The Broadway Melody (1929)

“Eddie” (Charles King) invites his girlfriend “Hank” (Bessie Love) and her sister “Queenie” (Anita Page) to join a show being staged by legendary producer “Zanfeld” (Eddie Kane) on Broadway. That’s about as simple as the plot gets because quite swiftly he switches his allegiance to the other sister but she’s a decent sort of gal and tries to return the attentions of socialite “Jock” (Kenneth Thomson). Those attentions are really only skin deep, though, and as we watch we all too readily realise where the real love story lies. Whilst all of this melodrama is playing out, director Harry Beaumont makes best use of his theatrical setting to intersperse this game of who is dating who with some quite well choreographed and scored song and dance routines in the best traditions of (sometimes quite risqué vaudeville. It’s an early talkie and it looks it. None of the cast look particularly comfortable with their lines, but they do look much more natural when the gals are on the stage or frenetically lurching from heartbreak to lovestruck - usually very loudly, backstage too! Love is a class act and she certainly steals the show here but that’s maybe it’s problem. It is a film about a show, whereas it might have been better had it just been a show, and cut out the romancing elements that do create their own suds just once too often. It is a lively enterprise, though, and looks as if those behind the camera knew just how to show how manic, haphazard and hectic life behind the curtain could be, and that’s without any love triangles! It hasn’t really stood the test of time, but I do wonder how many films made now will still have any entertainment value in a century?