The Broadway Melody
(1929) American
C/B&W : 10 reels / 9372 feet / 111 minutes
Directed by Harry Beaumont

Cast: Bessie Love [‘Hank’ Mahoney], Anita Page [Queenie Mahoney], Charles King [Eddie Kerns], Jed Prouty [Uncle Bernie], Kenneth Thomson [Jacques Warriner], Edward Dillon [stage manager], Mary Doran [the vindictive blonde], Eddie Kane [Francis Zanfield], J. Emmett Beck [Babe Hatrick], Marshall Ruth [Stew], Drew Demarest [Turpe], James Gleason

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation production; distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation. / Produced by Harry Rapf. 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. Art direction by Cedric Gibbons. Costume design by David Cox. Ensemble numbers staged by George Cunningham. Cinematography by John Arnold. Sound recording engineering by Douglas Shearer. Sound technicians Wesley Miller, Louis Kolb, O.O. Ceccarini and G.A. Burns. Sound version edited by Sam S. Zimbalist. Silent version intertitles by Earl Baldwin. Silent version edited by William Le Vanway. / © 5 March 1929 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation [LP183]. Premiere 1 February 1929 in Los Angeles, California. General release 6 June 1929. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.37:1 format. Technicolor two-strip color process sequences. Western Electric Movietone sound-on-film sound process. / The “Wedding of the Painted Doll” sequence was originally in Technicolor. The film was also released in the USA at 5943 feet by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation. Academy Award winner for Picture. / Full-sound film.

Comedy-Drama: Musical.

Survival Status: Print exists [35mm positive].

Keywords: Color cinematography - Love triangles - Synchronized sound film - Theatrical producers - USA: New York: New York: Broadway - Vaudeville

Listing updated: 28 April 2008.

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.

Home Video: DVD.