Dave-El's Weekend Movie Post: The Broadway Melody

In last week's Sunday movie post, I went back to 1929 for a film that came out near the end of the silent movie era, Why Be Good?   Well, it was a silent movie in that dialogue was not spoken but the nascent movie sound technology asserted itself with a synchronized music soundtrack.  

Today's post takes us back to 1929 once more and a film that could not only sing and dance but also talk.

From 1929, MGM presents the first all talking musical, The Broadway Melody.   

The Broadway Melody is your standard issue performing act from the sticks looking to make good in the bigtime.

 

The performing act is the Mahoney Sisters, Harriet (aka Hank) and Queenie, and the big time is that Great White Way, BROADWAY!!! 

 

Hank is engaged to Eddie, an up and coming songwriter whose got some songs accepted in a new production called “The Broadway Melody”.  Eddie is sure he can get Zanfield, the big time Broadway producer, to put the Mahoney Sisters in the show.

Eddie is not quite as far up on the food chain as he would like to believe but he is able to convince Zanfield to give the sisters a listen.

 

A showgirl sabotages the piano so it plays off key which messes with the Mahoneys’ act and Zanfield is not impressed. 

 

But after a fervent appeal from Eddie, Zanfield  agrees to take on Queenie for the show because she’s pretty and Queenie says she’s part of a set and won’t go without Hank so Zanfield reluctantly agrees to find Hank something to do.

 

So on one hand the Mahoney Sisters are on Broadway. But not the way Hank planned.  

 

Meanwhile Queenie is causing a bunch of drama she doesn’t want by the sheer audacity of existing as a beautiful woman.

 

Despite ostensibly being engaged to Hank, Eddie goes goo-goo eyes over Queenie who has grown from a freckled little girl into a vivacious female woman of the opposite sex. 

 

And there’s the matter of Jock Warriner (clearly a swipe at Warner Bros. head Jack Warner) a Broadway impresario and notorious lothario who has targeted Queenie for his next seduction.

 

Queenie finds Jock contemptible but he provides an excuse to avoid Eddie’s passions.  Queenie actually kind of likes the lug but he’s supposed to be her sister’s fiance and she doesn’t want to hurt Hank.

 

Meanwhile, Hank is worried that their “success” on Broadway is merely because Queenie is pretty and she is being used by those around her and Queenie’s acting weird.    

 

So much drama! Hank’s depressed! Queenie’s depressed!! Eddie’s depressed!!! Hell, I'm depressed!!!!

 

Something’s gotta give, folks! 

Hank realizes that Eddie's got it bad for Queenie and tells him to go fight for her. Meanwhile, Jock has cornered Queenie and is pressuring her for sex. (He's bought a lot of nice stuff for her you know!) Eddie arrives just in time to save Queenie's virtue but Jock socks Eddie hard and sends him flying out of his apartment. 

Queenie rushes to Eddie's side to profess it's Eddie she loves and...

Eddie and Queenie get married. 

BOOM!

Legally sanctioned hetero-normative sexual intercourse is achieved! 

Hank finds another hot blonde to be the other Mahoney "sister" and heads back on the road with a vow to return to Broadway.

And that is...  The End! 

This scene is NOT what you want it to be.  

The Broadway Melody opens and closes with a couple of impressive visuals.  The opening is a high aerial shot of New York City, soaring over the tall buildings. At the end, we get a panoramic shot of a crowded and bustling Times Square.  

The new sound technology gets a good workout in an early scene where various musicians are in a open work space, in various corners working on different pieces of music. There is a lot of cross talk dialogue and a cacophony of songs.  

Much like we saw in Singin' In the Rain, in real life back in 1929, there was a lot of trial and error in figuring out how to make sound work for The Broadway Melody. Sets were constantly being reconfigured and scenes frequently reshoot.  Days were long and the shooting schedule kept getting extended.  

Some old habits of the silent era still lingered with an over reliance on the tropes of overly dramatic acting still in use. Eyes bulging wide in surprise, fear, lust, anger, etc.  Since there were too many theaters still not equipped for sound, a version of the film was assembled as a silent feature so I guess the eye bulging was still useful.    

Innovative for 1929, The Broadway Melody is still a bit cliched with over the top dramatic acting. MGM would build on what was learned in 1929 to create the lavish spectacular movie musicals the studio would become famous for.