The Broadway Melody

A few weeks ago there was a poll on IMDB asking how many Best Picture Oscar winners a person had seen. I realized there are several I haven't seen (about ten or so), plus some I can't be sure I've seen or not (The Lost Weekend? Going My Way? It's possible I saw them on TV thirty or more years ago). So over the next few months I will Netflix those I haven't seen in the recent past. Of the 80 films that have won Best Picture, 78 are available on DVD (Wings, the first winner, and Cavalcade, the fifth. I saw Wings about twenty years on Turner Classic Movies).

Since Wings isn't available right now on DVD, I go to the second winner, from 1928-29, The Broadway Melody. Now, to be fair, some films are timeless and some aren't, and this is not one of them. It's easy to watch this film and roll one's eyes at the sappy melodrama, the acting, and music that hasn't been in style for two generations. So, instead, I tried to view it through the eyes of someone who was going to picture palaces in the era when talkies were new, and by doing it this film fares much better.

The Broadway Melody, from MGM, was the first feature-length sound musical. As the advertising went, it was "100% Talking, 100% Singing, 100% Dancing." It was a sensation, earning an unheard of $4 million at the box office. We can sit back and be amazed at what people considered entertainment in those days, but someday this era will have to answer for Flavor of Love.

The story concerns two sisters, Hank and Queenie, played by Bessie Love and Anita Page. They are a musical act from the sticks who have come to New York to hit it big on Broadway (the film opens with a terrific aerial view of the Big Apple). Hank's boyfriend, Eddie (Charles King) is a songwriter who has a role in the big revue in town, which is run by a man named Zanfield (clearly modeled after Florenz Ziegfeld). Hank is older and smarter, Queenie is young, beautiful and kinda dumb. She attracts the attention of one of the show's backers, who showers her with gifts and turns her head. Hank and Eddie object, far too strenuously if you ask me, but Eddie does so because he secretly is in love with his girl's sister, an uncomfortable position to be in.

Meanwhile, we get lots of musical numbers that now can only be considered bizarre, such as a white guy dressed like a sultan, surrounded by his harem, singing in a tenor voice. Then there's a number called The Wedding of the Painted Doll, which includes a dancing clergyman. If you like women tap-dancing in toe shoes, look no further.

Of course things turn out okay. The backer is revealed as a cad, and Hank sacrifices her love for Eddie in order that her sister will be happy (this means that Queenie gives up her career in order to be Mrs. Eddie, so it's probably not Gloria Steinem's favorite flick). Though it has old-fashioned views of women, there are elements that are a bit racy, as this was a pre-code film. The girls are seen stripping down to their undies in the bathroom (though we don't see a toilet) and the minor character of the costume designer is clearly depicted as gay (and mocked for it).

I learned a few things about Anita Page. She was a teenager when the film was made, and she's still alive today at 97. She quit the business in 1936 because of improper advances by Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer (so she says) but came back sixty years later to make a few films. Talk about a long lay-off! And while she was a star she was second only to Greta Garbo in receiving fan-mail. Hundreds of letters came from an ardent fan from Italy. His name--Benito Mussolini.