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. 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.
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.
Claire Windsor was an American film actress of the silent screen era.
B. P. Schulberg was an American pioneer film producer and film studio executive.
Bombshell is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic screwball comedy film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, C. Aubrey Smith, Mary Forbes and Franchot Tone. It is based on the unproduced play of the same name by Caroline Francke and Mack Crane, and was adapted for the screen by John Lee Mahin and Jules Furthman.
Dorothy Mackaill was a British-American actress, most active during the silent-film era and into the pre-Code era of the early 1930s.
Rex Bell was an American actor and politician. Bell primarily appeared in Western films during his career. He also appeared in the 1930 movie True to the Navy, starring Clara Bow; Bell and Bow married the following year.
The Fleet's In is a 1942 movie musical produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Victor Schertzinger, and starring Dorothy Lamour and William Holden. Although sharing the title of the 1928 Paramount film starring Clara Bow and Jack Oakie, it was not a remake. It was actually the second film version of the 1933 Kenyon Nicholson–Charles Robinson stage play Sailor, Beware!, enlivened with songs by Schertzinger and lyricist Johnny Mercer. The score, under the musical direction of Victor Young, includes the popular hits "Tangerine", and "I Remember You".
A Social Celebrity is a 1926 American silent comedy drama film directed by Malcolm St. Clair and starred Louise Brooks as a small town manicurist who goes to New York City with her boyfriend, a barber who poses as a French count. The film is now considered lost.
Spite Marriage is a 1929 American silent comedy film co-directed by Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick and starring Keaton and Dorothy Sebastian. It is the second film Keaton made for MGM and his last silent film, although he had wanted it to be a "talkie" or full sound film. While the production has no recorded dialogue, it does feature an accompanying synchronized score and recorded laughter, applause and other sound effects in some scenes. Keaton later wrote gags for some up-and-coming MGM stars like Red Skelton, and from this film recycled many gags, some shot-for-shot, for Skelton's 1943 film I Dood It.
Montana Moon is a 1930 pre-Code Western musical film which introduced the concept of the singing cowboy to the screen. Starring Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, and Ricardo Cortez, the film focuses on the budding relationship between a city girl and a rural cowboy.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a 1928 American silent comedy film directed by Mal St. Clair, co-written by Anita Loos based on her 1925 novel, and released by Paramount Pictures. No copies are known to exist, and it is now considered to be a lost film. The Broadway version Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Carol Channing as Lorelei Lee was mounted in 1949. It was remade into the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw and Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee in 1953, directed by Howard Hawks.
Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.
Hermon Reed Howes was an American model who later became an actor in silent and sound films.
True to the Navy is a 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle for Paramount Pictures. The film stars Clara Bow as a counter girl at a San Diego drugstore with a predilection for sailors. Eventually, she sets her sights on Bull's Eye McCoy, a stiff-necked gunner's mate.
The Red Dance is a 1928 American synchronized sound film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Dolores del Río and Charles Farrell that was inspired by the novel by Henry Leyford Gates. 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.
Once in a Lifetime is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film based on Once in a Lifetime by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures, directed by Russell Mack and stars Jack Oakie, Sidney Fox and Aline MacMahon.
Laugh and Get Rich is a 1931 pre-Code American comedy film, directed by Gregory La Cava, from a screenplay he also wrote with contributions from Douglas MacLean, who also was the associate producer, and Ralph Spence. The film stars Dorothy Lee, Edna May Oliver, Hugh Herbert, and Russell Gleason, and revolves around the antics in a boarding house in the early 1930s, run by Oliver, and the complications caused by her husband.
On Thin Ice is a 1925 American silent crime drama film directed by Mal St. Clair and starring Tom Moore, Edith Roberts, and William Russell. It was produced and distributed by the Warner Bros. and based upon a 1924 novel by Alice Ross Colver.
Ruth Dwyer was an American film actress. She had a number of starring roles in the silent era, most famously as Buster Keaton's leading lady in Seven Chances (1925). Dwyer mostly retired in 1928 and played a number of uncredited roles in sound films, but retired from the film business completely in the 1940s.
