THE BROADWAY MELODY

The 1929/1930 Oscar-winning Best Picture is The Broadway Melody. It is not a great film, and barely a good one, but it is paced well enough that it is at least entertaining. Original for its time, the story is the now banal concept of a musical about the making of a musical. It is the first fully talking musical film made in the United States, though this is broken during numerous close-up shots that are inserted and noticeably devoid of any sound. These close-ups are a throwback to the more familiar silent films of the era and are jarring distractions scattered throughout the movie.

The plot is thinner than tinfoil. Two mediocre singing and dancing sisters (Hank and Queenie Mahoney) move to New York City to make it on Broadway. They are assisted by their Uncle Jed. He has an acute stuttering problem… because that’s good for a laugh in the 1920s. The girls are quickly cast in a Broadway show (solely because Queenie catches the eye of the producer, even though she is the less driven and talented of the two sisters). Queenie soon advances in the show and her sister Hank is jealous and disheartened. During all of this, Hank’s boyfriend Eddie develops feelings for Queenie. Meanwhile, there are lots of large musical numbers, even though whatever plot there is to the ‘musical within the musical’ remains completely unknown.

It is fun to observe as a film created before the implementation of the Hays Code, it includes three openly (though terribly stereotyped) gay male characters. They are a costume designer and a couple investing in the musical. This may seem uninteresting today, but keep in mind that any portrayal of openly homosexual characters was forbidden in film from 1934 until well into the 1970s.

If you are looking for a tight plot, good editing, and great acting… this film is not for you. In fact, the only actor worthy of mention is Bessie Love who played Hank Mahoney. She alone provides the one portrayal of depth for which the viewer can feel any sense of empathy. Without her, the movie really is more about providing the viewer of the era access to lots of sound and the spectacle of several Broadway musical numbers. For the average moviegoer of little means or privilege in 1929 or 1930, this film would no doubt have been marvelous. Not so much for someone viewing it in 2020.