''Tenderloin'' is a 1928 American

part-talkie A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions, lines of dialog are presented as "titles"—printed text briefly ...

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combin ...

directed by

Michael Curtiz Michael Curtiz ( ; born Manó Kaminer; since 1905 Mihály Kertész; hu, Kertész Mihály; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed cla ...

and starring

Dolores Costello Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903Costello's obituary in ''The New York Times'' says that she was born on September 17, 1905. – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. ...

. While the film was a part-talkie, it was mostly a silent film with a synchronized musical score and sound effects on

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

discs. It was produced and released by Warner Bros. ''Tenderloin'' is considered a

lost film A lost film is a feature or short film that no longer exists in any studio archive, private collection, public archive or the U.S. Library of Congress. Conditions During most of the 20th century, U.S. copyright law required at least one copy ...

, with no prints currently known to exist.

Plot

Rose Shannon (

), a dancing girl at "Kelly's," in the "Tenderloin" district of New York City, worships at a distance Chuck White (

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 ...

), a younger member of the gang that uses it as their hangout. Chuck's interest in her is as just another toy to play with. Rose is implicated in a crime which she knows nothing about. The police pick her up, and the gang sends Chuck to take care of her in the event she may know or disclose something that will implicate the gang.

Cast

as Rose Shannon *

as Chuck White * George E. Stone as "Sparrow" * Mitchell Lewis as The professor * Dan Wolheim as "Lefty" *

Pat Hartigan Pat Hartigan (born 1950) is an Irish former hurler who played for his local club South Liberties and at senior level for the Limerick county team in the 1970s. He is regarded as one of Limerick's greatest-ever players. Early and private l ...

as "The Mug" *

Fred Kelsey Frederick Alvin Kelsey (August 20, 1884 – September 2, 1961) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. Kelsey directed one- and two-reel films for Universal Film Manufacturing Company. He appeared in more than 400 films betw ...

as Detective Simpson * G. Raymond Nye as Cowles *

Evelyn Pierce Evelyn PeirceSometimes misspelled as Evelyn Pierce (February 5, 1907 – August 9, 1960) was an American film actress during the silent film era, and into the 1930s. Biography Peirce was born in Del Rio, Texas, and moved to Hollywood as a prof ...

as Bobbie *

Dorothy Vernon Dorothy Vernon (1544 – 24 June 1584), the younger daughter of Sir George Vernon and Margaret ''nee'' Talbois (or Tailboys), was the heiress of Haddon Hall, an English country house in Derbyshire with its origins in the 12th century. She marri ...

as Aunt Molly *

John Miljan John Miljan (November 9, 1892 – January 24, 1960) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1924 and 1958. Biography Born in 1892, Miljan was the tall, smooth-talking villain in Hollywood films for almost four deca ...

as bank teller

Premiere Vitaphone short subjects

''Tenderloin'' premiered at the Warners' Theatre in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on March 14, 1928.

Production

''Tenderloin'' was the second Vitaphone feature with talking sequences that Warner Bros. released, five months after ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music score as well as lip-synchronous singing and speech (in several isolate ...

''. The film contained 15 minutes of spoken dialog, and Warners promoted it as the first film in which actors actually spoke their roles. Reportedly, at the film's premiere, the feature was met with derisive laughter as a result of the film's stilted dialogue, resulting in two of the four talking sequences being eliminated during the first week of the film's premiere run. Critic Harriette Underhill wrote that the "screen talking devices give the characters a certain lisp, slightly detracts from the serious effect."(26 March 1928)
Cinema: The New Pictures
''Time''

Box Office

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $889,000 domestically and $96,000 foreign.

References

External links

* * * *
''Tenderloin'' Vitaphone soundtrack disk reel 1
at

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

{{Darryl F. Zanuck 1928 films Films directed by Michael Curtiz 1928 crime films American black-and-white films Lost American films Warner Bros. films Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck American crime films Transitional sound films 1928 lost films Lost crime films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films