Monthly Archives: November 2021

The Broadway Melody
Directed by Harry Beaumont
Written by Edmund Goulding, Norman Houston and James Gleason
1929/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Instant

Queenie Mahoney: Oh, dear, I’m just shaky all over!
Hank Mahoney: Oh, Queenie, will you stop. You’re gettin’ me nervous now. It ain’t gonna be a bit different than it was in Reading, PA and we’re going over just as big!
Queenie Mahoney: Oh… do you think so?
Hank Mahoney: Why, it’s cream in the can, baby.

This was better than I expected, which frankly wasn’t much.

Sisters Queenie (Anita Page) and Hank Mahoney (Bessie Love) have their hearts set on getting in a Broadway show and luck smiles on them.  Only problem is they both love the songwriter/star of the review Eddie Kearns (Charles King).

All the usual misunderstandings ensue before the happy ending.  The plot is but a framework to hang the songs of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed on.

Is this the worst Academy Award winner ever?  I don’t think so.  It’s got a kind of charm that sucked me in.  We know this is pre-Code because the sisters need to change clothes frequently, displaying their lacy lingerie.

The Broadway Melody won the Best Picture Oscar.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Director and Best Actress (Bessie Love).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pzVm6nm4xM

That’s Nacio Herb Brown on the piano.

Sunny Side Up
Directed by David Butler
Written by Buddy G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson
1929/US
Fox Film Corporation
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

And keep your sunny side up, up,
Hide the side that gets blue.
If you have nine sons in a row,
Baseball teams make money, you know!

Could anything be more adorable than Janet Gaynor singing the title song?  I don’t think so!

The story is set in the Gay Nineties but the clothes are strictly 1929.  Molly (Gaynor) lives with roommate Bea (Marjorie White) in an apartment above a grocery store.  Bea has a songwriter boyfriend named Eddie (Frank Richardson).  They squabble constantly and will perform several novelty numbers throughout the film.  The grocery store owner Eric (El Bendel) is close friends with the young people.  Molly’s dream lover is millionaire Jack Cromwell (Charles Farrell) who lives in Southhampton.

Jack’s girlfriend and intended bride is not ready to give up her flirtations so he takes off in his car, destination unknown.

Jack and Molly meet cute just before the Fourth of July block party.  The neighborhood celebrates by entertaining each other with song.  After Jack catches Molly’s act, he proposes that she come to Southhampton to perform in an upcoming charity gala.  Her friends accompany her dressed as servants.  Jack also hopes to make his fiancee jealous so she will marry him.  We see several of the acts at the gala.  There are numerous misunderstandings.  If you don’t know how this will wind up, you haven’t been paying attention.  Jackie Cooper has a small uncredited part as a kid reciting a poem.

This is a very old-fashioned story but I found it charming.  Betraying its pre-Code roots we even get to see Janet Gaynor (!)  in lacy lingerie.  The songs are catchy.  Recommended to fans of musicals or the stars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxHSePHtq0

The Kiss
Directed by Jacques Feyder
Written by Hans Kräly and Marian Ainslee from a story by George Saville
1929/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental

André: Irene – we can’t go on meeting like this.

The last silent film made by MGM and by Greta Garbo was this OK melodrama/courtroom drama

The story takes place in France.  Irene Guarry (Garbo) is unhappily married to a cranky, jealous old man.  She has been meeting young attorney Andre Dubail (Conrad Nagel) on the sly.  They have even kissed.  But she has remained faithful to her husband.  To complicate things further eighteen-year-old Pierre LaSalle (Lew Ayres in his film debut) has a massive crush on her.

Pierre is leaving for college and begs for a last goodbye kiss.  Irene humors him but a peck on the lips leads to an unwanted passionate embrace.  The husband walks in on this.  The confrontation moves to another room behind closed doors.  Shots are heard.  Hubby is the one that doesn’t  emerge.  Irene is accused of the murder.  She is defended in court by Andre.  Who killed Mr. Guarry?

MGM and Garbo moved into the sound era with less a bang than a wimper.  The plot is pretty trite and the Tchaikovsky score is way too much for the subject matter. Actually, though, the movie is quite watchable especially for Garbo’s beauty and gorgeous gowns and the art deco design.  And I love Lew Ayres. It is only 62 minutes long.

Hallelujah!
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Wanda Tuchock, Richard Schayer et al
1929/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental

Chick Admirer #2: Oh, she’s chocolate to the bone!

The plot may be ancient and melodramatic but oh that music!

Zeke (Daniel L. Haynes) is the eldest son in a large family of honest hard-working sharecroppers.  His father is also a preacher.  The cotton harvest is over and Zeke and second son Spunk are sent to the city to sell the crop. Zeke gets $100 for it.

He meets up with Chick (Nina Mae McKinney) who has attracted a large audience with her hoochie coochie dancing near the mill.  Zeke, who will be fighting a more or less unsuccessful battle with the Devil throughout the film, tries to get her to go off with him.  It is only after he flashes his wad of bills that she agrees.  She determines to make him spend that $100 on her before the night is over.

She lures him to a saloon where she continues to dance and drink.  Then she introduces Zeke to her con-man boyfriend and the inevitable happens.  Spunk, who had gone looking for Zeke and the money, is killed in the gunfire following the reveal of boyfriend’s rigged dice.

Zeke returns to his family who welcome him as a prodigal son.  It is then Zeke gets a calling to become a revival preacher.  He also proposes to Missy Rose, a good girl who loves him.  Then the whole troop heads off on the revival circuit.  Unfortunately, Chick shows up to be baptized …

This is a morality play and is melodramatic to the max.  The acting is adversely affected by early sound technology which apparently required everybody to speak very slowly and clearly.  What does shine is the music, which ranges from gospel to jazz.  Haynes had a beautiful bass-baritone and Nina Mae McKinney was called the “Black Clara Bow” for a reason. Worth seeing.