The Broadway Melody (1929)

1929 was the first year ever of talking pictures, and “The Broadway Melody” was the first ever all-talking film to come out of the massive MGM studios. It also won the second ever Best Picture Oscar, being the first sound film ever to do so (“Wings”, the year before, was a silent picture). But, although it was a smash hit when it came out (the first ever true musical), it now looks a lot dated. Shortly after, movies like 42nd street, The Golddiggers, all Bugsy Berkley extravaganzas, the Fred and Ginger films, and the whole bunch of sequels to Broadway Melody itself, raised up the bar of the musical to spectacular heights (never again seen to this day), so Broadway Melody of 1929 seems very shy and poor in comparison. Like all these films, and “The Jazz Singer” before, the film sets itself in show business, and uses that as an excuse to present musical numbers as part of the shows/rehearsals the main actors are in. But here there are very few routines, about 4 in a 100 minute movie, all with little flair and little greatness. Even so, one has to think that sound was still on its experimental stage, and the camera was still a heavy thing to carry around and move. For what it presents, it may take a lot of credit, being a ground breaking film. The song and dance routines are squeezed among a simple plot, which basically repeats itself during the whole course of the movie. Two sisters, Queenie and Hank (Anita Page and Bessie Love), who had it made in the small towns, come to Broadway to seek their luck. They don’t have to fight for it much however, because Hank is engaged to a big star, Eddie (Charlie King), who gets them into his show, even though their audition sucks (not due to their talents!). Once in, the film divides itself between the rehearsals and this love triangle. Once he sees Queenie, Eddie falls in love with her (and so does everybody else). Because she sees Eddie’s advances and fears to hurt her sister, Queenie decides to capitulate to the womanizer producer, which in turn causes her a lot of discussions with Hank. The fact that Queenie can’t tell her sister why she is with a no good man is the “drama” of the picture. Eddie, the main singer, is one of the lousiest characters I have ever seen, but the movie treats him as the nice guy! Engaged to one sister, he tries to make love to another. Then, he is portrayed as a good person because he fights to get Queenie away from the bad producer, although he fails completely, including losing a fist fight. When Hank discovers the truth, and when she tells Eddie that she does not love him, that she was just fooling around, he BELIEVES HER, and only then goes running straight to Queenie. Once they marry, he has his eye on another girl already! How is this guy the hero! How can the movie consider him as the romantic lead and consider all this matter of fact? Sexist behaviors of the 1920s? And poor little Hank, the more talented of the sisters, sees Queenie, because of her looks, rise on Broadway, get Eddie and get the fame, while she ends the movie going back to the small towns, with little hope of returning or ever making it big. Where is the moral here? It’s an odd plot! The movie has some awkward acting, singing and dancing, a consequence of its vintage. Only Bessie Love shines. Anyway, and despite the little songs and this chauvinistic plot, this is a hallmark film. Hell, it’s the first musical ever, a genre which would produce some of the finest pieces of filmmaking in history, and gods like Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers and all the Jacques Demy’s films!