The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)

An all-star revue featuring MGM contract players.

Directors:

Charles Reisner (as Charles F. Reisner), Christy Cabanne (uncredited)

Writers:

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

Stars:

Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, John Gilbert

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

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

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:

revue | variety show | rainbow | 

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Taglines:

All Talking! Singing! Dancing!

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Genres:

Musical

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 November 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

M-G-M Revue

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

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

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric System)

Color:

Color (2-strip Technicolor) (three sequences) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Received only one Oscar nomination that year, for Best Picture.

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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

[to chorus girl]
Jack Benny - Master of Ceremonies: Oh, Miss - your face is familiar to me. Didn't I meet you in Omaha?
[chorus girl recognizes him, slaps him, leaves]
Jack Benny - Master of Ceremonies: I never forget a face!

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Alternate Versions

Some sources list the original running time of "Hollywood Revue of 1929" as 130 minutes. At least two sequences in the original roadshow version are missing from current prints: an opening recitation by the showgirls who are seen posing in the "Hollywood Revue" sign after the opening credits, and the appearance of , who assisted in introducing the final "Orange Blossom" number.

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Connections

Featured in Great Performances: Musicals Great Musicals: The Arthur Freed Unit at MGM (1996)

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Soundtracks

The Fountain in the Park
(1884) (uncredited)
aka "While Strolling Through the Park One Day"
Written by Ed Haley
Sung by Polly Moran, Bessie Love, Marie Dressler, Gus Edwards,
Cliff Edwards, and Charles King

User Reviews

A delightful treasure!

This film will not get a good reception from most modern audiences, and certainly much of the film shows its seventy plus years, but this is a delight for some of us who see the '20s as a golden age, and this movie as a small window into it. It is also a humble reminder that in seventy-five years or so, what we consider entertainment will hold little or no interest to mass audiences.

If you are familiar at all with who the people are (Jack Benny, Joan Crawford, Cliff Edwards, Buster Keaton, etc.), the film is worth seeing. All of these people were one of a kind, not to be replicated by big name performers of today (great stars in their own right, but sorry, folks, they just don't have the class!). Just to see Joan Crawford as a young and beautiful woman is worth watching the film!

Technically, of course, the movie is what it says it is--a revue--intended to show audiences that their favorite silent stars can function in the new medium of sound. That purpose fulfilled (more or less), the film now might seem to have no point. The passage of time and the loss of context have made some of the humor corny (a term, by the way, from that period). The editing is clumsy (we have learned from their mistakes), but the personages themselves, and some of the song and dance, are better than anything we have today, and could not be duplicated.

I'd rather watch this than anything on the screen now.