Broadway (1929)

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Broadway (1929)

Director: Paul Fejos

Cast: Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Merna Kennedy, Thomas E Jackson, Robert Ellis, Otis Harlan, Paul Porcasi, Marion Lord, Fritz Field, Leslie Fenton, Arthur Housman

104 min

 

Broadway is a 1929 film directed by Paul Fejos from the play of the same name by George Abbott and Philip Dunning. It stars Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Paul Porcasi, Robert Ellis, Merna Kennedy and Thomas E. Jackson.^[1]

This was Universal’s first talking picture with Technicolor sequences. The film was released by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD with Paul Fejo’s Lonesome on August 2012.

Contents

• 1 – Plot
• 2 – Cast
• 3 – Production
• 4 – Preservation status
• 5 – See also
• 6 – References
• 7 – External links

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 isn’t 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

• Glenn Tryon as Roy Lane
• Evelyn Brent as Pearl
• Merna Kennedy as Billie Moore
• Thomas E. Jackson as Dan McCorn
• Robert Ellis as Steve Crandall
• Otis Harlan as ‘Porky’ Thompson
• Paul Porcasi as Nick Verdis
• Marion Lord as Lil Rice
• Fritz Feld as Mose Levett
• Leslie Fenton as ‘Scar’ Edwards
• Arthur Housman as Dolphin
• George Davis as Joe
• Betty Francisco as Mazie
• Edythe Flynn as Ruby
• Florence Dudley as Ann

Production

Director Fejos designed the camera crane specifically for use on this movie, allowing unusually fluid movement and access to nearly every conceivable angle. It could travel at 600 feet per minute and 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. In 2013, Broadway was restored by The Criterion Collection and released on DVD and Blu-ray.

See also

• List of early color feature films

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b “Broadway“. Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-11-24.

 

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Framed (1930)

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Framed (1930)

Director: George Archainbaud

Cast: Evelyn Brent, Regis Toomey, Ralf Harolde, William Holden, Maurice Black, Robert Emmet O’Connor, Eddie Kane

65 min

Framed is an 1930 American pre-Code crime action film, directed by George Archainbaud, based on a screenplay by Paul Schofield and Wallace Smith. It starred Evelyn Brent, William Holden (no relation to the Oscar-winning actor, William Holden), Regis Toomey and Ralf Harolde.

Contents

• 1 – Plot summary
• 2 – Cast
• 3 – References
• 4 – External links

Plot summary

When Rose Manning’s father is killed during a robbery by Inspector McArthur, Manning vows to avenge his death. Five years elapse, and Rose is now the owner of a nightclub, and her liquor supplier, the bootlegger Chuck Gaines is interested in her. Still plotting her revenge, she meets Jimmy McArthur, who she does not realize is the son of the inspector. Spurning Gaines’ advances, Rose becomes romantically involved with Jimmy. Her motivations waver as her emotional attachment to the young McArthur grows, until her relationship takes precedence over her revenge.

Chuck, jealous of the growing relationship between Rose and Jimmy, plots with his cohort, Bing Murdock, to murder both the inspector and his son. Uncovering the plan, Rose is attempting to warn Jimmy, when his father raids her club. In the ensuing chaos, Jimmy kills Gaines in order to protect Rose, after Gaines attacked her in a fit of jealous rage. When the inspector finally realizes that what Rose and Jimmy have is real affection for one another, he removes any objections over their relationship.

Cast

• Evelyn Brent – Rose Manning
• Regis Toomey – Jimmy McArthur
• Ralf Harolde – Chuck Gaines
• William Holden – Inspector ‘Butch’ McArthur
• Maurice Black – Bing Murdock
• Robert Emmett O’Connor – Sergeant Schultze
• Eddie Kane – Headwaiter
• Frank Mills – Waiter (uncredited)

References

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c “Framed: Detail View”. American Film Institute. Retrieved June 7, 2014.

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World Gone Mad, The (1933)

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

The World Gone Mad AKA The Public Be Hanged (1933)

Director: Christy Cabanne

Cast: Pat O’Brien, Evelyn Brent, Neil Hamilton, Mary Brian, Louis Calhern, J Carrol Naish, Buster Phelps, Richard Tucker, Edward Van Sloan

80 min

The World Gone Mad (also released as The Public Be Hanged) is a 1933 American Pre-Code crime film directed by Christy Cabanne and starring Pat O’Brien, Evelyn Brent and Neil Hamilton.^[1] It was made on a low-budget by the independent Majestic Pictures, a Poverty Row forerunner of Republic Pictures.^[2]

Contents

• 1 – Plot
• 2 – Cast
• 3 – References
• 4 – External links

Plot

When a district attorney who has been investigating a utility company’s directors for fraud is suddenly killed, his wisecracking newspaperman friend (Pat O’Brien) gets curious. He and the upstanding new district attorney (Neil Hamilton) separately pursue the case. Cultivated but sinister businessmen, a shady nightclub owner specializing in “import and export”, several beautiful young women always seen in evening gowns, a “Latin lover” type who reads Casanova and an abundance of suave men in evening dress provide eye-candy for the duration.

Cast

• Pat O’Brien as Andy Terrell
• Evelyn Brent as Carlotta Lamont
• Neil Hamilton as Lionel Houston
• Mary Brian as Diane Cromwell
• Louis Calhern as Christopher Bruno (as Louis Calhearn)
• J. Carrol Naish as Ramon Salvadore
• Buster Phelps as Ralph Henderson
• Richard Tucker as Graham Gaines
• John St. Polis as Grover Cromwell
• Geneva Mitchell as Evelyn Henderson
• Wallis Clark as Dist. Atty. Avery Henderson
• Huntley Gordon as Osborne

References

1. Jump up^ “The World Gone Mad”. NY Times. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
2. Jump up^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films:..The World Gone Mad

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Interference (1928)

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Interference (1928)

Director: Lothar Mendes (silent version), Roy Pomeroy ( sound version)

Cast: Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook, William Powell, Doris Kenyon, Brandon Hurst, Tom Ricketts, Louis Payne, Wilfred Noy, Donald Stuart, Raymond Lawrence, Clyde Cook

84 min

Interference is an early sound film drama released in 1928 and starring William Powell and Evelyn Brent.

This was Paramount Pictures‘ first ever full talking movie. It was also simultaneously filmed as a silent.

The film was based on the play Interference, a Play in Three Acts by Roland Pertwee and Howard Dearden. When a first husband turns out not to be dead, blackmail leads to murder.^[1]

Cast

• William Powell as Philip Voaze
• Evelyn Brent as Deborah Kane
• Clive Brook as Sir John Marlay
• Doris Kenyon as Faith Marlay
• Tom Ricketts as Charles Smith
• Brandon Hurst as Inspector Haynes
• Louis Payne as Childers
• Wilfred Noy as Dr. Gray
• Donald Stuart as Freddie
• Clyde Cook as Hearse Driver

References

1. Jump up^ Interference at silentera.com database (released in silent and sound versions)

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Paramount on Parade (1930)

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Paramount on Parade (1930)

Directors: Dorothy Arzner, Otto Brower, Edmund Goulding, Victor Heerman, Edwin H Knopf, Rowland V Lee, Ernst Lubitsch, Lothar Mendes, Victor Schertzinger, A Edward Sutherland, Frank Tuttle

Cast: Maurice Chevalier, Richard Arlen, Jean Arthur, William Austin, George Bancroft, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Mary Brian, Clive Brook, Nancy Carroll, Kay Francis, Richard Skeets Gallagher, Gary Cooper, Ruth Chatterton, Mitzi Green, Fredric March and many others

102 min

 

Paramount on Parade is a 1930 all-star American Pre-Code revue released by Paramount Pictures, directed by several directors including Edmund Goulding, Dorothy Arzner, Ernst Lubitsch, Rowland V. Lee, A. Edward Sutherland, Lothar Mendes, Otto Brower, Edwin H. Knopf, Frank Tuttle, and Victor Schertzinger—all supervised by the production supervisor, singer, actress, and songwriter Elsie Janis.

Featured stars included Jean Arthur, Richard Arlen, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Buddy Rogers, Jack Oakie, Helen Kane, Maurice Chevalier, Nancy Carroll, George Bancroft, Kay Francis, Richard “Skeets” Gallagher, Gary Cooper, Fay Wray, Lillian Roth and other Paramount stars. The screenplay was written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky, with cinematography by Victor Milner and Harry Fischbeck.

Contents

• 1 – Production
  • 1.1International versions
• 2 – Preservation status
• 3 – List of sequences
• 4 – Foreign-language versions
• 5 – See also
• 6 – References
• 7 – External links

Production

Paramount on Parade, released on April 22, 1930, was Paramount’s answer to all-star revues like Hollywood Revue of 1929 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Show of Shows from Warner Brothers, and King of Jazz from Universal Studios.^[1][2] The film had 20 individual segments—several of them in two-color Technicolor — directed by 11 directors, and almost every star on the Paramount roster except Claudette Colbert and the Marx Brothers. (Colbert became a star in May 1930 with the release of The Big Pond, also with Chevalier and also released in a French-language version.)

International versions

Paramount also produced a French-language version Paramount en Parade directed by Charles de Rochefort and a Romanian-language version Parada Paramount (Chevalier and Martini also starred in the French version, and Romanian actress Pola Illéry starred in the Romanian version. There was also a Dutch version, Paramount op Parade with Theo Frenkel. The Scandinavian version starred Ernst Rolf and his wife, Tutta Rolf.

Preservation status

Paramount on Parade featured in a 1930 advertisement for Technicolor

The film, including some of its Technicolor sequences, has been restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The original title sequence and chorus girl number immediately following it, however, are still lost. The sound for two of the Technicolor sequences (“Gallows Song” and “Dream Girl”) are also missing.

According to Robert Gitt, film archivist now retired from UCLA, in a lecture at Pacific Film Archive at UC Berkeley, the film was also released with sound-on-disc for those theaters not equipped for sound-on-film. The archive had a report of the soundtrack for this film still existing on disc until the 1994 Northridge earthquake destroyed a set of discs that a collector was planning to donate.

In August 2010, CapitolFest in Rome, New York showed a 102-minute version restored by UCLA Film and Television Archive. Some sequences are still missing the sound, for some sequences only the soundtrack exists.

List of sequences

• “Title Sequence” during Credits with Kay Francis and George Bancroft (lost footage; only sound survives)^[3]
• “Showgirls on Parade” with Mitzi Mayfair (lost Technicolor footage; only sound survives)^[3]
• “We’re the Masters of Ceremony” Jack Oakie, Richard “Skeets” Gallagher, and Leon Errol introduce themselves as MC‘s of the film

• “Love Time” Buddy Rogers and Lillian Roth
• “Murder Will Out” William Powell, Clive Brook, Warner Oland, Eugene Pallette, and Oakie
• “Origin of the Apache” Maurice Chevalier and Evelyn Brent do a parody of an Apache dance
• “Song of the Gondolier” Nino Martini sings “Come Back to Sorrento” (Technicolor; survives complete)
• “In a Hospital” Leon Errol, and David Newell
• “In a Girl’s Gym” Jack Oakie and Zelma O’Neal

• “The Toreador” Kay Francis and Harry Green (as Isadore the Toreador) parody Carmen (Technicolor; survives complete)
• “The Montmartre Girl” Ruth Chatterton, Stu Erwin, and Fredric March
• “Park in Paris” Maurice Chevalier
• “Mitzi Herself” Mitzi Green
• “The Schoolroom” Helen Kane, Mitzi Green. Kane sings “What Did Cleopatra Say?” to her class

• “The Gallows Song” Skeets Gallagher and Dennis King (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing, current prints use King’s commercial vocal recording of the song.)^[3]
• “Dance Mad” Nancy Carroll and Abe Lyman‘s Band
• “Dream Girl” Richard Arlen, Jean Arthur, Mary Brian, James Hall, Gary Cooper, and Fay Wray sing “Let Us Drink To The Girl Of My Dreams” (Technicolor footage survives; sound missing)^[3]
• “The Redhead” Clara Bow, and 42 Navy men sing “True to the Navy”
• “Impulses” George Bancroft, Kay Francis, and Cecil Cunningham
• “Rainbow Revels” finale Chevalier and girls’ chorus (including Iris Adrian and Virginia Bruce) sing “Sweeping the Clouds Away” (in Technicolor; survives only in black-and-white)^[3]

Foreign-language versions

A large number of foreign-language versions were shot including:

• Galas de la Paramount (Spanish) premiered in Buenos Aires 28 August 1930 and in Los Angeles 7 September 1930; with Ramón Pereda, Barry Norton, Rosita Moreno
• Paramount en parade (French) with Maurice Chevalier, Nino Martini, Saint-Granier, Marguerite Moreno, Louis-Jacques Boucot, Fanny Clair, and Charles de Rochefort (Rochefort also directed)

• Parada Paramount (Romanian) with Pola Illéry; directed by Rochefort
• Paramount op Parade (Dutch) with Theo Frenkel Jr., Mien Duymaer van Twist, and Louis Davids; directed by Job Weening

At Paramount’s Hollywood studio, Ernst Rolf and his Norwegian wife, Tutta Rolf, filmed introductions and sequences for the Scandinavian version. Japanese comedian Suisei Matsui introduced the film in Japan. Mira Zimińska and Mariusz Maszynski appeared in the Polish version, and Dina Gralla and Eugen Rex appeared in the German version. Paramount filmed most of the above versions, along with Czech, Hungarian, Serbian, and Italian versions, at their Joinville Studios in Paris.

See also

• List of early color feature films
• Multiple-language version
• The House That Shadows Built (1931 promotional film released by Paramount)

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ “Paramount on Parade”. IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
2. Jump up^ “Paramount on Parade (1930) – Overview”. TCM.com. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
3. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e} Lynn Kear; James King (2009-07-31). Evelyn Brent: The Life and Films of Hollywood’s Lady Crook. Books.google.com.pe. p. 188. Retrieved 2016-02-06.

 

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