The Broadway Melody (1929)

My Review

The Best Picture of 1928-1929 is…..”The Broadway Melody.” This is a musical about two vaudeville sisters who travel to New York to make it big on Broadway. The drama and romance proceed from there. Director Harry Beaumont put together a classic backstage music melodrama with loads of thrills, chills, and spills. The screenplay and story were written by Edmund Goulding, Norman Houston, and James Gleason.

The stars are Bessie Love and Anita Page as the two sisters both vying for the attention of the same man, played by Charles King. Co-stars include Jed Prouty, Kenneth Thomson, Edward Dillon, Mary Duran, and Eddie Kane. “The Broadway Melody” was very popular at the box office for producer Irving Thalberg and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

“The Broadway Melody” was filmed at MGM Studios in Culver City, California. It won one Academy Award for Best Picture, the second Best Picture winner in history. There were two other Oscar nods for Best Director and Best Actress (Love). This was the first film to have one sequence in Technicolor, which did not survive, so the entire film is only available in black-and-white. The classic show-biz tune “Give My Regards to Broadway” (by George M. Cohan) is played in the opening credits.