Rating of
3/4
Review - The Broadway Melody (1929)
Delorted - wrote on 11/05/07
Hank and Queenie Mahoney (Bessie Love and Anita Page) were just two sisters looking for a good job on Broadway, which they got when their friend Eddie Kerns (Charles King) wrote a song for a revue. Sparks, both good and bad, fly between the sisters and Eddie in the Best Picture winner, “The Broadway Melody.”
What’s interesting about calling this film a musical is that the music is merely a gimmick and plays only a small part in the film. The real attraction is the characters, as well as the love triangle between the three leads. Their brawls really capture the audience and can get very emotion, in a good way. The actors and actress give it their all, even if they seem to give a bit too much of a stage delivery to most lines, which you can’t really blame them for as modern acting hadn’t even begun to develop yet.
Though the music was a bit of a gimmick, it was not by any means bad. Even with only two or three actual songs making it a musical, the songs were well written and well performed by the cast.
The only real problem I have with this film is that it is no longer in tact. There is one color scene that was lost many years ago which would have been marvelous to see. There’s also an unfixable grain problem due to the age of the film. It doesn’t hurt the story or the entertainment at all, but it is sort of depressing if you are enjoying the film.
“The Broadway Melody” spawned a series of musicals of a similar name that did not get nearly as much recognition, but over time the movie musical has developed and become a great part of cinema that definitely owes its start to this film.
Acting: 8/10
Writing: 7/10
Video/Editing: 7/10
Audio/Music: 7/10
Entertainment: 9/10
Final Score: 7.6/10
