Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

gavin6942 A pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit try to make it big time on Broadway, but matters of the heart complicate the attempt.This was the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Now, maybe it got that award because sound was new and you have people singing and dancing... but wow, this film has not held up over the last 80 years. The plot is weak, the actors not notable and the songs just not very good at all.Is this the worst Best Picture winner ever? Probably not, but it has to be in the running, probably in the top five (or bottom five). For what it's worth, though, no films in 1929 are all that memorable today... maybe Ernst Lubitsch's "Patriot", but even that's a stretch and far from his best work.

sinel-47034 This show, a good little musical, probably would not win the Academy Award even a year later than it did. The novelty of producing a movie musical—two words not yet put together very often—must have enhanced its limited value.You *know* "Broadway Melody" is a sound picture in the first few minutes. Singing women and several musical bands all practicing in the opening sequence must have been a thrill for the cinematic audiences still infatuated with the "novelty" of sound.I should admit that I don't care for musicals, even movie musicals, but this one isn't bad. It's a cross between two later pictures—"A Chorus Line" and "A League of Their Own". It especially resembles A League of Their Own, with the taller sister doing well while barely trying and the struggling but more enthusiastic shorter sister.

LeonLouisRicci Putting out the obvious Caveat...This one, to be Fair, must be seen Alongside the other Movies of 1929. After doing so, one can Appreciate its Value as the Film is Accomplished and the Cringe Inducements are Minimal.It's Sleek and Deco Decorated, contains a great Number of Ziegfeld type Beauties in Various Forms of Undress, Dressed Up in Outlandish Glittering Costumes. There are other Pre-Code Eye-Poppers at the Apartments and Backstage.The Dialog is Snappy and the Drama Restrains from reaching Melodrama. The Two Lead Actresses/Singers/Dancers (Anita Page and Bessie Love) are Charming and Peppy and show some Unexpected Acting Chops. The Men in this Musical/Drama/Comedy don't fare as well and the Clicks of the Clock have Not Been Kind to Their Kind.Overall, a Winner at the Box Office and at the Academy. The First Sound Best Picture and, Oh Yea, all of those MGM Musicals, This was #1. a First Edition, and First Editions are always Valuable even if they don't have any Other Qualities Other than Being First.This one does have other Qualities, Including Good Leading Ladies, some Catchy and Classic Songs, and an overall Presentation of a New Art Form done in a more than Acceptable Production Combination that is Old and New at the Same Time.Worth a Watch for Film Historians, Fans of Movie Musicals, and as a Time Capsule that was Straddling the Line between the Silents and Sound, and the Roaring Twenties and the Devastating Financial Collapse that Resulted in the Depression. All in that Volatile Year of 1929.

evanston_dad "The Broadway Melody" is nearly impossible to review now, because it feels like every comment should be qualified by reminding everyone that this was one of the first all-sound pictures to come out of Hollywood. As a result, it's a hopelessly clunky, pretty dull movie, but it was likely a sensation at the time, garnering the second Academy Award for Best Picture in that institution's history.We've seen the plot a thousand times, but only because it was in this movie first. Two sisters head to New York to make it on the Great White Way -- one is hypnotized by the glamour and immorality of show biz while the other sits dutifully by and tries to keep her sister on the straight and narrow. Bessie Love and Anita Page play the sisters, and while Page's performance is a disaster, Love's is quite good, and could stand on its own even without the qualification that it was one of the first sound performances committed to celluloid. People at the time obviously thought she was pretty good too, because she received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her performance.It's clear that the technicians didn't have a clue what to do with the new medium. Director Harry Beaumont (who was inexplicably a nominee in that year's Oscar race for best director) throws up his hands and simply plants his camera in the middle of the set for every scene, not even moving it to track an actor across the room. The result is disconcerting, as there are times when the actors are bundled over into the corner of the frame while a big empty set dominates the rest -- it's not unlike watching a widescreen movie in a badly done pan and scan version.The acting and I suppose even directing could be forgiven because of the newness of the technology, but I don't know why the damn film couldn't have been better edited, or why the dance numbers couldn't have been better rehearsed (at one point, you actually see one of the dancers almost fall over). You don't need sound to pull off a choreographed dance number on screen.Absolutely the only enjoyment I received in watching this film came from its historical significance, and from seeing the original that would spawn an entire genre of "putting on a show" musical spectacles -- "The Broadway Melody" is the kind of movie that other movies like "Singin' in the Rain" are spoofing.A lover of cinema and cinema history will probably want to see this for some of the same reasons I did, but I can't promise he/she will enjoy it much, not to mention everybody else.Grade: D