Tonight's Movie: The Broadway Melody (1929) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

MGM's history-making THE BROADWAY MELODY (1929) is now available on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive Collection.

MGM famously advertised its first full-length sound musical as "All Talking! All Dancing! All Singing!" The movie would become the first sound film to win the Academy Award as Best Picture.

The film tells the story of sisters Hank (Bessie Love) and Queenie (Anita Page), who arrive in New York hoping to make it big on Broadway.

Hank's boyfriend Eddie (Charles King) had previously arrived in New York and is able to pave the way for the girls to have an important audition. Although they're a sister act, ultimately it's statuesque Queenie who gets a break being featured in a big musical number in a Broadway show. She's also immediately swarmed by men.

Unfortunately, Queenie really loves her sister's boyfriend Eddie, and Eddie's likewise smitten with Queenie, but they each struggle with their feelings as they don't want to hurt Hank...

I love musicals and pre-Codes, but as films go it must be said THE BROADWAY MELODY isn't particularly interesting, and at times it's downright creaky.

The story and musical numbers are each only mildly entertaining, and at 100 minutes, the film is far too long. The film needs a much peppier pace and would have played better with a good 15 minutes shaved from the running time.

I'm a fan of Anita Page and enjoyed her here as sweet Queenie, but while she has screen presence, the rest of the cast is frankly quite bland.

Charles King was a vaudevillian who appeared in a handful of movies before dying in 1944; he's likeable but has no charisma. Bessie Love, who had a decades-long career, was Oscar-nominated here but her character is quite abrasive at times. She reminds me a bit of Bebe Daniels, but is less likeable; ironically Love and Daniels were close friends offscreen.

And who thought it would be funny to have one of the main supporting characters (Jed Prouty) stutter throughout his scenes? They could have saved five minutes of running time right there.

That said, this is a film which is very important to consider in context due to its place in film history. As a child I saw a brief clip from it in THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! (1974) which made the point that this movie was the starting point for all the great MGM musicals to come.

In THE BROADWAY MELODY we literally watch a studio and filmmakers simultaneously figure out how to make a sound film and stage a sound musical. There are smaller "spontaneous" musical numbers which seem abruptly inserted but at least have the advantage of being shot relatively close up, while the theatrical sequences are mostly filmed in a static fashion, from an audience point of view.

It's ironic, but the movie's deficiencies are part of the reason it's important. Viewers can see what the starting point was for movie musicals and understand the achievements of later films in context.

Musicals came a very long way in a short time; for instance, consider what was achieved with the dazzling camera work for Busby Berkeley numbers in Warner Bros. musicals, which were released only four years later!

Or think of THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) one decade after THE BROADWAY MELODY, with its naturally integrated score, musical sequences filmed in close-up, superb sound quality, and Technicolor, just for starter comparisons. (Actually, it's worth inserting a note here that THE BROADWAY MELODY itself originally had a two-strip Technicolor musical sequence, "The Wedding of the Painted Doll," but color prints no longer exist.)

THE BROADWAY MELODY was directed by Harry Beaumont and filmed by John Arnold. The story was by future director Edmund Goulding, and one of the dialogue writers was actor James Gleason. The other dialogue writer was Norman Houston, who one day would write many of the Tim Holt Westerns I love.

The Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray print is a new 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the best preservation elements. It looks and sounds as good as is possible for a film of its vintage.

Extras consist of five Metro Movietone Revue Shorts; two additional shorts; and a song selection menu, which is always a welcome extra on Warner Archive Blu-rays.

Thanks to the Warner Archive Collection for preserving and making available this unique slice of film and movie musical history.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from the Amazon Warner Archive Collection Store, Movie Zyng, or from any online retailers were Blu-rays are sold.

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