Broadway

If you take away director Paul Fejos's flashy crane shots and stunning opening sequence set to the music of Ferde Grofe's "Metropolis," there isn't much left to "Broadway," an otherwise static transfer of a stage play to the screen in the early talking era. The quality of the sound is superior to most talkies made in 1929 and the camera set ups and actor blocking are slightly less moribund, but there are still too many long sequences of posed bodies mouthing dull dialogue. Glenn Tryon, the appealing vaudevillian from Fejos's "Lonesome" the year before, is fine as the hoofer who dreams of getting out of Club Paradise and hitting it big. And Evelyn Brent, in what amounts to a supporting role, dominates the screen with her smoldering presence whenever she appears. Problem is, in order to make this routine play about backstage intrigue involving showgirls and bootleggers interesting as cinema, Fejos chose to make liberal use of innovative, ambitious crane shots, requiring an inflation of the nightclub setting to such gargantuan proportions that the main character's ambitions seem questionable; isn't he already headlining in the biggest show place on earth outside a football field? Rather than a small-time venue, we get something more like a surrealist-cubist airplane hangar and it soon becomes clear that the movie is simply an excuse for Fejos to experiment with a new toy. The sweeping camera draws attention to itself, whereas the liberal use of superimpositions in "Lonesome" a year earlier revealed truths about modern mechanized drudgery and the nature of urban crowds. Most of the songs by Con Conrad, Sidney D. Mitchell and Archie Gottler are cut off before they can get much beyond their introductions, their purpose reduced to another means of showing off the gigantic stage set. At well over 90 minutes, "Broadway" outstays its welcome. The much-touted finale, synced to a reprise of the film's best song, "Hittin' the Ceiling," looks like a jerkily animated third-generation color photocopy.

After 75 years considered lost, "Broadway" directed by Herr Paul Fejos was found in Hungary, in a very well preserved copy with Hungarian titles but that European language is not a problem for this German Count because he remembers very well those Austro-Hungarian old times. This remarkable discovery gives silent fans the chance to watch the virtuosity of camera work of a director not very well known. His obscurity is a complete disgrace because Herr Fejos'surviving silents are absolutely fascinating.

"Broadway" tells the story of underworld criminals who run the "Paradise Club". In between musical numbers we have crimes and intrigues involving showgirls and special investigators. Passion, strange business and love affairs are all part of the mix too."Broadway" shows characters caught up in dual roles and the turmoil in which feelings come out into the open, the sort of conflicts that Herr Fejos was so fond of.

The most remarkable aspect of this film is the extraordinary camera work, especially Herr Fejos' use of an enormous and amazing camera crane which he himself designed and which scrutinizes every corner of the "Paradise Club", giving a frenzied rhythm to the film with those incredible camera movements. It also highlights with many details and angles, the beautiful and astounding sets that are the backgrounds for the fuss, happy and dangerous night life in the Broadway streets. The second notable aspect of this modern silent film is that it was made before the superb "Lonesome" (1929) and, like that film, it is part of the transition period between silent films and talkies. "Broadway" was an early musical available in both formats, silent and talkie and what's more, the silent version found in Hungary is a complete copy that includes at the end of the film "Technicolor" footage ( faded after so many years ) of the final musical scene number and this so startled this German Count that his monocle popped out from his aristocratic eyes more than once.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must leave vaudeville behind and attend the opera.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

This musical was directed by Paul Fejos at Universal Studios in 1929. There were so many musical films made in 1929 with the title "Broadway" in them, thus you might ask - why is this one unique? For one its director was a Hungarian bacteriologist by trade who dabbled in film and is famous in particular for two late 20's films - 1928's "Lonesome" and this film, "Broadway". Fejos made a crane the actual star of the picture. It was a custom built contraption that allowed the camera to sweep about the nightclub in which most of the movie was set. Most early sound films were very static by necessity, and Fejos wanted his musical to have some of the fluid motion of the late silent era restored. However, during these sweeping scenes, Fejos had to use silent film and then dub over it with recorded sound. This gives these parts of the film a surreal and disembodied quality.

The film is like "Faust" meets "Lights of New York" in that the film opens with a metallic-painted giant stalking about Broadway at night, filling his glass with ale, and gesturing for the residents of Broadway to join him in his debauchery. The film then moves to a nightclub where the story is largely unremarkable. It's basically just another gangster film set in a nightclub punctuated with two-strip Technicolor musical numbers. "Hitting the Ceiling" is the best and most remembered of these moments. My main complaint about this film is that Evelyn Brent looks so bored during most of it. She could and did turn in good performances in the early talkie era, so I'm not sure why with all of the intrigue that is lurking about the Paradise Club her reaction seems to be that it's just in a day's work.

The film was shot both silent and in sound, and has never been on VHS or DVD. The silent version I saw had Technicolor, and the sound version I saw was in black and white. I don't think that a talking version with color still exists. Some people have attempted to dub the speech of the talkie version into the silent version to get the maximum effect of the music and the color, but what I've seen hasn't worked too well. The film's director, Paul Fejos, decided to leave the film industry shortly after "Broadway" was complete due to his dislike of the people running Universal. Instead he embarked on a career in anthropology, where he became a leader in his field. An unusual end to the film career of a man who made very unusual films.

Crane shots, where a camera is positioned on the end of a long sturdy pole called a jib, is as ubiquitous in sporting events, concerts, award shows and in movies as seagulls at the beach. D. W. Griffith gets credit for having the first crane shot in cinema in 1916's "Intolerance." But that was a camera sitting on an elevated moving platform on rails.

The first use of a crane for filming was May 1929's "Broadway." The combination musical and gangster film, based on the 1926 play of the same name, "Broadway," was one of the first Hollywood films to center its plot around a backstage drama involving a murder. Paul Fejos, who the previous year directed "Lonesome," was selected to handle Universal Pictures first all-talkie musical. The studio executives felt so highly of Fejos' talents they budgeted an astronomical $1 million towards "Broadway's" production.

Much of the expenses went to construct a huge nightclub set as well as a large 50-foot crane to support the camera bolted to its top end. The entire system, costing between $50,000 and $75,000, carried a heavy camera and was mounted onto an iron cart on wheels. The crane, used both inside and outside, gave Fejos the freedom to film elevated shots from the stage to the ceiling of the specially-constructed Paradise Club. Working alongside cinematographer Hal Mohr, cameraman for the 1927 "The Jazz Singer," Fejos maneuvered the apparatus throughout the nightclub set. Cinema had never quite seen such a soaring series of shots like Mohr's. This helped to capture a breathtaking dance number at the conclusion, which was filmed in two-strip Technicolor. After "Broadway's" production finished, the crane remained with Universal long after Fejos left, where it was put to good use.

"Broadway" opens up with a whirlwind of images, sending viewers' eyeballs bouncing all over the place. Universal built a small-scale model of New York City's mid-town centered around Broadway's theater district. A smaller camera crane whips around the miniature skyline before a double exposure of a very fit Green Giant-type of model appears. Once inside the Paradise, the camera continues to dollie throughout the corridors and stage area, transporting the audience inside the nightclub, a la Martin Scorsese's 1990 "Goodfellas." Fejos plants his camera inside the sound-proof container only when the movie's plot begins to unfold. Once inside, "Broadway" zooms in on choreographer Roy Lane (Glenn Tryon of "Lonesome" fame) and his dancer girlfriend, Billie Moore (Merna Kennedy), both whom try to avoid the criminal element of the nightclub's owner and his associates. Merna Kennedy had earlier played opposite Charlie Chaplin in 1928's "The Circus" and ironically, later married the choreographer of a number of early film musicals, Busby Berkeley.

Even though "Broadway" received decent returns, both Universal and Fejos were disappointed by the receipts. Once he wasn't named as director for Universal's upcoming 1930 "All's Quiet on the Western Front," Fejos left the studio to pursue other opportunities in film and followed his passion as an anthropologist. But his imprint on the dazzling crane shot in cinema would forever be imprinted in movies as one of the more reliable sweeping motion shots on the screen.

"Broadway" is a very unusual film. While it is a very early talky and is dated in some ways, in others it's amazingly advanced...especially with the truly spectacular camera-work. For the artistry alone, it's well worth seeing!

The opening credits are shocking and very interesting...and you know you're in for a special film. Using a model of Broadway, a man dressed up like a demon roams the streets and the titles then appear over it! For a model scene, it was very, very well done. Also well done are scenes using cranes, amazing dissolves and a roving camera- - something rarely seen even in films of the 30s! Also amazing are the costumes....especially the one with the skyscraper hats!

As for the story, a mobster named Crandall owns the theater in which the film is set. He's involved in bootlegging and early on in the picture, he murders his competition. As he and his sidekick are dragging the body outside, Billie and Roy see them...and are told the guy was drunk and they are 'helping him'. This story is unquestioned...but when Scar is found dead nearby, Roy realizes what has happened. As for Billie, she obviously has feelings for Crandall, and he's been heaping his attention on her, and she lies for the guy when asked about this later. So what's going to become of Billie and Roy? And, what of the murder? Will it go unpunished?

This film is unusual because although you see lots of costumes and dancers, it's not a musical until the very end--which is, incidentally, in Two-color Technicolor...and it's very degraded (looking mostly black and orangy-red). The copy I saw on YouTube sure could stand restoration.

As far as the overall film goes, it was BRILLIANT for 1929....and still holds up pretty well today.