The film had great music, dancing and acting. I particularly enjoyed the Wedding of the Painted Doll number which was vibrant and fun; I loved how they had the dancers rise up through the stage floor. Some of the songs were later used in the 1952 musical Singin' in the Rain (one of my all-time favourites) so it was interesting to see them in their original context and get some of the references used in that film.
Charles King had a lovely singing voice, adding a beautiful performance of the hit song "You Were Meant For Me". Anita Page, known at the time as "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" shone as Queenie. Her acting lacked a bit of naturality, however it's important to note in the post-silent era they were still hired more on their looks than their vocal skills.
Sadly, the storyline seemed to lose focus and become disjointed; I had not developed enough of a relationship with the characters to care about the love triangle (which was solved too conveniently). It seemed to me the major focus was on the sound, being a fairly new addition to films of that era, and the scriptwriting fell on the wayside as a result. The title makes it sound like a musical of non-stop excitement whereas the storyline was quite dull, making it seem to go on for longer than 100 minutes. For the time, however, it must have been such a marvel to see talking and singing on screen that the audiences of 1929 wouldn't have been too bothered about the plot.
I can't be too harsh of course, it was 1929 after all and many aspects of film (especially audio) were in their infancy. It's worth seeing, even if just for the Wedding of the Painted Doll and to see how far films have come over the decades since.
Charles King had a lovely singing voice, adding a beautiful performance of the hit song "You Were Meant For Me". Anita Page, known at the time as "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" shone as Queenie. Her acting lacked a bit of naturality, however it's important to note in the post-silent era they were still hired more on their looks than their vocal skills.
Sadly, the storyline seemed to lose focus and become disjointed; I had not developed enough of a relationship with the characters to care about the love triangle (which was solved too conveniently). It seemed to me the major focus was on the sound, being a fairly new addition to films of that era, and the scriptwriting fell on the wayside as a result. The title makes it sound like a musical of non-stop excitement whereas the storyline was quite dull, making it seem to go on for longer than 100 minutes. For the time, however, it must have been such a marvel to see talking and singing on screen that the audiences of 1929 wouldn't have been too bothered about the plot.
I can't be too harsh of course, it was 1929 after all and many aspects of film (especially audio) were in their infancy. It's worth seeing, even if just for the Wedding of the Painted Doll and to see how far films have come over the decades since.