Broadway (1929)

Such a frustrating disappointment

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

"Broadway" is a very unusual film. While it is a very early talky and is dated in some ways, in others it's amazingly advanced...especially with the truly spectacular camera-work. For the artistry alone, it's well worth seeing!The opening credits are shocking and very interesting...and you know you're in for a special film. Using a model of Broadway, a man dressed up like a demon roams the streets and the titles then appear over it! For a model scene, it was very, very well done. Also well done are scenes using cranes, amazing dissolves and a roving camera- - something rarely seen even in films of the 30s! Also amazing are the costumes....especially the one with the skyscraper hats!As for the story, a mobster named Crandall owns the theater in which the film is set. He's involved in bootlegging and early on in the picture, he murders his competition. As he and his sidekick are dragging the body outside, Billie and Roy see them...and are told the guy was drunk and they are 'helping him'. This story is unquestioned...but when Scar is found dead nearby, Roy realizes what has happened. As for Billie, she obviously has feelings for Crandall, and he's been heaping his attention on her, and she lies for the guy when asked about this later. So what's going to become of Billie and Roy? And, what of the murder? Will it go unpunished?This film is unusual because although you see lots of costumes and dancers, it's not a musical until the very end--which is, incidentally, in Two-color Technicolor...and it's very degraded (looking mostly black and orangy-red). The copy I saw on YouTube sure could stand restoration.As far as the overall film goes, it was BRILLIANT for 1929....and still holds up pretty well today.

I just came home from maybe the premier of the restored version with 2-color finale. The screening is part of a terrific series at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan going through a dozen or more Universal recently restored films. Last night's King of Jazz was one of the greatest movie going experiences I ever had.Ol' Man Law of Averages caught up tonight. This movie is cringe-worthy terrible, and if you want to see it for crane shots be my guest. For Historians and obsessives only.A hackneyed gangster/nightclub story. Acting that was so wooden you wanted to leap into the screen and help out. One standout character. Leading lady apparently recuperating from a recent lobotomy. There was some potential in the nightclub acts but thanks to a blurry shoot and that damn crane (again), the dancers look like mice.

I know that the talking version without the Technicolor final exist and the silent version with the subtitle exist.I had assumed one day a copy of talking version would be edited to the final,form the silent version, with substitute sound affects,to make a complete print ,wrong!What the company did is that they took the silent version, shorten and edited it, to sound only with the sound version track only.This was stupid .Now the incomplete talking version is still not available.The company obviously could not afford it or may be their was a copy right problem with the incomplete film .It sounded and looked stupid.But it was better than nothing.Evelyn Brent plays a hard boil chorus girl.Glenn Tyrone an ambitious dancer who want to team with Myrna Kennedy.But she is going out with a mobster,played by Thomas E Jack son,I think,who just killed a bootlegger.In spite of the attempt's to syn the sound with silent, the story was clear..The color ending is faded and could be restored through recreating the color through creating separation from the main print on a computer.It's probably too expensive too.04/14/12. Criterion has just released the restored talking version of Broadway,Part of Pal Fejos collection,Lonesome.It is the talking print.Although the ending is lost it uses the silent version as a substitute with the beginning of the sound track of the sound track of the talking version.This print makes more sense and it's excellent too.09/21/12

Broadway now exists in two versions - the 88 minute visual silent with Hungarian subtitles and the 105 minute soundtrack only of the talking version (inflated for production numbers).I was most impressed with the cinematography (Hal Mohr) in the scenes that could be filmed silently with soundtrack added later. The tracking and crane shots are amazing for any period, but especially for an early talkie; about an hour into the silent print, a morning after shot reveals the enormous night club set being cleaned by custodians with an almost surrealistically mobile camera. In contrast the scenes including dialogue are filmed rather conventionally with a non-moving camera.The night club set is a stunner - looks like it took up an entire sound stage - kudos to Art Director Charles D. Hall. There are only a handful of other sets, mostly small backstage interiors.The plot is very simplistic. I won't reveal any details as I don't want to provide spoilers. However, I can reveal this. There are two parallel plot lines - one involving a hoofer and his romance with one of the chorus girls, and the other a reel one murder involving management and bootlegging that relies on feelings of guilt and paranoia to bring the guilty party to heel.Glenn Tryon is a lousy singer, but Evelyn Brent's superb performance as Pearl carries the film.As a piece of cinematic history, it's a treasure to find. Now if the talking version pictorial elements surface, we'll be able to really compare the two.