Although I have seen the Broadway Melody movies tagged 1936, 1938, and 1940, I had never seen this progenitor, so it was with some excitement that I put in the shiny disc. Now I can not try to persuade you for a minute that this is a particularly good film, but it is of such historic importance that it made my day. It is probably the first feature-length all-talkie movie to be given broad distribution and therefore the first all-talkie experience for most viewers of the day. Things have, of course, looked up since then. It's the trite show-biz tale of two sisters who come to the Great White Way from the boondocks, how they try to make their mark on Broadway, and the love story between the older sister's so-called fiance and his attraction to her younger sister. Despite no major names in the cast, this was still an exuberant experience because of the catchy musical score and the rather super art-deco sets.
The three leads were Charles King, a vaudeville performer who made very few film appearances (just as well since he is not much of an actor), Anita Page as the younger sister who had a few early 30s roles but whose career more or less finished mid-decade, and Bessie Love who had been in movies since 1915, appearing in such silent classics as "Intolerance" and "The Lost World", but who moved to London in the mid-30s and only took cameo parts subsequently. Both she and Page bring an honest energy to their roles and probably both deserved more exciting subsequent careers.
The continuing treat was with the extras on this American disc. These included five short films of musical revues which featured a wealth of mainly non-talent, apart from a black singer who could have competed with Paul Robeson. However pride of place goes to a fairly long short titled "The Dogway Melody" which played out a similar story to the main film with all of the roles taken by dogs!!! Now I know that it is now considered horribly incorrect to have dogs prancing around on their hind legs and dressed in human finery, but this feature was done with such affection -- including a black dog imitating Al Jolson -- that I could only sit back and smile at the conceit.
1 comment:
One thing that has often struck me when viewing films of the Thirties, especially
musicals, is how much better sound reproduction has become as many of the old
soundtracks come over with a tinniness, to coin a phrase. They also did not
seem to bother much with any deep motivations (fortunately). A pleasant enough
way of passing the time.
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