Mother Machree

Last updated

Mother Machree
Mother Machree FilmPoster.jpeg
Film poster
Directed by John Ford (uncredited)
Written by Rida Johnson Young
Produced byJohn Ford
Starring
Cinematography Chester A. Lyons
Edited by
Distributed by Fox Film Corporation
Release date
  • January 22, 1928 (1928-01-22)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
Languages Sound (Synchronized)
(English intertitles)
Budget$750,000 (estimated)

Mother Machree is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by John Ford that is based on the 1924 work The Story of Mother Machree by Rida Johnson Young about a poor Irish immigrant in America. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. Rida Johnson Young had invented Mother Machree in the stage show Barry of Ballymoore in 1910. John Wayne has a minor role in the film. [1]

Contents

Plot

Cast

Music

The film featured a theme song titled "Mother Machree", composed by Chauncey Olcott, Ernest Ball and Rida Johnson Young.

Production

The production of the film was a protracted one; the film was originally announced by Fox publicity in June 1926, with filming slated for September. In November, it was announced that it would premiere on December 12, 1926, tying in with the marketing campaign of the music and discs of the title song. However, its release was ultimately delayed because Fox had plans to release it with a Movietone synchronised music score and sound-effects track.

Release

In May 1927, Mother Machree was privately previewed at a Fox sales convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, along with Sunrise and 7th Heaven (1927), as a showcase of the new Movietone process, and that September, a silent version was previewed at the Astoria Theatre in London. By the beginning of 1928, the delays were amounting to approximately $750,000 because its release was deferred owing to the release schedule of the Fox Movietone features. On January 22, 1928, the film premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York. [2]

The film is also notable for containing the first synchronous sound sequence using the Movietone process in a feature film,[ citation needed ] a short scene featuring Brian McHugh (Neil Hamilton) singing the title song "Mother Machree", which featured in the original stage show.

Preservation

Only four reels out of seven of this movie survive. Incomplete prints exist (reels one, two and five) in the Library of Congress film archive; and in the UCLA Film and Television Archive film archive (reels two, five and seven); reels three, four and six are presumed lost. [3] [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans</i> 1927 silent film by F. W. Murnau

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American synchronized sound romantic drama directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. The film's plot follows a married farmer (O'Brien) who falls for a woman vacationing from the city (Livingston), who tries to convince him to murder his wife (Gaynor) in order to be with her. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound-on-film process. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "The Excursion to Tilsit", from the 1917 collection with the same title by Hermann Sudermann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitaphone</span> Sound system for film

Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone is the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one that was widely used and commercially successful. The soundtrack is not printed on the film, but issued separately on phonograph records. The discs, recorded at 33+13 rpm and typically 16 inches (41 cm) in diameter, are played on a turntable physically coupled to the projector motor while the film is projected. Its frequency response is 4300 Hz. Many early talkies, such as The Jazz Singer (1927), used the Vitaphone system. The name "Vitaphone" derived from the Latin and Greek words, respectively, for "living" and "sound".

<i>What Price Glory?</i> (1926 film) 1926 film by Raoul Walsh

What Price Glory? is a 1926 American synchronized sound comedy drama war film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Raoul Walsh. The film was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound system. The film is based on the 1924 play What Price Glory by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings and was remade in 1952 as What Price Glory starring James Cagney. Malcolm Stuart Boylan, founder of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, was title writer on the silent Fox attraction.

Phonofilm is an optical sound-on-film system developed by inventors Lee de Forest and Theodore Case in the early 1920s.

<i>Four Sons</i> 1928 film

Four Sons is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed and produced by John Ford and written for the screen by Philip Klein from a story by I. A. R. Wylie first published in the Saturday Evening Post as "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" (1926). While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

<i>4 Devils</i> 1928 film by F. W. Murnau

4 Devils is a lost 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring Janet Gaynor. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

<i>Riley the Cop</i> 1928 film

Riley the Cop is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by John Ford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

<i>Strong Boy</i> 1929 film

Strong Boy is a 1929 American sound comedy film directed by John Ford. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film Movietone process. The film, which was Ford's last silent film, is now considered to be lost. A trailer for the film was discovered in the New Zealand Film Archive in 2010 and subsequently preserved by the Academy Film Archive the same year.

<i>Fox Movietone Follies of 1929</i> 1929 film

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, also known as Movietone Follies of 1929 and The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, is an American black-and-white and color pre-Code musical film released by Fox Film Corporation.

<i>Romance of the Underworld</i> 1928 film

Romance of the Underworld is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. Directed by Irving Cummings and starring Mary Astor, it was based upon a stage play called A Romance of the Underworld by Paul Armstrong. A previous version of the story was filmed as A Romance of the Underworld in 1918 by director James Kirkwood with Catherine Calvert in Astor's part.

<i>Dry Martini</i> (film) 1928 film

Dry Martini is a 1928 synchronized sound film comedy produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation starring Mary Astor and Matt Moore. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. Samuel L. Rothafel also contributed music for the film. It was adapted from the 1926 novel Dry Martini: a Gentleman Turns to Love by John Thomas. Ray Flynn was an assistant director.

<i>Warming Up</i> (1928 film) 1928 film

Warming Up is a 1928 synchronized sound American baseball film starring Richard Dix and Jean Arthur, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film is significant historically as Paramount's first sound film. Whilst the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Western Electric Sound System sound-on-film process. The film's soundtrack was dubbed onto the sound-on-disc format for those theatres that lacked equipment needed to be the sound-on-film process.

<i>Beware of Married Men</i> 1928 film by Archie Mayo

Beware of Married Men is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by Archie Mayo and starring Irene Rich, Clyde Cook and Audrey Ferris. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-disc Vitaphone process. The film was produced and distributed by Warner Brothers.

<i>The River Pirate</i> 1928 film

The River Pirate is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by William K. Howard and written by Malcolm Stuart Boylan, Ben Markson and John Reinhardt, based on the 1928 novel by Charles Francis Coe. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

<i>Fazil</i> (film) 1928 film by Howard Hawks

Fazil is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by Howard Hawks and written by Philip Klein and Seton I. Miller. The film stars Charles Farrell, Greta Nissen, John Boles, Mae Busch, Tyler Brooke and John T. Murray. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. The film was released on June 4, 1928, by Fox Film Corporation.

<i>Mother Knows Best</i> (film) 1928 film

Mother Knows Best is a lost 1928 American sound part-talkie film directed by John G. Blystone, based on a novel by Edna Ferber, fictionalizing the life of vaudevillian Elsie Janis. The film was Fox's first part talkie, using the Movietone sound system which had primarily been used for synchronised music scores and effects tracks in Fox features beforehand, although as early as "Mother Machree" (1928), a single synchronous singing sequence was included in the film. The talking sequences in Mother Knows Best were directed by actor Charles Judels, while the synchronized sequences were directed by John G. Blystone. The film starred Madge Bellamy, with Louise Dresser as her domineering mother, Barry Norton, and Albert Gran.

<i>Win That Girl</i> 1928 film

Win That Girl is a lost 1928 synchronized sound film comedy directed by David Butler and starring David Rollins and Sue Carol. It was produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.

<i>Plastered in Paris</i> 1928 film

Plastered in Paris is a 1928 American synchronized sound comedy film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and starring Sammy Cohen, Jack Pennick and Lola Salvi.

References

  1. 1 2 "Progressive Silent Film List: Mother Machree". Silent Era. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  2. Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: The Man and His Films. California, USA: University of California Press. pp.  518. ISBN   0-520-05097-5.
  3. Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: Mother Machree