Broadway (1929 film)

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]

Broadway
Roy (Glenn Tryon) questions Billie (Merna Kennedy) about the bracelet she is wearing in Broadway
Directed byPaul Fejos
Produced byCarl Laemmle Jr.
Screenplay by
Based onBroadway
by Jed Harris, Philip Dunning and George Abbott
Starring
Music byHoward Jackson (uncredited)
CinematographyHal Mohr
Edited by
  • Edward Cahn
  • Robert Carlisle
Distributed byUniversal Studios
Release date
  • May 27, 1929 (1929-05-27) (New York)[1]
Running time
106.5 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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

Plot
The Paradise Night Club dressing room in Broadway

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
Paul Porcasi reprised his stage role as nightclub operator Nick Verdis in the motion picture version of Broadway

Production

Director Fejos designed the camera crane specifically for use on this film, allowing unusually fluid movement and access to nearly every conceivable angle. It could travel at 600 ft (180 m) per minute. It 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.

Home media

In 2012, the sound version of Broadway was reconstructed by The Criterion Collection and included as an extra feature on the DVD and Blu-ray release of Paul Fejos' 1928 film, Lonesome.[2]

See also

References
  1. "Broadway". Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  2. "Lonesome". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
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