Starring Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Marjorie White, and Frank Richardson
Directed by David Butler
Music and Lyrics by B.G DeSylva, Lew Brown, and Ray Henderson
Happy 4th, everyone! Let's jump back to Independence Day in New York 94 years ago, where tenements held massive block parties with dancing, music, recitations, and food from many countries, and the wealthy gathered in Long Island estates for for elaborate soirees with cocktails and elegant garden shows. This is a historic film in many respects. It was one of the first truly original film musicals that wasn't based on a previous stage show or a backstager that stuffed the songs between the story.
DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson worked on the songs and the book, assuring that the Cinderella story of a New York shop girl who falls for a playboy was unusually well-integrated for the time. How does it look now? Let's join the camera in roaming across the Manhattan tenement where Molly Carr (Gaynor) and her best friend Bea Nichols (White) live and find out...
The Story: Molly's latest crush is Jack Cromwell (Farrell), the handsome son of a wealthy Long Island family. She's been ogling his picture in the society pages, but the last thing she expects is for him to turn up in her apartment on the 4th of July. Jack got drunk at his parents' party when his fiancee Jane Worth (Sharon Lynn) preferred flirting to setting the wedding date, crashed his car, and stumbled into Molly's apartment.
He's so enchanted by her performance at the block party and her kindness to him afterwards, he encourages her, Bea, Bea's boyfriend Eddie (Richardson), and Eric Swenson (El Brendel), the owner of the grocery store on the bottom floor of their building, to come out to his Long Island mansion and perform at the big charity show his mother (Mary Forbes) is putting on. Jack dresses Molly in fine clothes and tells his mother she's a society lady and the others are her servants. He's hoping to make Jane jealous, but the last thing he expects is to fall for her. His ruse works too well when an angry Jane passes it around that Molly is a kept woman. Molly runs back to Manhattan, but Jack isn't going to let her go so easily...
The Song and Dance: If your only exposure to the early sound era is backstage fluff like The Broadway Melody or Al Jolson's soppy melodramas, have I got a treat for you. This utterly adorable romantic comedy remains delightful today, thanks to its two leads, a decent supporting cast, and how well the charming songs bolster the plot. Gaynor may sound like the Disney Snow White and sing like she's on helium, but she's utterly convincing as the naive shop girl who finds herself courted by a millionaire. White and Richardson have a terrific time as the supportive best pals, and even Brendel's Swedish hayseed gags are more tolerable than usual.
They're backed by a terrific production, especially for the early sound era. David Butler would make a career out of directing sweet fluff like this for everyone from Bob Hope to Doris Day. His unique opening depicts the residents of Molly's tenement and how they celebrate the 4th of July, roaming from room to room, giving us snippets of their daily lives. The cinematography is gorgeous for the early sound era and even includes some relatively complex outdoor shooting.
Favorite Number: Molly sings the sweetly simple ballad "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?" three times. The first and last time, she's at home, dreaming of Jack. The second performance is at the charity show, behind a curtain of spouting water, after she thinks she's lost him. This one is much slower and a lot more heartfelt. By contrast, Jane's big song is the jaunty "You'll Find the Time and I'll Find the Place" at the Long Island mansion, her admittance that she's willing to go along with whatever guy comes along. Bea and Frank twit each other in the goofy vaudeville dance routine "You've Got Me Pickin' Pedals off of Daisies" as they literally pick flower crowns. Molly leads the crowd at the block party into a big sing-along for title number
The charity show begins with the totally outrageous "Turn on the Heat." Lynn and the chorus girls begin in furs and igloos...but as the song continues and their wriggling grows wilder, palm trees sprout, the ladies shed their furs, and even the set burns up in the frenzy! It's campy, insane fun of the type Busby Berkeley would perfect in the 30's and early 40's. Gaynor and Farrell appear in the other big number, the hit "If I Had a Talking Picture of You." The song is cheerful and bouncy, but their childish voices don't do it justice, and they sound more like five-year-olds than adults courting each other. This isn't helped when actual kids toddle on dressed exactly like them and sing along. Farrell reprises this more effectively in the finale, when Molly sees him singing it and realizes the true depth of his feelings for her.
Trivia: This was one of the biggest hits of 1929 and inspired other studios to make their own non-backstage original musicals.
"Turn On the Heat" was originally filmed in Multicolor, but current prints are only in black and white.
Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell starred together in three previous silent melodramas, Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star. This would be their first sound film.
Look for a young Jackie Cooper as the little boy who tries to recite "The Village Smithy" during the block party while squirming to get to the bathroom.
What I Don't Like: First of all, Farrell doesn't work out quite as well as his co-star. They do have obvious chemistry (and were actually dating at the time), but his nasal voice and flat delivery belie his role as Long Island's most eligible Prince Charming, and his singing is worse than hers. Second, there are times when the early talkie stiffness does turn up, mostly in sequences when people are standing and talking, Also, keep in mind that this is a pre-Code movie. Some relatively racy moments include a sequence with a feminist giving birth control pamphlets to a mother surrounded by children and mild swearing.
The Big Finale: One of the best movies of its era, this is a sweetheart of a romantic comedy that deserves a place at your 4th of July get-together.
Home Media: At press time, this rarity can only be found on YouTube.
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