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.
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.