Sunny Side Up
About Sunny Side Up
On the Fourth of July, Molly Carr and her roommate Bea Nichols live over Eric Swenson's grocery in Yorkville. Across town in spirit, Long Island heir Jack Cromwell watches his fiancée Jane Worth flirt, drinks, and crashes his car near the block party. Molly, who already keeps his picture, patches him up and tells him to make Jane jealous. He puts her in a charity show at his house, with Eric, Bea, and Eddie pretending to be her servants. A rumor that he pays her rent reaches his mother, who asks Molly to leave. Molly goes back to the city. Jack decides he wants her, not Jane, follows with a ring, and she accepts.
Cast & crew
More about Sunny Side Up
David Butler directed for William Fox. B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson wrote the story, the dialogue, and the songs. Ernest Palmer photographed, with additional photography by John Schmitz, and Irene Morra edited. The picture premiered on 3 October 1929 at the Gaiety Theatre in New York and went into general release on 29 December 1929.
Themes
Background
It opened in October 1929, weeks before the crash, as one of the early all-talking musicals built around a silent-era romantic team.
Making
Fox shot it as an all-talking Movietone musical and inserted sequences in the Multicolor process.
Reviews
The Times and The New York Times both found the film, and the singing of Gaynor and Farrell, tolerable rather than distinguished. The New York Times did single out one performance of 'I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?'
Audiences
U.S. and Canada rentals were reported at $2,190,000.
Look
Ernest Palmer was the cinematographer, with John Schmitz on additional photography. Some numbers were shot in Multicolor.
Technique
An all-talking Fox Movietone feature with musical sequences photographed in the Multicolor process.
Music
DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson wrote the score and the songs. Gaynor sings '(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up' in top hat and cane at the block party, and she and Farrell duet on 'If I Had a Talking Picture of You.'
Preservation
A print survives, including the Multicolor sequences.
Notes
- Janet Gaynor plays Molly, Charles Farrell plays Jack, Marjorie White plays Bea, El Brendel plays Eric, Sharon Lynn plays Jane, and Mary Forbes plays Jack's mother. Frank Richardson is Eddie. Jackie Cooper appears in a small part.
- The on-screen title is styled Sunnyside Up.
- Songs include 'I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?', '(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up,' 'Turn on the Heat,' and 'If I Had a Talking Picture of You.'
- 'Turn on the Heat' is a production number Jane sings, with chorus dancers, and Gaynor is not in it. Fats Waller recorded the tune as a stride-piano solo in 1929.
- Footage later turned up in the compilation It Came from Hollywood.
- In 2006 the American Film Institute included it among the nominees for its musicals list. That is a list nomination, not an Academy Award.
Scenes
- Molly sings '(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up' for the neighbors, in top hat and cane.
- At the charity carnival, Jane leads 'Turn on the Heat' while dancers urge bananas on the trees to shoot up.
- Jack sings to Molly's picture, she walks in for the diary she forgot, and he puts a ring on her finger.
Also available
- Internet Archive (SunnysideUp_201512)
- Wikimedia Commons (Sunnyside Up (1929).webm)
