There is an opinion among film historians and film critics that the introduction of sound actually set film making back by 20 years. With the cumbersome technology that no one initially knew how to take advantage of, the story became secondary and film makers tried their best to utilize this new toy that no one really understood. Many of the films of the late 20’s and early 30’s suffer from weak stories and awkward acting as actors tried to project their voices to wherever the microphone happened to be hidden set.

One needs look no further to find support for this theory than to compare the first two Academy Award winners for Outstanding Picture.

Wings, the first winner, was a silent picture. One of the last of a dying breed, however it had a story that was rich in theme and symbolism, had intricate subplots woven seamlessly into the story, and had deep and engaging characters that the audience could root for and relate to.

The Broadway Melody, the second winner, was a talkie. It had a very simple story, no real subplots to add depth, thin and unengaging characters that were neither likable nor sympathetic.

Another thing to consider was that Wings came in at over two hours and I was engaged in the story the entire time. The Broadway Melody came in at one hour and forty minutes, and I was barely able to get through it. It was almost unwatchable.

Now, before everyone thinks that this is just going to be me trashing on this film, let me say something. First off, this film really shows its age, and I think that’s one of the main causes of my issues with it. It came out in the late 1920’s and it shows. Much of the intonation in the dialogue is very dated, the actors performances are very dated, and they issues at hand are very dated. This is not a timeless film in the least. In fact, it is very much of its time, which is probably why it was so popular. Perhaps the audiences of of 1929 related better to the characters and found their issues to be more compelling.

Unfortunately when I looked at this film that was not the case. The premise of The Broadway Melody has two sisters, Hariet, alias Hank, and Queenie Mahoney arriving from the midwest in an attempt to take their Vaudeville act to Broadway. Eddie Kearns is debuting his show, “The Broadway Melody” and he has told the girls that Francis Zangfeld will put them in his latest review. Zanfeld, however is only interested in Queenie. Eddie, who is affianced to Hank suddenly finds himself in love with the better looking Queenie, who tries to dissuade Eddie’s interest by going with Jacques Wariner, a notorious playboy who nobody seems to like but treats Queenie like, well, a queen.

This love triangle creates a lot of problems. The first problem is that Eddie comes off as an untrustworthy lech who cheats on his fiancee with her sister, or at least tries to. By the time the movie ends, it’s clear that we were supposed to root for Eddie and Queenie to end up together, but neither character is likable enough to root for anything on their behalf, and it’s impossible to root for that kind of ending. I don’t care what time period you’re making your film in, this is not a scenario that is conducive to having likable characters.

The one character that we do root for is Hank, and she’s blissfully unaware that anything is going on until it’s painfully obvious to her in the third act that Eddie is in love with Queenie and not her. At this point Hank does the noble thing and tells Eddie to get Queenie from the clutches of Wariner. The film ends with Queenie and Eddie married and planning a move to Long Island while Hank has to go back to Peoria alone and relegated back to Vaudeville and away from the bright lights of Broadway. Her dreams of love and stardom have both been crushed.

Of course this film was a huge hit in its day and spawned three sequels in The Broadway Melody of 1936, The Broadway Melody of 1938 and The Broadway Melody of 1940. None of those films were sequels in the truest sense of the word, but they all dealt with people coming to New York from small towns attempting to make it on Broadway. A couple of its songs were also used nearly 3 decades later in Singin’ in the Rain. The music, in fact is the one strength of this film. The songs, while not necessarily timeless, are nonetheless memorable and entertaining. The choreography, however did leave something to be desired. This film is credited with being the first major musical production, and  the art of film choreography still had a long way to go before it would be able to realize the show-stopping potential of the later MGM bonanzas.

Did the Academy get it right?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t seen any of the other films that were nominated that year. I suspect that the fact that this was Hollywood’s first major musical played into the voters’ minds. The Oscars have always been political, and while I don’t have any proof to back it up, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if there was political pressure to make sure that talkies were getting all of the good publicity. Several silent films were nominated for awards in 1928/1929, but not a single silent film won an award. What greater statement would there be to make about the viability of sound than to honor a musical with the title of Outstanding Picture?

Again, that’s purely theory on my part. I haven’t done any studying on the subject, and please feel free to comment if you have a knowledgable opinion on this.

Overall, that’s about all I can say about The Broadway Melody. As much as I would recommend seeing Wings to those who haven’t seen it, I can’t recommend The Broadway Melody unless it’s to study the effect of sound on film making and the negative impact it initially had on story telling.