THE BROADWAY MELODY, 1929 Best Picture Oscar
The second Academy Award for Outstanding Picture went to The Broadway Melody.
It was the first sound film to win an Academy Award and one of the first musicals to feature a (two-strip) Technicolor sequence, but the Technicolor footage is lost and only a black-and-white copy of that sequence survives. It was the first musical released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was Hollywood’s first all-talking musical.
Available only on DVD, the restoration is acceptable. The film is watchable, but like most sound films from the early days the sound quality is both shrill and tinny. possible that the DVD release was made from the best available elements, but considering the historical importance of this film, a greater investment in restoration might have been made. It might even be worth the effort to colorize the lost color sequence to demonstrate why this film was considered the best of the year.
According to Wikipedia, Technicolor was quickly associated with the musical genre and other musicals released in 1929 and 1930 featured color sequencs or were filmed entirely in color. Wiki also notes that “The Broadway Melody is considered the first complete example of the Hollywood musical. While the film was seen as innovation for its time and helped to usher in the concept and structure of musical films, the film has become regarded by contemporary critics as cliché-ridden and overly melodramatic.”
Unfortunately The Broadway Melody is neither timeless nor a classic. It’s more a historical curiosity, important for what it aspired to more than for what it achieved.
But what it did achieve is noteworthy — it created the genre of the musical motion picture. It transformed the Broadway musical into the film musical, bringing a specific kind of showmanship to remote audiences everywhere. For a while, MGM made a lot of musicals — so many in fact that they nearly killed the genre. But when Warner Bros. released 42nd Street in 1942, with Busby Berkley’s remarkable staging, the musical was reinvented.
Because early sound cameras were noisy, they had to be locked down and isolated in a soundproof booth (see Singin’ In The Rain), so every shot in every is from a fixed viewpoint. This paralyzes the film into a static presentation. So the musical numbers are all staged as if the viewer is sitting front-row center in a theater. Fortunately, the movie is about a stage musical, so that perspective works
To its credit, the best parts of the picture are the musical sequences. Two of the songs are classics: “You Were Meant For Me” and (of course) “The Broadway Melody.” Other musical numbers include “Love Boat,” “Truthful Deacon Brown,” “Boy Friend,” “Lovely Lady,” and “Wedding Of The Painted Doll.” That last one is a familiar melody, but the lyrics — never mind. Maybe they didn’t know what they were doing.
The story, the dialog, the acting do not hold up as well. The plot is familiar, a pair of sisters arrive in New York, hoping to become Broadway stars. There’s a talented suitor who can’t decide which one he loves and a slimeball playboy, some bitchy chorus girls and a very gay costumer. (The Broadway Melody was made before the Hayes code purified Hollywood.) In the end, everything gets conveniently sorted out and the audience is released from the theater. You don’t really need to know more than that.
Bessie Love as Harriet “Hank” Mahoney is probably the best performer in the picture and she did receive a Best Actress nomination.
James Gleason appears as himself in the initial sequence. After that, one character is a showman named Zanfield — I wonder who he might have been based on. Another character, eventually revealed as a womanizing slimeball, is named Jacques Warriner. What was that about?
The picture made a profit of $1.6 million. It was the top grossing picture of 1929, so it inspired a series of sequels — not the same cast, but similar themed movies. Broadway Melody of 19 36, Broadway Melody of 1938, Broadway Melody of 1940, were the first three, and there was even a Broadway Melody of 1944 planned, but was canceled when Gene Kelley wasn’t available. There were also a few knockoffs that weren’t called Broadway Melody but reworked the same material, Two Girls on Broadway, Broadway Rhythm, and you could even make a case for My Sister Eileen.
Contemporary viewers will find the film somewhere between laughable and unwatchable, but it does have its moments, and as an Oscar-winner, it deserves a bit of respect, if not for what it achieved, then certainly for what it attempted.
