone given by the nationally known Ted Grant.

[5] Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times wrote a positive review, noting that film "... relies on fun, tuneful songs and appealing music."

The reviewer did, however, praise Marie Dressler's performance and wrote in conclusion, "If you like sentimental songs that rhyme 'Moonbeams' with 'June-dreams,' you'll love the ones in 'The Vagabond Lover.

[8] Reviewing the film for The Nation, Alexander Bakshy wrote: "[Rudy Vallée] gives his admirers what they long for—a succession of songs to the accompaniment of a jazz band which makes their hearts melt and fills their beings with a glow of 'romance.

"[10] In his book The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, Scott Eyman wrote: "Neilan's The Vagabond Lover features the adenoidal singing and ungodly dance-band music of Ruby Vallee, who displays the preoccupied concern of a man trying to pass a kidney stone; his acting ability was of the sort usually found only in sixth-grade plays.

Vallee makes Crosby look like Cagney and plays the kind of music that Spike Jones mercilessly parodied.