Press Release Warner Archive Collection Announcement: The Broadway Melody (1929) (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

New 2023 1080p HD master from 4K scan of best preservation elements. Coming to Blu-ray July 31st!
THE BROADWAY MELODY (1929)
Run Time: 100 Minutes
Subtitles: ENGLISH SDH
Audio Specs: DTS HD-MA 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 16x9 1.37:1 with side mattes
Product color: B&W
DIsc Configuration-BD 50

Special features:
Metro Movietone Review Shorts, No. 1,2,3,4 & 7; Van and Schenck Metro Movietone Act, The Dogway Melody
Cast: Charles King, Bessie Love, Anita Page

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made every effort to impress with its first talking motion picture, setting a new standard for big-budget films and establishing an archetype for decades of movie musicals to follow in The Broadway Melody. The Great White Way truly becomes the Street of Broken Dreams when sisters Queenie and Hank Mahoney (Anita Page and Bessie Love) follow Hank's boyfriend, Eddie Kearns (Charles King), to Manhattan with visions of stardom. In New York, Eddie and Queenie are attracted to each other, but unwilling to betray her sister, Queenie dates a feckless cad. Now, Hank must sort out the tangle of aspirations and emotions that form this tragic love triangle. Filled with a memorable score of unforgettable songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed, this was the first sound film to win the Academy Award® for Best Picture (1929-30).

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See on Amazon

 

[battlebeast]

YES!!!! SOOOOO HAPPYYY!!! I wonder if they found the color segments…?

 

[battlebeast]

No bonus features…? Not even a relatable cartoon? Hmmm

 

[Ronald Epstein]

No bonus features…? Not even a relatable cartoon? Hmmm

Just got the specs in from Warner's FB page. See top post

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think Warner FB announcement has the wrong release date. July 31st is a Monday. I believe August 1st will be the correct date.

 

[battlebeast]

Just got the specs in from Warner's FB page. See top post

Thank you!

 

[Patrick McCart]

Willing to give this another shot on Blu-ray. Wasn't that impressed with it - only early revue/musical films I've liked so far are Warner's The Show of Shows and Universal's King of Jazz.

No bonus features…? Not even a relatable cartoon? Hmmm

Warner doesn't own any pre-1930 animation, from what I know. Even for 1930-1934, they only have the Warner cartoons before Harman and Ising joined MGM in 1935 (MGM distributed Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper and Flip the Frog shorts, though).

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I think Warner FB announcement has the wrong release date. July 31st is a Monday. I believe August 1st will be the correct date.

You mean July 32nd?

 

[battlebeast]

Willing to give this another shot on Blu-ray. Wasn't that impressed with it - only early revue/musical films I've liked so far are Warner's The Show of Shows and Universal's King of Jazz.



Warner doesn't own any pre-1930 animation, from what I know. Even for 1930-1934, they only have the Warner cartoons before Harman and Ising joined MGM in 1935 (MGM distributed Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper and Flip the Frog shorts, though).

It’s not a very good movie; I find it boring, and the acting is only so-so. I think it won because it was the “first all-talking all-singing musical”.

I’m happy to have it on Blu ray in a much better transfer, for it’s one I need for my collection.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think Warner FB announcement has the wrong release date. July 31st is a Monday. I believe August 1st will be the correct date.

Warner is now correcting their FB announcements to July 25th.

 

[Matt Hough]

Sure would love to see the original two-color Technicolor sequence, but I guess it's lost forever. Wonder if they'd ever experiment with doing a two-color colorization job on that sequence? Might be interesting if it's possible.

 

[battlebeast]

Sure would love to see the original two-color Technicolor sequence, but I guess it's lost forever. Wonder if they'd ever experiment with doing a two-color colorization job on that sequence? Might be interesting if it's possible.

What makes you think it's lost?

 

[bujaki]

For it's time it was revolutionary, and Bessie Love's acting is quite affecting (nominated for Best Actress Oscar). As far as the color sequence is concerned, it's deemed lost. However...my late friend, the film collector Rick Scheckman, my wife and I remember seeing it somewhere in the early '70s. Even today my wife commented on the red splotches of rouge on the cheeks of the "painted dolls". Is this a true story? Who knows...

 

[Matt Hough]

What makes you think it's lost?

The color matrices are lost. The sequence itself survives in black and white. Lots of partial Technicolor early talkies have lost the color elements from the films. Want to get a headache? Just watch Marilyn Miller's Sally from 1929 as she dances her way through a number where it switches from color to black and white over and over again.

 

[Brianruns10]

Much like when studios junked their silent films thinking they had little future value, as Techicolor was perfected in the 1930s, studios saw little commercial value in the older films shot with the two color process. Furthermore, because Technicolor was a proprietary process, they were necessary if a studio wanted a print of a color film, or a film with color sequences. As a result, Technicolor housed its own negatives, at least in the beginning. In the late 30s, however, they ceased printing the older two color films, and sent out a call to studios to either take possession of their color negatives, or Technicolor would junk them. Having no means to make prints from the matrices themselves, and seeing little value in them, many studios just allowed the negatives to be junked, believing the positive prints they had on hand were sufficient. It's why, for example, Warner Brothers, despite shooting the most two color films of any studio, has almost no surviving examples. They didn't save their negatives, and were satisifed with making b/w safety prints of the color nitrate positives before junking them too.

The unfortunate thing is MGM was one of the exceptions, being quite good about preserving their library, so one wonders why the color sequence from their Best Picture winner wasn't saved. Perhaps it was another casualty of the 1967 vault fire?

 

[bujaki]

The color matrices are lost. The sequence itself survives in black and white. Lots of partial Technicolor early talkies have lost the color elements from the films. Want to get a headache? Just watch Marilyn Miller's Sally from 1929 as she dances her way through a number where it switches from color to black and white over and over again.

The entire film survives in color. It's still somewhat of a headache to watch, but it does exist. I don't remember whether I saw it on YouTube or via a link someone sent me.

 

[Will Krupp]

The entire film survives in color. It's still somewhat of a headache to watch, but it does exist. I don't remember whether I saw it on YouTube or via a link someone sent me.

There is a colorized version approximating the original look that was made in the last two years or so. I'm pretty sure that's the one you're referring to. The authentic "found" color footage (including extra bits unearthed in 2014 or 2015) only amounts to something like three to four minutes.

 

[bujaki]

There is a colorized version approximating the original look that was made in the last two years or so. I'm pretty sure that's the one you're referring to. The authentic "found" color footage (including extra bits unearthed in 2014 or 2015) only amounts to something like three to four minutes.

I received a link from Joe Yranski (a man with a national and international reputation as a restorer and sleuth in the area of silent and early sound films), in November 2022. It was on YouTube, and it contained the full version of SALLY in color. Joe does know 2-color Technicolor from a cheap colorization, and he would not have sent it to me had it been that. Unfortunately, I just checked and the video has been pulled.
Joe is responsible for finding and restoring many Colleen Moore films. He has written notes for film festivals such as Le giornate del cinema muto in Pordenone, Italy, for which he wrote last year's notes for the Norma Talmadge retrospective.
He can be trusted.

 

[timk1041]

It’s not a very good movie; I find it boring, and the acting is only so-so. I think it won because it was the “first all-talking all-singing musical”.

I’m happy to have it on Blu ray in a much better transfer, for it’s one I need for my collection.

I think the other Broadway Melody titles are better too. I especially like the 1940 one with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell.

 

[battlebeast]

I think the other Broadway Melody titles are better too. I especially like the 1940 one with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell.

Myself, I liked 1936 a lot.