Lights of Old Broadway
“A great picture of the days when Broadway was a lover's lane!”
About Lights of Old Broadway
Marion Davies plays twin sisters orphaned when their mother dies on the voyage from Ireland. Fely grows up with the O'Tandys in Shantytown and dances at Tony Pastor's; Anne is raised by the wealthy De Rhondos. Dirk De Rhondo, Anne's stepbrother, protects Fely during the Orangemen's riot and wants to marry her, but she breaks it off when his father turns her family out. Fely's father then makes a fortune from an investment in Edison's electric light while the De Rhondos are ruined, and her deposit stops a run on their bank. She marries Dirk.
Cast & crew
More about Lights of Old Broadway
Monta Bell directed. William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Productions produced it, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released it. Carey Wilson wrote the adaptation and scenario. Joseph Farnham wrote the titles. From Laurence Eyre's play The Merry Wives of Gotham. Ira H. Morgan photographed. Blanche Sewell edited. Los Angeles opening the week of 18 October 1925. New York opening 1 November 1925. Wikipedia gives 70 minutes. A circulating copy runs 1 hour 11 minutes 43 seconds. IMDb lists 72 minutes. Some sequences use tinting, two-strip Technicolor, and the Handschiegl process. Film Daily, 8 March 1925, reported that Davies was to receive a percentage of the profits as well as her salary.
Themes
Background
The plot uses the Orangemen's riot and the arrival of Edison's electric light in New York as the turns that move the two families.
Making
Hearst's company and MGM set the picture up for Davies. The 8 March 1925 Film Daily item, quoted by AFI, says her deal included a share of the profits on top of salary.
Look
Ira H. Morgan photographed the picture. Tinting, two-strip Technicolor passages, and a Handschiegl insert sit in the print.
Technique
The surviving copy keeps two two-strip Technicolor sequences and a Handschiegl color insert, along with tinting.
Preservation
IMDb notes a complete print that belonged to Marion Davies, now at the Library of Congress, including the two Technicolor sequences and the Handschiegl insert. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Conrad Nagel plays Dirk. Frank Currier is Lambert de Rhonde. Charles McHugh is Shamus O'Tandy. Eleanor Lawson is Mrs. O'Tandy. Julia Swayne Gordon is Mrs. de Rhonde. George K. Arthur is Andy. George Bunny is Tony Pastor. J. Frank Glendon, billed as Frank Glendon, plays Thomas A. Edison.
- Also billed are Matthew Betz as Red Hawkins, Wilbur Higby as Fowler, and Bodil Rosing as Widow Gorman.
- The play ran at Henry Miller's Theatre in New York from 16 January 1924 into April 1924. Mary Ellis played Davies's role on stage.
- The tagline is from a print ad in the Tonawanda Evening News, 4 January 1927.
Scenes
- Dirk shields Fely in the Orangemen's riot.
- She withdraws when his father dispossesses the O'Tandys.
- Her deposit stops a run on the De Rhondo bank.
Influenced by
- The Merry Wives of Gotham
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Lights of Old Broadway (1925) by Monta Bell.webm)
