The Broadway Melody (1929)




Bessie Love, Charles King, Anita Page - The Broadway Melody




"The Broadway Melody" is going to sing merrily across the screens of the country, entertaining millions and making new friends for the talking pictures. For "The Broadway Melody" is sparkling, smart and entertaining — a credit to its makers and a joy to the fans. In it Bessie Love, as half a little sister team who loves and loses, gives the most astounding emotional performance in many months. In it the screen finds a first-rate singing actor in Charles King, from the musical comedy stage. And in it the blonde beauty of Anita Page blooms anew. The picture is most notable, however, because in it the talkies find new speed and freedom. The microphone and its twin camera poke themselves into backstage corners, into dressing rooms, into rich parties, and hotel bedrooms.

Smart Broadway dialogue by James Gleason is expertly and naturally spoken. There is one colored sequence with a new song, "The Wedding of the Painted Doll," that will start you dancing. The story is an odd twist of the love triangle — a little sister team from the vaudeville honky-tonks of the Middle West in love with the successful song and dance man of a great New York girl show. The crafty directorial hand of Harry Beaumont has tickled, teased and whipped it into a fast, funny, sad little story, alive in turn with titters and tears. Don't dare to miss "The Broadway Melody." It is Double A, triple-distilled picture entertainment. Why, Bessie Love alone is worth the tariff at the wicket!

Photoplay April 1929



Vintage magazines

Photoplay , April 1929
Photoplay , April 1929
Photoplay , April 1929

Photoplay , April 1929
Photoplay , May 1929
Photoplay , July 1929

Photoplay , March 1936

Books with substantial mentioning of The Broadway Melody

Don Tyler
The Great Movie Musicals
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London, 2010
pp. 35-36 info

Edwin M. Bradley
The first Hollywood musicals, A critical filmography of 171 features, 1927 through 1932
Jefferson, N.C., 1996
pp. 18-24 info

Jerry Vermilye
The Films of the Twenties
Secaucus, NJ, 1985

Books with an entry on The Broadway Melody

Paul Michael, editor in chief. James Robert Parish, associate editor
The American movies reference book, The sound era
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.,, 1969



Year: 1929
Country: United States
 
IMDb: 0019729