THE BROADWAY MELODY: Blu-ray (MGM, 1929) Warner Archive
Charles King and some chunky
chorines give it their all in The Broadway Melody (1929) – MGM’s first
‘all talking/all singing’ musical. To suggest that The Broadway Melody
was a watershed in early sound picture-making is a bit much. Let us instead offer
an opinion that nothing like it had been seen before 1929, and mercifully,
would rarely be seen again thereafter, though it did spawn MGM’s first film
franchise with 3 subsequent sequels: Broadway Melody of 1936, Broadway
Melody of 1938 (actually released in 1937) and Broadway Melody of 1940
(the latter costarring Fred Astaire and franchise alumni, Eleanor Powell in
their one and only screen teaming, and, already available via the Warner
Archive in a sparkling hi-def transfer).
None of these subsequent movies have anything to do with the 1929
original. Instead, to varying degrees, they had everything to do with
celebrating MGM’s mid-thirties’ uber-glamor, also, to promote the studio’s
‘then’ most bankable musical superstar, Eleanor Powell. Without her, the original Broadway
Melody was meant to be the last word in lavish escapism. Today, it plays
more like ultra-kitsch than class. But it was also designed to represent the
pinnacle of technical achievement. And thus, 2-strip Technicolor was employed for
the musical number, ‘The Wedding of the Painted Doll’. Tragically, this does
not survive. So, The Broadway Melody today is represented as an
approximation of its former glory, entirely in B&W.
In 1929, it won a Best Picture
Oscar. It also provided a template for MGM, under L.B. Mayer and Irving G.
Thalberg’s aegis to build their studio’s reputation for peerless perfection in
musical entertainments. Interestingly, the movie musical would quickly burn
itself into extinction thereafter, the genre’s downward spiral reversed – not by
MGM – but over at Warner Bros. with the debut of 42nd Street
(1933). As written by Norman Houston and James Gleason (from a story by Edmund
Goulding), The Broadway Melody was launched with much fanfare as a major production to mark Metro’s
sound debut. Mayer and Thalberg entrusted their sizable investment to director,
Harry Beaumont who, age 41, had already made 50 silent features, including the
wildly popular, Our Dancing Daughters (1928) - a picture that transformed
Joan Crawford into an overnight sensation. To ensure the picture’s
toe-tapping/hit status, Mayer also turned to songwriters, Arthur Freed and
Nacio Herb Brown (the Rodgers and Hammerstein of their day) who wrote the
enduring title tune, plus You Were Meant for Me and Wedding of the
Painted Doll. The Broadway Melody
would also mark the screen debut of George M. Cohan’s ‘Give My Regards to
Broadway’ – a ditty penned by Cohan in 1904.
Plot wise, this one is pure soap
opera. Broadway star, Eddie Kearns (Charles King) informs his chorines he has imported
the Mahoney Sisters’ Vaudeville act as part of his latest revue to be produced
by Francis Zanfield (Eddie Kane). Harriet ‘Hank’ Mahoney (Bessie Love) and her
sister, Queenie (Anita Page) await Eddie's arrival. As the elder sibling, Hank takes
immense pride in her business savvy and hard-won talent. Queenie, alas, is
content to be lauded for her looks. Hank possesses hard-nosed dedication to
seeing their dreams come true. Queenie wants success, but is not willing to
sacrifice for it. Hank declines an offer from their Uncle Jed (Jed Prouty) to
join his traveling show. Eddie, previously engaged to Hank, now becomes smitten
with Queenie. Eddie arranges for Hank and Queenie to audition for Zanfield. Alas,
jealousy and sabotage ensue. Zanfield does not care for the act, but takes a
shine to Queenie. Ever-devoted to her sister, Queenie begs Zanfield to
reconsider the act, if they both agree to work for a single wage. Zanfield begrudgingly
agrees, but later cuts Hank and Queenie from a pivotal solo in the show.
When a nondescript chorine is
injured during rehearsals, Queenie is selected to take her place. This garners
Queenie praise from notorious playboy, Jacques Warriner (Kenneth Thomson). A
flirtation festers. Queenie’s romance with Jacques is frowned upon by Hank and
Eddie. Deeply wounded by Hank’s seeming lack of respect for allowing her to
make her own decisions, Queenie pushes Hank and Eddie away. In reality, Queenie
is trying to spare her sister the mutual attraction she feels for Eddie. While
Queenie eventually confesses to Eddie she loves him, shortly thereafter she
throws herself at Jacques’ head. No fool, Hank realizes her sister and Eddie
are truly in love. Berating Eddie for his lack of fortitude in coming to the
aid of the woman he loves Hank lies to Eddie about using him to advance her own
career. Once he has left the room, Hank suffers a breakdown. Regrouping after
the tears, Hank telephones Jed to accept his offer. Eddie gallantly bursts in
on Queenie who is about to be raped by Jacques. And although Jacques manages to
subdue Eddie with a single blow, Queenie’s heart is with Eddie now. The two run
off and are wed. Time passes. Hank and Jed await the couple’s return from their
honeymoon. Despite being happy for her sister, Hank cannot entirely surrender
her feelings for Eddie. Thus, when Queenie announces her early retirement, Hank
instead elects to go back on the road with a new partner. Departing for the
train depot, Hank vows to be back on Broadway in another hit show within six
months.
One can either choose to regard The
Broadway Melody as a quaint relic from another time or a ground-breaking
motion picture experience to alter the trajectory of Hollywood picture-making
for all time. Retrospectively, a little of both are up for consideration. For certain, the melodrama between the numbers does
not hold up under today’s scrutiny. The theatricality in the acting is owed its
roots in the silent era. Sound was so new, no one was certain how to behave
when words suddenly replaced the pantomime of starkly emoted expressions. And
the numbers too are a time capsule from another vintage. Without the benefit of
pre-recordings, the songs were staged ‘live’, necessitating a static camera to
minimize extemporaneous noise coming to the forefront of the cleverly concealed
microphones. As shooting progressed, pre-recordings were utilized. However,
given the Herculean task to create the first ‘sound’ musical, director, Harry
Beaumont spent long hours perfecting the ambience of these audio recordings,
altering sets to induce a more ambient soundtrack, and re-re-re-shooting scenes
until the very best sound quality had been committed to celluloid.
As this was 1929, a silent version
of The Broadway Melody was also prepared by MGM and distributed to
theaters, as yet, not retooled for early sound systems. On a then sizable
budget of $379,000, The Broadway Melody went on to earn MGM a whopping
$4.4 million worldwide. Reviews of the day were mostly laudatory, though
several critics were quick to point out the picture’s flaws. Nevertheless, the
Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences were enthralled. Precisely how
much of their enchantment, and bequest of little gold statuettes stemming from
it, had to do with the fact L.B. Mayer was a founding Academy member remains open for
discussion. Then as now, AMPAS was accused of being ‘political’ in its
decision-making process. And certainly, since its’ time, the picture has hardly
aged well. However, as a cultural
touchstone of its time, there is little to deny The Broadway Melody its
place in the cinema firmament. It broke new ground. Being first, alas, does not
always equate to being the best, and today, much, if not all the picture’s
appeal has been blunted by changing times and tastes, also, the quantum
advancements made in the art of story-telling in general, and musical motion
pictures in particular.
The Broadway
Melody arrives on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive (WAC), and predictably, there
is nothing to complain about here. The B&W image has been sourced in 4K
from ‘best surviving’ elements. Much of what has survived is in pretty
impressive condition, given the picture’s vintage. So, we get excellent density
and contrast, and beautifully rendered film grain looking very indigenous to its
source. Occasionally, contrast waffles. And image softness creeps in from time
to time. But built-in image flicker and age-related artifacts have been
eradicated for a consistent and clean presentation. The 2.0 DTS mono is
adequate, but shows off the virtues as well as the vices of early sound
recording. There is some very mild background hiss during quiescent moments.
However, this is faithful to the original source and not a flaw in the
remastering effort. Extras are limited to several early sound short subjects
from the Metro Movietone library. Bottom line: if you are a completionist, you
will likely pick up the granddaddy that kick-started the cycle. Now, if we can
just get WAC to round out the series by offering up Broadway Melody of
1936 and ’38 – the two most glamorous efforts put forth
by the studio, featuring some very impressive footwork by Eleanor Powell.
Coming to a hi-def disc soon? We’ll see. By now, we should have had more Powell
pressed to Blu. Rosalie (1937)? Born to Dance (1936)? Anyone?
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
2
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
1
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