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 first 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. 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.
Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. She was originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, but her career prospects improved greatly following her portrayal of Nora Charles in The Thin Man (1934).
The following is an overview of 1929 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths. This year saw the release of The Broadway Melody, the first major musical film of the sound era, as well as the hosting of the 1st Academy Awards.
The Desert Song is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colonial rule. It was also inspired by stories of Lawrence of Arabia aiding native guerrillas. Many tales romanticizing Arab North Africa were in vogue, including Beau Geste and The Son of the Sheik.
King of Jazz is a 1930 American pre-Code musical color film starring Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. The film title refers to Whiteman's popular cultural appellation. At the time the film was made, "jazz", to the general public, meant jazz-influenced syncopated dance music heard on phonograph records, on radio broadcasts, and in dance halls. In the 1920s Whiteman signed and featured white jazz musicians including Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and others.
Richard White is an American actor and opera singer best known for voicing the character of Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. He also voiced the character in the early 2000s animated TV series House of Mouse.
On with the Show! is a 1929 American musical film produced by Warner Bros. Filmed in two-color Technicolor, the film is noted as the first all-talking, all-color feature length film, and the second color film released by Warner Bros.; the first was the partly color, black-and-white musical The Desert Song (1929).
John Boles was an American singer and actor best known for playing Victor Moritz in the 1931 film Frankenstein.
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 $850,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor.
Song of the West (1930) is an American Pre-Code musical operetta film produced by Warner Bros., and photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was based on the 1928 Broadway musical Rainbow by Vincent Youmans (music), Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics) and Laurence Stallings (book). It starred John Boles, Joe E. Brown and Vivienne Segal, and was the first all-color all-talking feature to be filmed entirely outdoors.
Sally is a 1929 Hollywood 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 select theaters in December 1929, Sally went into general release on January 12, 1930.
Bride of the Regiment is a 1930 American Pre-Code musical film directed by John Francis Dillon and filmed entirely in Technicolor. The screenplay by Ray Harris and Humphrey Pearson is based on the book of the 1922 stage musical The Lady in Ermine by Frederick Lonsdale and Cyrus Wood, which had been adapted from the 1919 operetta Die Frau im Hermelin by Rudolph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch. The story is a remake of a 1927 First National silent film, The Lady in Ermine, that starred Corinne Griffith. It was later remade by 20th Century-Fox as That Lady in Ermine (1948) starring Betty Grable and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
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.
The Desert Song is a 1943 American musical film. It was directed by Robert Florey and starred Dennis Morgan, Irene Manning and Bruce Cabot. It is based on the 1926 operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Art Direction.
The Desert Song is a 1953 film version in Technicolor of Sigmund Romberg's operetta. It is the third film version of the operetta, the third made by Warner Bros., and the second in full three-strip Technicolor. Although it was released in 1953, it was not made in widescreen; at that time Twentieth-Century Fox held the rights to Cinemascope, which was introduced that year in the film The Robe.
Hardboiled Rose is a 1929 American part-talkie romantic drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and released by Warner Bros. It starred Myrna Loy, William Collier, Jr., and John Miljan.
The Caveman, also styled as The Cave Man, is a 1926 silent film comedy produced and distributed by Warner Bros. Lewis Milestone directed the Darryl Zanuck scripted story taken from the play The Cave Man by Gelett Burgess. Matt Moore, Marie Prevost, Hedda Hopper star. A small role is played by a young Myrna Loy, just starting out in her long career. This picture survives in the Library of Congress with a reel missing.
A Sailor's Sweetheart is a 1927 Warner Bros. silent film comedy directed by Lloyd Bacon. It stars Louise Fazenda and Clyde Cook. It was released with a Vitaphone soundtrack with a music score and sound effects.
Simple Sis is a 1927 American silent comedy-melodrama directed by Herman C. Raymaker and starring Louise Fazenda as a poor, plain laundress hoping for romance, supported by Clyde Cook as a shy suitor and Myrna Loy as a cruel beauty.
Finger Prints is a 1927 American silent comedy crime film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Louise Fazenda, John T. Murray, and Helene Costello.
