Original music was written by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, including the popular hit “You Were Meant for Me.” George M. Cohan classic “Give My Regards to Broadway” is used under the opening establishing shots of New York City.
Advertised as “All Talking, All Singing, All Dancing,” it also featured the technological innovation of color. One number, “The Wedding of the Painted Doll,” was presented in two colors.
A backstage musical, it is the tale of two sisters (Bessie Love and Anita Page), who seek fame in the New York theatre, and in the process fall in love with the same song-and-dance man.
By today’s standards, the story and characters are cliché-ridden, but in 1929, the novelty of sound, color, and form proved winning. And the nominated performance of Bessie Love, as the older, wiser sister who sacrifices herself for her sister’s career, was truly excellent.
A big-budgeted film, close to half a million dollars, “The Broadway Melody” opened to rave reviews, soon becoming one of the seasons top money-makers, with over 3 million dollars in domestic rentals.
The Broadway Melody was such a box-office hit, that MGM made three more “Broadway Melody” films, of which “The Broadway Melody of 1936,” released in l1935, is considered to be the best and one of the few sequels to be nominated for Best Picture.
The supporting cast, particularly Jack Benny, as the columnist, and June Knight, as a no-talent who wants to become an actress, was more impressive than the leads, played by Robert Taylor and Eleanor Powell.
The movie won one Oscar: dance direction for David Gould’s sequence, “I’ve Got a Feeling You’re Foolin’.”
Unlike many of her peers, Bessie Love, a silent screen actress since 1916, made an easy transition to sound. The musical boasted wonderful score from the team of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed score. Some of the songs would become standard, such as You Were Meant for Me, and the title tune. There was one sequence in Technicolor, a lavish, Ziegfeld-like production number, titled “Wedding of the Painted Doll.”
MGM’s then young production chief, Irving Thalberg, saw this number and thought it was too static, so director Harry Beaumont had to shoot it all over again. Douglas Shearer (actress Norma’s brother), who was in charge of sound at MGM, suggested to reuse the original recording, thus beginning the technique of pre-recording music for musical numbers.
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MGM promoted film when it opened in February 1929, by decorating the exteriors of theaters with signs “100 Percent All Talking! 100 Percent All Singing! 100 Percent All Dancing! The picture made a huge amount of money, $4 million (equivalent of over $100 million today).
Cast
Queenie (Anita Page)
Hank (Bessie Love)
Eddie (Charles King)
Uncle Bernie (Jed Prouty)
Jock (Kenneth Thompson)
Stage Manager (Edward Dillon)
Blonde (Mary Doran)
Babe Hatrick (J. Emmett Beck)
Stew (Marshall Ruth)
Turpe (Drew Demarest)
Oscar Nominations: 3
Picture, produced by Harry Rapf
Director: Harry Beaumont
Actress: Bessie Love
Oscar Awards: 1
Picture
Oscar Context
MGM’s “Broadway Melody” competed for the Best Picture Oscar with four other films: MGM’s other big musical that year, “Hollywood Revue of 1929,” UA’s drama “Alibi,” Fox’s Western “In Old Arizona,” and Paramount’s The Patriot.”