Oscar Movies Review #7: The Hollywood Review of 1929 (1 Viewer)

[battlebeast]

The Hollywood Revue of 1929
Director: Charles Reisner
Cast: Conrad Nagel, Jack Benny, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, John Gilbert, Bessie Love, Anita Page, Marion Davis, Buster Keaton, Lionel Barrymore, Cliff Edwards, Nils Asther, Marie Dressler, Charles King
Oscars won: 0
Nominations: 1 (Best Picture)

Of all the 500+ films nominated for Best Picture, there have been some huge duds, epics, masterpieces, a pseudo-documentary and some just plain weird films - but the most oddball one of them all is, without a doubt, The Hollywood Revue of 1929. In fact, it isn't even a movie at all. Sure, it is a motion picture - but not a "Movie" as we know it. To me, a movie has a story, a plot, characters, a beginning, middle and an end. But not this film. This film is just what it is called - a revue.

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is a lavish stage musical of filmed vaudeville song and dance numbers, skits and routines. Hosted by Conrad Nagel, and partly by Jack Benny, almost every MGM star of the day makes an appearance. Only three were absent:
1) Greta Garbo. Although mentioned, she does not appear. She was originally going to make her talkie debut here, but later decided that Anna Christie would be her debut.
2) Lon Chaney Sr. Chaney had just signed a 3-picture deal with MGM, He was asked to appear in this film, and agreed, but only if this would count as one of his three pictures with his normal fee. MGM balked because his salary would eat up most of the budget. Instead, the song he was to perform, "Lon Chaney's gonna get you," was sung by another in costume. Chaney was not happy about this, and when he passed away a year later, the scene was cut out of respect, but later restored.
3) Ramón Novarro.

Most of the song and dance numbers aren't very entertaining (to me at least). Laurel and Hardy do an inept magician skit that literally falls flat on it's face, and only gave me only one little chuckle. However, this picture is notable for several reasons:

1) The musical Sining in the Rain is now considered one of the best films of all time, and it's title song is a classic.However, the song was never nominated for Best Song. Ever wonder why? The song "Singing in the Rain" made it's debut here, sung by Cliff Edwards as Uku-le-le Ike, in raincoat with uku-le-le and dancing in actual pouring rain. The Song is reprised, in glorious 2-strip Technicolor, as the finale of the film, with most of the stars singing the song. I loved this rendition of the classic song.


2) Three scenes were filmed in 2-strip Technicolor:

1) The balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, with Norma Shearer as Juliet (she would later reprise this role in the Best Picture nominated Romeo and Juliet in 1936) and John Gilbert as Romeo. (In fact, it was This film that brought an end to John Gilbert's career. His high-pitched squeaking voice allegedly made audience members laugh out loud. Apparently, it was later revealed that the studio had somehow manipulated his voice.) Lionel Barrymore appears as the director of the Shakespeare scene. a funny little skit. I didn't think John Gilbert's voice was all that bad.
2) A ballet dance number
3) The finale, the reprise of "Sining in the Rain."

3) This picture had an early appearance by Joan Crawford, performing a song and dancing. Crawford later spoke of the film: " [The Hollywood] Revue [of 1929] was one of those 'let's-throw-everyone-on-the-lot-into-a musical' things, but I did a good song-and-dance number.". Crawford was ok, although nothing spectacular.

4) The first sound appearance on film of Laurel and Hardy. They play inept magicians who are also inept at making me laugh.

As far as the film's picture goes, it NEEDS a restoration. It is scratched, with many instances of artifacts, dirt and debris, but is still very watchable. the 2-strip Technicolor scenes are still beautiful, holding up very well, 85 years later. The Audio is OK; the songs are clear but have hiss and pops and such typically associated with records. This picture was, originally, a sound on film picture, so the film is not properly centered when one watches it as the left side was cropped to accomodate the sound.

The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is not available on Blu Ray (the 2-strip technicolor would look beautiful), but is available on DVD-R from the Warner Archive, and I thank them for releasing this true piece of Hollywood history.

MGM must have known vaudeville was dying with the advent of the talkie pictures. Conrad Nagel, interviewed for the book The Real Tinsel, recalled, "Everybody thought Harry Rapf was crazy for making it," and he just might have been. It is a different film for sure, and if you are into vaudeville and early Hollywood talkies, this is a good film for you. The Technicolor scenes are beautiful, and of course, "Singing in the Rain." The historical aspects of this film make it an important landmark in cinema history.

Film: 3/5
Picture: 2/5
Audio 2/5
RECOMMENDED

 

[Rob W]

Actually, Laurel and Hardy made their first appearance with sound in Unaccustomed As We Are, a two-reel comedy released on May 4, 1929. Hollywood Revue didn't hit screens until November 1929.

 

[Matt Hough]

It was the first of the all-star revues (all of the major studios ending up doing one after the enormous box-office success of this one), and if not the best, certainly the most star-laden. And there are some clever ideas that show it wasn't just thrown together (Marion Davies in miniature) even though most of the numbers were filmed during the graveyard shift in the early morning after the stars had finished working on their other pictures for the day.


This was not the movie that brought down John Gilbert. That was His Glorious Night. He does sound a little effete and flowery in the Shakespeare passage, but in the conversation with Barrymore and in the modernized version, he sounds less affected. Shearer does much better with Juliet under George Cukor's direction in the 1936 version that she does here where she kind of destroys the natural rhythms of the speech.

 

[battlebeast]

From everything I read, on TCM, the IMDB and Wikipedia, it was HOLLYWOOD REVUE that ruined John Gilbert's Career.

Norma Shearer does MUCH BETTER in the Cuckor version of ROMEO AND JULIET. It's a way better production than A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, done only a year earlier.

I liked the tiny Marion Davis skit, and how she grew back up. Neat idea.

 

[Matt Hough]

He's just not in enough of The Hollywood Revue for it to have had the impact that his florid performance in His Glorious Night had. When Comden and Green wrote the scene for Singin' in the Rain that had the audience laughing Gene Kelly's character off the screen, it was based on His Glorious Night.


Here's historian David Shipman's account straight from The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years: "His actual Talkie debut was in The Hollywood Revue of 1929 in a coloured sequence with Norma Shearer about which no words are too unkind: they did a burlesque of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. But the crunch came with His Glorious Night,. . . .: some audiences sniggered, others fell about."


But you're certainly free to believe whatever you want.

 

[Will Krupp]

if not the best, certainly the most star-laden.

I've always thought of it as the "least awful" of that particular (and blessedly short-lived) cycle of musicals.

 

[Matt Hough]

I've always thought of it as the "least awful" of that particular (and blessedly short-lived) cycle of musicals.

I've never seen Paramount on Parade, and I hope I get to at some point in my lifetime.

 

[bujaki]

I've never seen Paramount on Parade, and I hope I get to at some point in my lifetime.

I saw it a lifetime ago. Lots of footage and sound have been found since I saw it. I remember mostly for the Chevalier number "Sweeping the Clouds Away."

 

[bujaki]

Singin' in the Rain (song) was not nominated because there was no category created yet for original song. A pity.

 

[Will Krupp]

I've never seen Paramount on Parade, and I hope I get to at some point in my lifetime.

be careful what you wish for!!!