Broadway Melody (1929)

Hailed as Hollywood's first true musical, Broadway musical definitely shows how it has aged.  However it must be looked at through the eyes of the 1920's.  It's a 100 minute movie  with sound- both music and talking- with enough of a storyline that had some good music.  The film won Best PIcture when most of the movie industry was still stuck doing silent films.  It also had a two color technicolor sequence, which is pretty bamf.  However, only the black and white version of the film remains. 

Basically the plot is pretty average.  It's about two young sisters, Hank (or Harriet.. weird, I know) and Queenie, who move to New York and try to make it big in a Ziegfield Follies-esque show.  (The Zanfield follies to be exact) It's another love square.  Queenie is the pretty sister and Hank's boyfriend, Eddie, falls in love with her.  And so does Jock, a New York socialite and pseudo-slime bag.  Queenie receives all of this attention from the Follies show as the new girl in which she sits pseudo naked onstage very still... (lame.) 

When I heard about the first musical ever, I got a little excited.  I was a little disappointed.  When the movie ended, nobody grew as characters.  Queenie ends up with her sister's boyfriend and they get married.  Hank (the ugly sister) winds up alone to pursue her dream.  Sure, this is a precursor for "Funny Girl" however, both of the girls are talentless.  Well almost... Hank can tap dance but that's about it... It was fine.  For those of you who went to Concordia and took music history, you know that the musical wasn't really fully conceptualized until "Oklahoma" in 1943.  So I understand the musical itself was still in it's early stages.  But still...it was pretty meh.  I would recommend this movie to people who love musicals and who have a strong appreciation for "Singin' in the Rain."  Which in my humble opinion, if you don't, you should.  "Singin' in the Rain" pays a lot of homage to "Broadway Melody."  The ballad from "Broadway Melody" is called "You were meant for me" which Gene Kelly's character sings to Debbie Reynolds in the airplane hanger.  With Gene Kelly singing, it will make you swoon.  And then during what Tim calls "Third-Act Slump," Gene Kelly does the Broadway Melody Ballet dance, which actually makes way more sense after seeing "Broadway Melody" but with out having that as context, it seems like a totally wtf moment...  All in all, I was somewhere between underwhelmed and just plain whelmed. 

Katie has probably forgotten more about musicals than I have ever known and she is certainly the recognized authority on the subject between the two of us. The "Third Act Slump" that she is referring to is my theory that all musicals (even the very best) when split into four parts have a third part, usually following the intermission that can feel slow or plodding. "The Broadway Melody" seemed to be perpetually stuck in this kind of slump and we are in agreement that this film is better evaluated through the lens of its historical significance than compared to the musical masterpieces that would follow decades later.
The film certainly contains the elements that make a musical great: music, dancing, enthusiasm, a love triangle... but it all comes across as an unfocused mess. For the first 30 minutes or so, the titular song is the only one featured (and repeated ad infinitum) in the film and the flimsy story is merely a formality to showcase singing and dancing that is often inexplicably unimpressive. The female leads Hank and Queenie (Queenie being one of the most useless and uninteresting characters I have come across) have some duets in the film that are frankly like nails on chalkboard and I struggle to remember most of the tunes from the movie. 
When this film ended, I said aloud, "well, I guess that was it." The film left me with a bland taste in my mouth and relied heavily upon a lot of stereotypes that were dated even in the '30's. Katie and I just went to a wonderful performance of "Noises Off" in MN presented by a theater company she used to work for that was a much more clever and humorous satire of backstage theater drama. In this film however the pretty girl was useless but much pursued and the average looking and more talented girl had to work hard for everything she got while the men just said "gee whiz" a lot and did whatever they wanted. An archetype to be sure but with an unsatisfying conclusion as none of the characters seemed to grow or change by films' end.
It would have been a treat to see the Technicolor sequence (which predates The Wizard of Oz by a few years) and there was at least one very impressive scene with what could best be described as a "ballet tap dancer" on pointe shoes. In any case, this film is undeniably important and must be given its due respect even if it represented a work-in-progress for the musical film genre and an awkward transition from silent films to "talkies." 

Fun Fact: Broadway Melody made a whopping four million dollars at the box office, which is impressive considering inflation and the fact the tickets only cost about 35 cents!  

Stage Manager: [pointing to the stage] I told you, I want a spotlight *right here*!
[a miffed electrician drops a spotlight off the rafters. It lands on the stage with a crash]
Stage Manager: [cowed] Thank you.