The Show of Shows
About The Show of Shows
Frank Fay hosts a Warner Bros. revue. The bill runs past seventy acts: bicyclists, boxing champion Georges Carpentier, chorus lines, sister acts, and Rin Tin Tin. Myrna Loy appears in two-strip Technicolor as a Far East beauty. John Barrymore speaks a Shakespeare soliloquy, the first time his voice is on a film. Winnie Lightner sings Singing in the Bathtub.
Cast & crew
More about The Show of Shows
John G. Adolfi directed. Darryl F. Zanuck produced. Barney McGill photographed it. Edward Ward wrote music. It is a Vitaphone sound film, shot almost entirely in Technicolor, and Warner's fifth color feature, after The Desert Song, On with the Show!, Gold Diggers of Broadway, and Paris, all 1929. The English Wikipedia says it cost almost $800,000 and took in more than twice that. Wikidata times it at 128 minutes. Copies are on the Internet Archive and on Wikimedia Commons.
Themes
Look
Barney McGill shot the revue almost entirely in Technicolor, with Loy's number in two-strip color.
Music
Edward Ward is the credited composer. Winnie Lightner sings Singing in the Bathtub. The track is Vitaphone.
Preservation
Copies are on the Internet Archive and on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Richard Barthelmess, Noah Beery, Loretta Young, Dolores Costello, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Nick Lucas, and Betty Compson are among the billed names.
- H. B. Warner, Mary Astor, and Monte Blue are on the Wikidata cast.
- Song of the West was finished by June 1929 but held until March 1930, so it is not counted among the earlier color releases.
- The Internet Archive identifier is show-of-shows-1929.
Scenes
- Barrymore speaks Shakespeare on camera for the first time.
- Lightner sings Singing in the Bathtub.
Also available
- Internet Archive (show-of-shows-1929)
