The Broadway Melody

Last updated

The Broadway Melody
Broadway Melody poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Harry Beaumont
Written bySarah Y. Mason (continuity)
Norman Houston (dialogue)
James Gleason (dialogue)
uncredited:
Earl Baldwin (titles)
Story by Edmund Goulding
Produced by Irving Thalberg
Lawrence Weingarten
Starring Charles King
Anita Page
Bessie Love
Cinematography John Arnold
Edited by Sam S. Zimbalist
uncredited:
William LeVanway (silent version)
Music by(see article)
Color processBlack and White (with a Technicolor sequence)
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$379,000 [3]
Box office$4.4 million [3]

The Broadway Melody, also known as The Broadway Melody of 1929, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the early musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929–1930. [4]

Contents

The Broadway Melody was written by Norman Houston and James Gleason from a story by Edmund Goulding and directed by Harry Beaumont. Original music was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, including the popular hit "You Were Meant for Me". The George M. Cohan classic "Give My Regards to Broadway" is used under the opening establishing shots of New York City, its film debut. Bessie Love was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance. Today, the Technicolor sequence survives only in black and white. The film was the first musical released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was Hollywood's first all-talking musical.

Due to being a film published in 1929, it will enter the public domain on January 1, 2025.

Plot

Eddie Kearns sings "The Broadway Melody" and tells some chorus girls that he has brought the Mahoney Sisters vaudeville act to New York to perform it with him in the latest revue being produced by Francis Zanfield. Harriet "Hank" Mahoney and her sister Queenie Mahoney are awaiting Eddie's arrival at their apartment. Hank, the older sister, prides herself on her business sense and talent, while Queenie is lauded for her beauty. Hank is confident they will make it big, while Queenie is less eager to put everything on the line to become a star. Hank declines the offer of their Uncle Jed to join a 30-week traveling show but consents to think it over.

Eddie, who is engaged to Hank, arrives and sees Queenie for the first time since she was a young girl and is instantly taken with her. He tells them to come to a rehearsal for Zanfield's revue to present their act. Flo, a dancer in Zanfield’s company, sabotages their performance by placing a bag in the piano, which causes a fight with Hank. Zanfield isn't interested in it but says he might have a use for Queenie, who begs him to give Hank a part as well, saying both will work for one wage. She also convinces him to pretend that Hank's business skills won him over. Eddie witnesses this exchange and becomes even more enamored of Queenie for her devotion to her sister. During a dress rehearsal for the revue, Zanfield says the pacing is too slow for "The Broadway Melody" and cuts Hank and Queenie from the number.

Meanwhile, another woman is injured after falling off a set prop, and Queenie is selected to replace her. Nearly everyone is enamored with Queenie, particularly notorious playboy Jacques "Jock" Warriner. While Jock begins to woo Queenie, Hank is upset that Queenie is building her success on her looks rather than her talent.

Over the following weeks, Queenie spends a lot of time with Jock, of which Hank and Eddie fervently disapprove. They forbid her to see him, which results in Queenie pushing them away and deteriorating the relationship between the sisters. Queenie is only with Jock to fight her growing feelings for Eddie, but Hank thinks she's setting herself up to be hurt. Eventually, Eddie and Queenie confess their love for each other, but Queenie, unwilling to break her sister's heart, runs off to Jock once again.

After witnessing Queenie's fierce outburst toward Eddie and his devastated reaction to it, Hank finally realizes that they are in love. She berates Eddie for letting Queenie run away and tells him to go after her. Hank claims to have never loved him and that she'd only been using him to advance her career. After he leaves, Hank breaks down and alternates between sobs and hysterical laughter. She composes herself enough to call Uncle Jed to accept the job with the 30-week show.

There's a raucous party at the apartment Jock had recently purchased for Queenie, but he insists they spend time alone. When she resists his advances, he says it's the least she could do after all he's done for her. He begins to get physical, but Eddie bursts in and attempts to fight Jock, who knocks him through the door with one punch. Queenie runs to Eddie and leaves Jock and the party behind.

Sometime later, Hank and Uncle Jed await the return of Queenie and Eddie from their honeymoon. The relationship between the sisters is on the mend, but there is obvious discomfort between Hank and Eddie. Queenie announces she's through with show business and will settle in their new house on Long Island. She insists that Hank live with them when her job is over. After Hank leaves with her new partner and Uncle Jed, Queenie laments that she couldn't help her sister find the happiness she deserves. Ironically, Hank's new partner is Flo, the blonde who tried to sabotage the act when the sisters first arrived in New York. The final scene shows Hank on her way to the train station. She promises her new partner that they'll be back on Broadway within six months. [5]

Cast

Lobby card Broadway Melody lobby card.jpg
Lobby card
Poster BroadwayMelodyPoster1.jpg
Poster

Musical numbers

Music by Nacio Herb Brown, lyrics by Arthur Freed, except as noted. [6] [7]

Production

Because this movie was one of the early sound features made, and one of the early sound musicals, the production learned how to record sound properly by trial-and-error. After the rushes were seen, the sets were changed to improve the recording qualities, and scenes were re-shot, resulting in long days for the actors and an overall long shooting schedule. [10] It took over three hours to film Bessie Love's brief ukulele-playing scene. [11] For earlier takes, a full orchestra was off-camera, but for later takes, the actors sang and danced to prerecorded music. [10] A silent version of the film was produced,[ citation needed ] as there were still many motion picture theaters without sound equipment at the time.

John Arnold shot with spherical lenses on 35mm black-and-white film, with one sequence in color. The film was presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (sound on disc version) and 1.20:1 (sound on film version). [12]

The film featured a musical sequence for "The Wedding of the Painted Doll" that was presented in early two-color Technicolor (red and green filters). Color quickly became associated with the musical genre, and numerous features were released in 1929 and 1930 that either featured color sequences or were filmed entirely in color, like On with the Show (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), Sally (1929), The Life of the Party (1930), and others. The color footage is not extant, [2] although a few frames still survive.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary

Ad for the film as seen in most magazine publications of the time. Broadway Melody Ad.jpg
Ad for the film as seen in most magazine publications of the time.

The Broadway Melody was a substantial success and made a profit of $1.6 million for MGM. [3] It was the top grossing picture of 1929 and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. [13]

Contemporary reviews from critics were generally positive. Variety wrote that it "has everything a silent picture should have outside of its dialog. A basic story with some sense to it, action, excellent direction, laughs, a tear, a couple of great performances and plenty of sex." [14] "Has everything", agreed Film Daily . "Sure-fire moneymaker that will drag 'em in everywhere." [15]

"This picture is great. It will revolutionize the talkies", wrote Edwin Schallert for Motion Picture News . "The direction is an amazing indication of what can be done in the new medium." [16]

Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times wrote a mixed review, calling it "rather cleverly directed" but "somewhat obvious", with sentiment "served out too generously in most of the sequences." Hall called King's performance "vigorous," but of Page, he wrote, "Her acting, especially her voice, does not enhance her personality. Notwithstanding, it must be admitted that there are girls who talk as they are made to for the screen. Miss Page, however, fails to give one an impression of spontaneity, for she recites rather than speaks her lines." [17]

John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote, "The stage background allows opportunity for one or two musical interpolations, and no one is more glad than we that the talkies charmingly succeed in a very pleasant ballet. Because of that, we shall try to forget the dialogue of the play, and that James Gleason ever wanted to take any credit for it." [18]

Accolades

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards at the 1930 ceremony: Best Actress (Bessie Love), Best Director (Harry Beaumont), and Outstanding Picture. No nominations were announced before the 1930 ceremonies. Love and Beaumont are presumed to have been under consideration, and they are listed as such by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

AwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Won [19]
Best Director Harry Beaumont Nominated
Best Actress Bessie Love Nominated

Retrospective

Historically, The Broadway Melody is often considered the first complete example of a Hollywood musical. Contemporary critics now view the movie as cliché-ridden and overly melodramatic, despite the fact that it was considered innovative for its time and contributed to the concept and structure of musical films. [20] It currently holds a rating of 39% at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews, with a weighted average of 5.4/10. The site's consensus is that the film "is interesting as an example of an early Hollywood musical, but otherwise, it's essentially bereft of appeal for modern audiences". [21]

Assessing the film in 2009, James Berardinelli wrote, "The Broadway Melody has not stood the test of time in ways that many of its more artistic contemporaries have. Some of its deficiencies can be attributed to ways in which the genre has been re-shaped and improved over the years, but some are the result of the studio's validated belief that viewers would be willing to ignore bad acting and pedestrian directing in order to experience singing, dancing, and talking on the silver screen." [22]

Sequels

Three more movies were later made by MGM with similar titles: Broadway Melody of 1936 , Broadway Melody of 1938 , and Broadway Melody of 1940 . Although not direct sequels in the traditional sense, they all had the same basic premise of a group of people putting on a show (the films also had recurring cast members playing different roles, most notably dancer Eleanor Powell who appeared in all three).

The original movie was remade in 1940 as Two Girls on Broadway . Another Broadway Melody film was planned for 1943 (starring Gene Kelly and Eleanor Powell), but production was cancelled when Kelly was loaned to Columbia for Cover Girl (1944). [1] Broadway Rhythm , a 1944 musical by MGM, was originally to have been titled Broadway Melody of 1944.

Home media

Warner Bros. released The Broadway Melody on a Region 1 special edition DVD in 2005. It is included in the 18-disc Best Picture Oscar Collection, also released by Warner Bros. [23] The film was given a Blu-ray release from a 4K restoration by Warner Archive in July 2023. [24] After the DVD had been released, a 25- to 30-second establishing shot of New York City, missing from 35mm prints and the DVD release, was discovered in a 16mm print. This footage was put back into the film when Warner Brothers restored the film for its 2023 Warner Archive Blu-Ray release [ citation needed ].

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Hollywood Revue</i> 1929 film

The Hollywood Revue of 1929, or simply The Hollywood Revue, is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the studio's second feature-length musical, and one of their earliest sound films. Produced by Harry Rapf and Irving Thalberg and directed by Charles Reisner, it features nearly all of MGM's stars in a two-hour revue that includes three segments in Technicolor. The masters of ceremonies are Conrad Nagel and Jack Benny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bessie Love</span> American actress (1898–1986)

Juanita Horton, better known as Bessie Love, was an American-British actress who achieved prominence playing innocent, young girls and wholesome leading ladies in silent and early sound films. Her acting career spanned nearly seven decades—from silent film to sound film, including theatre, radio, and television—and her performance in The Broadway Melody (1929) earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

<i>Becky Sharp</i> (film) 1935 film by Rouben Mamoulian, Lowell Sherman

Becky Sharp is a 1935 American Technicolor historical drama film directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Miriam Hopkins who plays the eponymous protagonist. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. Other supporting cast were William Faversham, Frances Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce, and Alan Mowbray.

Show Boat is a 1936 American romantic musical film directed by James Whale, based on the 1927 musical of the same name by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, which in turn was adapted from the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber.

<i>Gold Diggers of Broadway</i> Partially lost 1929 pre-Code American musical film

Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second all-talking, all-Technicolor feature-length film.

<i>The Show of Shows</i> 1929 film

The Show of Shows is a 1929 American pre-Code musical revue film directed by John G. Adolfi and distributed by Warner Bros. The all-talking Vitaphone production cost almost $800,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor.

<i>Sally</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Sally is a 1929 American Pre-Code film. It is the fourth all-sound, all-color feature film made, and it was photographed in the Technicolor process. It was the sixth feature film to contain color that had been released by Warner Bros.; the first five were The Desert Song (1929), On with the Show! (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), Paris (1929) and The Show of Shows (1929).. Although exhibited in a few theaters in December 1929, Sally entered general release on January 12, 1930.

<i>Song of the Flame</i> (film) 1930 American musical film

Song of the Flame is a 1930 American pre-Code musical film photographed entirely in Technicolor. Based on the 1925 operetta of the same name, the film features a screenplay by Gordon Rigby adapted from the musical book written by Oscar Hammerstein II and Otto A. Harbach for the operetta. The movie also features many of the songs from the operetta which used lyrics by Hammerstein and Orbach and music by George Gershwin and Herbert Stothart. The film was produced and distributed by First National Pictures. It was the first color film to feature a widescreen sequence, using a process called Vitascope, the trademark name for Warner Bros.' widescreen process. The film, based on the 1925 Broadway musical of the same name, was nominated for an Academy Award for Sound Recording. It is part of the tradition of operetta films, popular at the time.

<i>The Desert Song</i> (1929 film) 1929 film by Roy Del Ruth

The Desert Song is a 1929 American pre-Code operetta film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring John Boles, Carlotta King, Louise Fazenda, and Myrna Loy. It was photographed partly in two-color Technicolor, the first film released by Warner Bros. to include footage in color. The film included a 10-minute intermission during which music was played.

<i>Paris</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Paris is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy film, featuring Irène Bordoni. It was filmed with Technicolor sequences: four of the film's ten reels were originally photographed in Technicolor.

<i>Mammy</i> (1930 film) 1930 film

Mammy (1930) is an American pre-Code musical comedy-drama film with Technicolor sequences, released by Warner Bros. The film starred Al Jolson and was a follow-up to his previous film, Say It with Songs (1929). Mammy became Al Jolson's fourth feature, following earlier screen efforts as The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928) and Say It with Songs (1929). The film relives Jolson's early years as a minstrel man. The songs were written by Irving Berlin, who is also credited with the original story titled Mr. Bones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duncan Sisters</span> American entertainers; vaudeville duo

The Duncan Sisters were an American vaudeville duo who became popular in the 1920s with their act Topsy and Eva.

Chasing Rainbows is a 1930 American Pre-Code romantic musical film directed by Charles Reisner, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Musical short</span> Short films, often before the main feature

The musical short can be traced back to the earliest days of sound films.

<i>My Man</i> (1928 film) 1928 film

My Man is a 1928 black and white sound part-talkie American comedy-drama musical film directed by Archie Mayo starring Fanny Brice and featuring Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system.

Two Girls on Broadway is a 1940 musical film directed by S. Sylvan Simon and starring Lana Turner and Joan Blondell. The film is a remake of The Broadway Melody (1929).

Natural color was a term used in the beginning of film and later on in the 1920s, and early 1930s as a color film process that actually filmed color images, rather than a color tinted or colorized movie. The first natural color processes were in the 1900s and 1910s and were two color additive color processes or red and green missing primary color blue, one additive process of time was Kinemacolor. By the 1920s, subtractive color was mostly in use with such processes as Technicolor, Prizma and Multicolor, but Multicolor was mostly never in use in the late 1920s, Technicolor was mostly in use. The only one who cared to mess with Multicolor was William Fox, probably because Multicolor was more cheaper of a process and at the time in 1929 William Fox was in debt. The difference between additive color and subtractive color were that an additive color film required a special projector that could project two components of film at the same time, a green record and a red record. But additive color didn't required a special projector, the two pieces of film were chemically formed together and was projected in one strip of film.

<i>Hollywood Cavalcade</i> 1939 American film

Hollywood Cavalcade is a 1939 American film featuring Alice Faye as a young performer making her way in the early days of Hollywood, from slapstick silent pictures through the transition from silent to sound.

Technicolor Special was a common term used for Hollywood studio produced color short films of the 1930s and 1940s that did not belong to a specified series.

References

  1. 1 2 Hess, Earl J.; Dabholkar, Pratibha A. (2009). Singin' in the Rain: The Making of an American Masterpiece. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. pp.  6–7. ISBN   978-0-7006-1656-5.
  2. 1 2 3 The Broadway Melody at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  3. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles, California: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
  4. ↑ Richard W. Haines, list of first two-strip Technicolor (starting in 1928), in Technicolor Movies: The History of Dye Transfer Printing (Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2010), 15. ISBN   0786480750, 9780786480753
  5. ↑ Green, Stanley (1999) Hollywood Musicals Year by Year (2nd ed.), pub. Hal Leonard Corporation ISBN   0-634-00765-3
  6. ↑ Bloom, Ken. Hollywood Song: The Complete Film Musical Companion, Vol. 1, 1995. Published by Facts On File, Inc. ISBN   0-8160-2668-8
  7. ↑ "Music, The Broadway Melody (1929)" tcm.com, accessed March 4, 2011
  8. ↑ "The Broadway Melody (1929) film", at Songbook.
  9. ↑ "The Broadway Melody (1929) film" https://songbook1.wordpress.com/, accessed March 11, 2023
  10. 1 2 Love, Bessie (June 27, 1969). "A Broadway Melody Remembered". The Christian Science Monitor . p. 8.
  11. ↑ Crafton, Donald (1990). "Three Seasons: The Films of 1928–1931". The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 294. ISBN   978-0-684-19585-8.
  12. ↑ "BROADWAY MELODY, THE (1929) (BLU-RAY REVIEW)".
  13. ↑ Wierzbicki, James (2008). Film Music: A History. Routledge. p. 116. ISBN   978-0-203-88447-8.
  14. ↑ Silverman, Sid (February 13, 1929). "Broadway Melody". Variety . New York: Variety, Inc. p. 13. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Broadway Melody". Film Daily . New York. February 17, 1929. p. 10.
  16. ↑ Schallert, Edwin (February 9, 1929). "First Report on 'Broadway Melody'". Motion Picture News . p. 433.
  17. ↑ Hall, Mordaunt (February 9, 1929). "Review: "The Broadway Melody"". The New York Times .
  18. ↑ Mosher, John (February 16, 1929). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker . p. 83.
  19. ↑ "The 2nd Academy Awards (1930) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  20. ↑ Levy, Emanuel (2003). All about Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. Continuum. p. 200. ISBN   978-0-8264-1452-6.
  21. ↑ "The Broadway Melody". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved August 10, 2023.
  22. ↑ Berardinelli, James (November 1, 2009). "The Broadway Melody". Reelviews. James Berardinelli. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  23. ↑ Fischer, Lucy, ed. (2009). American Cinema of the 1920s: Themes and Variations. Rutgers University Press. p. 260. ISBN   978-0-8135-4485-4.
  24. ↑ Warner Archive Announces July Releases , retrieved June 8, 2023
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.