Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935); 7+

Bob Gordon is staging a new Broadway Show, but he is short of money. He gets an offer of money by the young widow Lilian...
(101 mins.) Released 1935-08-25
Director: Roy Del Ruth
Stars: Jack Benny, Eleanor Powell, Robert Taylor, Una Merkel
Dave Gould ... dance numbers created and staged by; Oscar winner, see below
Albertina Rasch ... stager: "Lucky Star" ballet

musical, romance

originally posted 28 Oct 2017 03:22

All Freed/Brown songs, all the time; most have been used before, and most will be in Singin' in the Rain (1952). Francis Langford again (good!), looking a lot like Harriet Hilliard (m. Nelson). June Knight sings well, and dances well too (hair and eyebrows); strange that she can perform that well, but has to finance the show to get attention. Nick Long, Jr. can kick high with his right leg, and dances well.

Full-blown Eleanor Powell numbers here; she is the Star of the film and she taps and dances ballet and backbends a bit. Buddy Ebsen and sister Vilma dance more comedically, since he is very gangly. Jack Benny as a gossip reporter on the Broadway beat with assistant Sid Silvers; Robert Taylor as a successful Broadway producer with assistant Una Merkel.

Dave Gould won the Oscar for Best Dance Direction for "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling" here, and for "Straw Hat" in Follies Bergere de Paris. Other nominees.

The ratio of dance and music to plot is very good. MGM has finally learned how to make a dancing musical, only 6 years after the first talkie Best Picture Academy Award for the namesake of this one, and 4 years before Arthur Freed produces. The production numbers are lavish, and the trick furniture and statuary is riveting. They also experiment with trick photography. They do a poor job matching contrast levels with the rear projection (as is the norm for now), but the split screen work is very nice: people walk through a center line to change costume, reversing black and white. Their attempt at a BB overhead shot is horrible: they keep the camera moving and the picture shakes like the cherry-picker is going to shatter.

The song Broadway Rhythm debuts here. 

MGM, dir. Del Ruth (& Van Dyke); 7+

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