The Broadway Melody (1929)

Harriet and Queenie Mahoney, a vaudeville act, come to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. Eddie was in love with Harriet,... See full summary »

Director:

Harry Beaumont

Writers:

Edmund Goulding (story), Sarah Y. Mason (continuity),

Stars:

Charles King, Anita Page, Bessie Love

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Charles King	...	Eddie Kearns
Anita Page	...	Queenie Mahoney
Bessie Love	...	Hank Mahoney

Storyline

Harriet and Queenie Mahoney, a vaudeville act, come to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. Eddie was in love with Harriet, but when he meets Queenie, he falls in love to her, but she is courted by Jock Warriner, a member of the New Yorker high society. It takes a while till Queenie recognizes, that she is for Jock nothing more than a toy, and it also takes a while till Harriet recognizes, that Eddie is in love with Queenie.

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Plot Keywords:

singer | sister act | early sound film | whistling | theater | 

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Taglines:

ALL TALKING ALL SINGING ALL DANCING

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Genres:

Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 June 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Broadway Melody of 1929

Box Office

Budget:

$379,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$2,808,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min 100 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) Silent

Color:

Black and White Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

MGM's first musical.

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Quotes

Uncle Jed: It's better to star in Pe- Pe- Pe- Osh Kosh than starve on Broadway.

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Connections

Referenced in What a Glorious Feeling: The Making of 'Singin' in the Rain' (2002)

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Soundtracks

"The Wedding of the Painted Doll"
(1929) (uncredited)
Music by Nacio Herb Brown
Lyrics by Arthur Freed
Sung offscreen by James Burrows and danced by chorus girls

User Reviews

The Outstanding Pioneer Musical Film

Having seen "The Broadway Melody", one has to be taken in as to what an achievement this must have been to 1929 audiences. Here is the very first original musical written for the screen. It balances the interesting storyline with musical numbers which must have seemed to be quite spectacular for 1929, especially the "Wedding Of The Painted Doll" number. The performances in the film are uniformly good, with knockout work by Miss Bessie Love and Miss Anita Page. They bring a believability to their characters which is amazing considering the newness of the sound technology at the time.

Miss Page was always a good actress as well as a beautiful woman, and I find it interesting that in two of the films that I have seen with her, "Our Dancing Daughters" and this one, she has marvelous "drunk" scenes. "The Broadway Melody" opened the floodgates for musical pictures which went unabated until late 1930, when the public had had enough. If you are lucky enough to get the DVD version of this film, you get an additional ninety minutes of extras consisting of some interesting early sound short subjects, including "The Dogway Melody", which is a funny parody of "The Broadway Melody" starring an all-canine cast. So step back in time and put yourself in the audience of the first of the "all-talking, all-singing, all-dancing" entertainments, which just so happened to be the first sound film to win the best picture Oscar. If you enjoy film history as much as I do, you'll love it. Thanks for reading.