''Lights of Old Broadway'' is a 1925 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Monta Bell Louis Monta Bell (February 5, 1891 – February 4, 1958) was an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Biography Monta Bell first appeared in theatrical venues with Washington D.C. stock companies and then took up journalism an ...

, produced by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

Cosmopolitan Productions Cosmopolitan Productions, also often referred to as Cosmopolitan Pictures, was an American film company based in New York City from 1918 to 1923 and Hollywood until 1938. History Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst formed Cosmopolitan in co ...

, and released by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

. The film stars

Marion Davies Marion Davies (born Marion Cecilia Douras; January 3, 1897 – September 22, 1961) was an American actress, producer, screenwriter, and philanthropist. Educated in a religious convent, Davies fled the school to pursue a career as a chorus girl ...

in a

dual role A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...

and

Conrad Nagel John Conrad Nagel (March 16, 1897 – February 24, 1970) was an American film, stage, television and radio actor. He was considered a famous matinée idol and leading man of the 1920s and 1930s. He was given an Academy Honorary Award in 1940 and ...

, and is an adaptation of the play ''The Merry Wives of Gotham'' by Laurence Eyre (USA). The film has color sequences using tinting,

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 ...

, and the

Handschiegl color process The Handschiegl color process (, , App: Nov 20, 1916, Iss: May 13, 1919) produced motion picture film prints with color artificially added to selected areas of the image. Aniline dyes were applied to a black-and-white print using gelatin imbibition ...

. The play was produced on Broadway at

Henry Miller's Theatre The Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's Theatre, is a Broadway theater at 124 West 43rd Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Owned by the Durst Organization and managed by the Roundabout Theatre ...

from January 16, 1924 to April 1924. Davies' role was played on the stage by actress

Mary Ellis Mary Ellis (born May Belle Elsas, June 15, 1897 – January 30, 2003) was an American actress and singer appearing on stage, radio, television and film, best known for her musical theatre roles, particularly in Ivor Novello works. After appea ...

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, two young women, twins, whose mother dies while the family is en route from Ireland to the United States, are separated in New York City, Anne being adopted by a wealthy family and the other, Fely, by a poor family. Dirk, Anne's adopted brother, meets the poor sister, and love draws them together. The youth’s family objects to his romance, but are reconciled when the poor sister saves Dirk’s father from death, and the two are then wed. A subplot involves the coming of electricity to New York City.

Cast

Production

In her 21st film,

starred as twins separated at birth. The dark-haired girl is brought up in a wealthy home, while the blonde is brought up in the tenement slums and becomes a musical-comedy star. This MGM production saw Davies in the first of three teamings with

and was also the first Davies production in which

Louis B. Mayer Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...

and

Irving Thalberg Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather productio ...

became involved. This was the first Davies film to use 2-strip Technicolor (which survives). The finale also includes the same hand-coloring technique (Handschiegl) that had been used in '' When Knighthood Was in Flower''. The film was a big hit and resulted in a long-term contract with MGM.

Preservation

Prints of ''Lights of Old Broadway'' are preserved at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

and

UCLA Film and Television Archive The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a visual arts organization focused on the preservation, study, and appreciation of film and television, based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Also a nonprofit exhibition venue, the archiv ...

. The Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''Lights of Old Broadway''
/ref>

References

External links