Starring: Anita Page, Bessie Love, and Charles King
Duration: 100 min. (1 hr. and 40 min.)
Interesting Fact: It was the first musical to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards (imdb.com).
Here's an excerpt from the movie:
The Broadway Melody was avant garde for its time because of something very revolutionary. Although the idea of audio in a movie seems trivial to modern audiences, the fact that this movie had sound was amazing. It aired in June of 1929, just a few months short of the stock market crash that started the Great Depression.
This film centers around two sisters named Harriet (Hank) and Queenie Mahoney. They set out to fulfill their dreams of becoming broadway stars with nothing but their sisterly love and a vaudeville act they are sure will win over the big guys. Through many comedic moments and romantic stunts, the sisters realize just what success is, and what it can do to any relationship. Although they are torn apart, both by bitter jealousy and romantic envy, in the end, nothing can break the bond of sisterhood. It really brings out original themes of rivalry and success. I think that after the Great Depression, audiences probably appreciated the message of the movie as they too would soon be trying to “make it happen.”
Although it might not have been the happy ending each girl envisioned, they both got their happy ending nonetheless.
Favorite Lines:
Eddie Kearns: Those men aren’t going to pay ten bucks to look at your face; this is Broadway!
Hank Mahoney: Yeah, ‘Broad’s way!’
Rating: Laughable
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