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Bessie Love (left) and Anita Page.
Photograph: Silent Era image collection.
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The Broadway Melody
(1929) United States of America
Color/B&W : 10 reels / 9372 feet / 111 minutes
Directed by Harry Beaumont
Cast: Charles King [Eddie Kerns], Anita Page [Queenie Mahoney], Bessie Love [Harriet ‘Hank’ Mahoney], Eddie Kane [Francis Zanfield], J. Emmett Beck [Babe Hatrick], Jed Prouty [Uncle Jed], Kenneth Thomson [Jacques Warriner], Edward Dillon [Dillon, the stage manager], Mary Doran [Flo, the vindictive blonde], Marshall Ruth [Stew, Mr. Zanfield’s assistant], Drew Demarest [Turpe, the costumer], James Gleason [Jimmy, the music publisher], Charlotte Merriam [Rosie, the singer in pearls], Dorothy Vernon [the hotel housekeeper], Ray Cooke [the bellhop], Blanche Payson [the wardrobe lady], Nacio Herb Brown [the pianist at the publisher’s offices], Arthur Freed [a bystander at the publisher’s offices], Eddie Bush [the quartet guitarist and singer], Paul Gibbons [the quartet guitarist and singer], Ches Kirkpatrick [the quartet guitarist and singer], Bill Seckler [the quartet guitarist and singer], James Burroughs [the singer of “The Wedding of the Painted Doll”], Carla Laemmle [a specialty dancer], Joyce Murray [a specialty dancer], Betty Arthur [a chorus girl], Ruth Jennings [a chorus girl], Alice Pitman [a chorus girl], Betty Recklaw [a chorus girl], Diana Verne [a chorus girl], Alice Weaver [a chorus girl], Dorothy Coonan Wellman [a chorus girl], the Angeles Twins [chorus girls], Angella Mawby [a Mawby Twin], Claudette Mawby [a Mawby Twin], Claudine Mawby [a Mawby Twin], Carl M. Leviness [a party guest]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation production; distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation. / Produced by Harry Rapf. Continuity (screenplay) by Sarah Y. Mason, with dialogue by Norman Houston and James Gleason, from a screen story by Edmund Goulding. Songs “Broadway Melody,” “The Wedding of the Painted Doll,” “Love Boat,” “Boy Friend” and “You Were Meant for Me” by Nacio Herb Brown (music) and Arthur Freed (lyrics); song “Give My Regards to Broadway” by George M. Cohan; song “Truthful Deacon Brown” by Willard Robison. Production design by Cedric Gibbons. Wardrobe (costume design) by David Cox. Ensemble numbers staged by George Cunningham. Photographed (cinematography) by John Arnold (Jack Arnold). Sound recording engineer, Douglas Shearer. Sound technicians, Wesley Miller, Louis Kolb, O.O. Ceccarini and G.A. Burns. Film editor (sound version), Sam S. Zimbalist. Film editor (silent version), William Le Vanway. Intertitles written by Earl Baldwin. Presented by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. / © 5 March 1929 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation [LP183]. Premiered 1 February 1929 in Los Angeles, California. General release, 6 June 1929. / Movietone 35mm spherical 1.20:1 format (sound version) and Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format (silent version). Technicolor two-strip color process sequences. Western Electric Movietone sound-on-film synchronized sound system. / The “Wedding of the Painted Doll” sequence was originally in Technicolor. The film was also released in the USA in a silent version (at 5943 feet) by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation in 1929. Academy Award winner for Best Picture. / Full-sound film.
Comedy-Drama: Musical.
Survival status: Print exists [35mm positive].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Color cinematography - Love triangles - Synchronized sound film - Theatrical producers - USA: New York: New York: Broadway - Vaudeville
Listing updated: 4 August 2024.
References: Film credits, film viewing : Baer-Film p. 35; Bardèche-History pp. 310, 312; Basten-Technicolor pp. 40, 170; Bohn-Light p. 184; Dardis-Keaton pp. 161, 183; Edmonds-BigU p. 154; Everson-Detective p. 64; Hirschhorn-Universal p. 54; Limbacher-Feature p. 32; Shipman-Cinema pp. 104, 105; Sweeney-Coming p. 145; Vermilye-Twenties pp. 224-227 : Website-AFI; Website-IMDb.
Home video: Blu-ray Disc; DVD.
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