''Broadway'' is a 1929 film directed by
Paul Fejos
Pál Fejős (27 January 1897 – 23 April 1963), known professionally as Paul Fejos, was a Hungarian-American director of feature films and documentaries who worked in a number of countries including the United States. He also studied medicine i ...
from the 1926
play of the same name
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by
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887 – January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades.
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Abbott was born in Forestville, New Yo ...
and
Philip Dunning
Philip Hart Dunning (December 11, 1889 – July 20, 1968) was a playwright and theatrical producer.
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Dunning, one of six children, was the son of John M. Dunn, an electrochemist, and Mary Dunn.
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Dun ...
. It stars
Glenn Tryon
Glenn Tryon (born Glenn Monroe Kunkel; August 2, 1898 – April 18, 1970) was an American film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1923 and 1951.
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He was born as Glenn Monroe Kunke ...
,
Evelyn Brent
Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress.
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Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...
,
Paul Porcasi
Paul may refer to:
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*Paul (surname), a list of people
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,
Robert Ellis,
Merna Kennedy
Merna Kennedy (born Maude Kahler; September 7, 1908 – December 20, 1944) was an American actress of the late silent era and the transitional period into talkies.
Career
She was born in Kankakee, one of two children to Maud (''née'' Reed) a ...
and
Thomas E. Jackson
Thomas E. Jackson (July 4, 1886 – September 7, 1967) was an American stage and screen actor. His 67-year career spanned eight decades and two centuries, during which time he appeared in over a dozen Broadway plays, produced two others, acted i ...
.
[
This was Universal's first talking picture with ]Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
sequences. The film was released by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012, with Paul Fejo's ''Lonesome''.
Plot
Roy Lane and Billie Moore, entertainers at the Paradise Nightclub, are in love and are rehearsing an act together. Late to work one evening, Billie is saved from dismissal by Nick Verdis, the club proprietor, through the intervention of Steve Crandall, a bootlegger, who desires a liaison with the girl. "Scar" Edwards, robbed of a truckload of contraband liquor by Steve's gang, arrives at the club for a showdown with Steve and is shot in the back. Steve gives Billie a bracelet to forget that she has seen him helping a "drunk" from the club. Though Roy is arrested by Dan McCorn, he is later released on Billie's testimony. Nick is murdered by Steve. Billie witnesses the killing, but keeps quiet about the dirty business until she finds out Steve's next target is Roy. Billie is determined to tell her story to the police before Roy winds up dead, but Steve is not about to let that happen and kidnaps her. Steve, in his car, is fired at from a taxi, and overheard by Pearl, he confesses to killing Edwards. Pearl confronts Steve in Nick's office and kills him; and McCorn, finding Steve's body, insists that he committed suicide, exonerating Pearl and leaving Roy and Billie to the success of their act.
Cast
Production
Director Fejos designed the camera crane specifically for use on this film, allowing unusually fluid movement and access to nearly every conceivable angle. It could travel at per minute. It enlivened the visual style of this film and others that followed.
Preservation status
Both the silent version and the talking version of ''Broadway'' are extant, but the surviving talking version is incomplete. The color sequence at the end survives in color and in sound but the sound survives separately from the picture. The surviving color footage is from the silent version and has been synchronized to the surviving disc audio.
Home media
In 2012, the sound version of ''Broadway'' was reconstructed by The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...
and included as an extra feature on the DVD and Blu-ray release of Paul Fejos' 1928 film, '' Lonesome''.
See also
*List of early color feature films
This is a list of early feature-length color films (including primarily black-and-white films that have one or more color sequences) made up to about 1936, when the Technicolor three-strip process firmly established itself as the major-studio fa ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadway (1929 Film)
1929 musical films
1920s color films
1929 films
American black-and-white films
Films about theatre
American films based on plays
Films directed by Paul Fejos
Films set in New York City
Transitional sound films
Universal Pictures films
American musical films
1920s English-language films
1920s American films