The Broadway Melody
About The Broadway Melody
Sisters Harriet and Queenie Mahoney bring their vaudeville act to Broadway. Their friend Eddie needs them for a number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. Eddie falls in love with Queenie. She is already being courted by Jock Warriner, a rich New Yorker. Queenie decides that to Jock she is only a toy, and that Eddie is the one who loves her.
Cast & crew
More about The Broadway Melody
Harry Beaumont directed. Norman Houston and James Gleason wrote the script from a story by Edmund Goulding. It opened at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 1 February 1929, in New York on 8 February, and wider in the United States on 12 June. John Arnold shot it in black and white with one two-color Technicolor number, The Wedding of the Painted Doll. That sequence survives only in black and white. The retake of the number was filmed to a playback of pre-recorded music.
Themes
Background
MGM's early all-talking musical, and the first sound film to win the Academy's top prize. The color sequence was one of several in musicals of 1929 and 1930.
Making
The Painted Doll number was thrown out and shot again. Rather than bring the orchestra back, the crew played the existing track and filmed to it.
Look
John Arnold shot spherical 35mm black-and-white film, plus the red-and-green Technicolor Painted Doll number. Sound-on-disc prints were shown at 1.37:1 and sound-on-film prints at 1.20:1.
Technique
The remade Wedding of the Painted Doll number was shot to a playback track, an early use of that method. The color footage of that number now exists only in black and white.
Music
Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed wrote the original songs, including You Were Meant for Me. George M. Cohan's Give My Regards to Broadway opens the film.
Preservation
The feature survives. The two-color Wedding of the Painted Doll sequence remains only in black and white. A copy of the film is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Bessie Love plays Harriet 'Hank' Mahoney. Anita Page plays Queenie. Charles King plays Eddie.
- Kenneth Thomson plays Jock Warriner. Some cast lists spell the song-plugger Eddie Kearns.
- Give My Regards to Broadway, by George M. Cohan, plays under the opening shots of New York, its first use in a film.
- Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown wrote the new songs, including You Were Meant for Me.
- Wikidata lists a running time of 110 minutes. Turner Classic Movies lists 102 minutes.
Awards
- Academy Award for Outstanding Picture (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
Scenes
- The sisters arrive for Zanfield's show.
- The Wedding of the Painted Doll number.
- Queenie turns away from Warriner toward Eddie.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Broadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929).webm)
