The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.

Director:

Charles Reisner

Writers:

Al Boasberg (dialogue), Robert E. Hopkins (dialogue),

Stars:

Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, John Gilbert

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Conrad Nagel	...	Himself - Master of Ceremonies
Jack Benny	...	Himself - Master of Ceremonies
John Gilbert	...	Himself / Romeo
Norma Shearer	...	Herself / Juliet
Joan Crawford	...	Herself
Bessie Love	...	Herself
Cliff Edwards	...	Himself (as Ukulele Ike)
Stan Laurel	...	Stan
Oliver Hardy	...	Ollie
Anita Page	...	Herself
Nils Asther	...	Himself
Brox Sisters	...	Themselves
Natova and Company	...	Themselves
Marion Davies	...	Herself
William Haines	...	Himself

Storyline

Conrad Nagel, representing the Hollywood movie community, and Jack Benny, representing the Broadway stage community, act as the interlocutors of a musical comedy revue. A plethora of chorus boys and girls are featured front and center in some of the song and dance numbers, and provide back-up to some other acts. But the revue primarily is a vehicle to highlight a cavalcade of Hollywood movie and Broadway stage stars. One early running gag has both Nagel and Benny playing straight man to Cliff Edwards, who just wants a nice introduction to his act. Edwards would return later to be featured along with the Brox Sisters in one of the highlights of the second act, a production number around the song "Singin' in Rain", complete with rain soaked stage. A reprise of the song with the entire cast acts as the revue's finale.

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Plot Keywords:

rainbow | digit in title | two strip technicolor | variety | number in title

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Taglines:

25 of the screen's greatest stars - chorus of 200 - amazingly revolutionary motion picture!

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Genres:

Musical

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 November 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Hollywood Revue

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

130 min 118 min (Turner library print) 130 min (copyright length)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Color:

Color (2-strip Technicolor) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Renée Adorée was supposed to have appeared in a skit with Jack Benny, but her declining health forced her to limit her appearance to the "Singin' in the Rain" finale.

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Goofs

After Cliff Edwards' opening number, one of the chorus girls in the background is chatting away with the girl next to her, when a sudden cut appears, and the same girl is now stone still (apparently the director told her in between to stop talking, and pay attention).

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Quotes

Emcee: The, uh, little number you just heard called "Singin' in the Rain" is an optimistic song and was, of course, written by an optimist. In fact, all of the lyrics like "There's a Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder" and "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella" and so forth were all written by this same man who finally became so discouraged that he killed himself. Hm.

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Connections

Featured in MGM: When the Lion Roars (1992)

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Soundtracks

"Low Down Rhythm"
(1929) (uncredited)
Music by Jesse Greer
Lyrics by Raymond Klages
Sung by June Purcell and Danced by her and chorus

User Reviews

shades of another age ...

Finally got around to seeing this on its recent outing on TCM, and despite the drawbacks - yes, it is slow-paced, yes, it is dated - there is a certain charm to it that makes it very enjoyable. I particularly liked the novelty acts and comedy stuff - Bessie Love, Marie Dressler, Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton's Egyptian lady. And the Gilbert/Shearer Romeo and Juliet section is worth sitting through the rest for anyway (despite its washed out colour, which oddly looked better in the little snippet showed in When The Lion Roars). I can't say I was disappointed with any of it - you get mind-boggling acrobats, you get weedy voiced Marion Davies, you get Jack Benny playing his violin and Conrad Nagel singing pretty well, and Charles King singing that hideous song about mothers, and Ukelele Ike, well, playing a ukelele, and Joan Crawford's ungainly dancing ... it's just a real treat, and nice to see from a technical pov that the sound isn't bad at all and despite its advanced age it is still watchable. A respectable 7 out of 10 I think.