Weary River

Weary River (1929), restored by UCLA and TCM, is a great chance to see two silent screen stars Richard Barthelmess and Betty Compson step into the talkie era together, warming your heart as they do so. Their characters are so obviously head over heels crazy about one another that you can't help but be endeared to them and their story.

Sure, we've seen prison films like this before, but there is still such a sweetness to this one because of the caliber of stars involved. Other silent stars like the first William Holden, who was a character actor of the era, and Gladden James, who got his start in silents in the 1910's, show up too and we get to hear their voices for the first time. Part silent - part talkie makes for an odd mix in most of these early sound films, but the very nice Vitaphone soundtrack helps to smooth over any rough spots.

I really loved the picture but then I'm very sentimental about these particular stars so please bear with me while I give this wonderful relic a 10 out of 10.

And my guess is that Richard Barthelmess is NOT singing here. The lip synching is off, and besides it doesn't sound like his voice at all. I wonder who the real singer was?

I've since researched the film on the TCM website and found the singer dubbing for Mr. Barthelmess was Johnny Murray.

Singing gangster Richard Barthelmess (as Jerry Larrabee) is sent "up the river" after an innocent bystander is killed in one of his orchestrated shoot 'em ups. In prison, Mr. Barthelmess (#46039) has more time for singing and less time for racketeering. He becomes a hit in the big house and decides to go straight on the outside. But, after serving his time, Barthelmess receives a rocky reception. While a wonderful singer, he's derided as an ex-con. Through it all, Barthelmess is encouraged by beautiful blonde Betty Compson (as Alice Gray). She and warden William Holden would like Barthelmess to keep trying, but he is tempted by his criminal past...

"Weary River" is a part-talking, part-silent film. It begins as a silent, with oddly primitive background music (for 1929), and turns "talkie" early in the running time. You're thinking it will remain there, but the silent style occasionally returns. Perhaps the soundtrack on these scenes was inferior and re-takes unsatisfactory. While mostly a sound film, the spirit is silent; this may be why the technology appears superior to many other early talkies. The possibly better all-silent version should be restored, if possible...

Then a very big star, Barthelmess maintained his standing during the transition from silent to sound. His voice was fine, but Barthelmess is obviously better in the older style. Barthelmess also mouths his songs for a vocal double. Taken from this film, the song "Weary River" was a big hit for the popular new singer Rudy Vallee. Randolph Scott and Sally Eilers are extras and elevator "boy" Raymond Turner looks frightened. Director Frank Lloyd's artful prison sequences require no dialogue, and photographer Ernie Haller is an obvious asset. Their assistant Alvin Knechtel was killed in a plane crash, sadly, on the verge of a promising career.

***** Weary River (2/10/29) Frank Lloyd ~ Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson, William Holden, Louis Natheaux

Turner Classic Movies presented "Weary River" in March of 2003 as part of its month of Oscar. I found it intriguing, even enjoyable. Partly because it was half-silent and half-sound, I was intrigued, since I have a deep and abiding interest in the earliest films. I enjoyed it for that reason, and because the story itself was, at the very least, pleasant, if not totally believable and realistic. Betty Compson, who played Alice, had a remarkably cute way of speaking, and whenever she called to her lover Jerry, played by Richard Barthelmess, she pronounced it "Jer-wy," which I found endearing. Great cinema? Perhaps not, but one I would like to see again, if only to prove to myself whether Barthelmess did his own singing. And to watch and hear the adorable Betty Compson.

The years 1928 to 1930 were perhaps the crappiest couple of years in movie history. This is the period during which films transitioned from silent to sound and the learning curve was steep for most. "Weary River" is one of the better transitional films, as it actually feels like a movie and not a sound stage-bound play.

This film is actually part silent and part sound, though the ratio is about 80/20 talking to silent. Richard Barthelmess and Betty Compson prove themselves to be decent talking actors, though neither went on to have substantial careers in the new medium. The material they're given is still of the melodramatic silent movie kind, so they can only do so much with it. But the film bucks some of the trends that make other early talkies such bores. For one, the camera actually moves, whereas most early talkies find the actors standing in one spot with a stationary camera planted squarely in the middle of the frame. Also, this film has nearly constant underscoring like a silent film would have, which reduces the amount of dead air that plagues many early sound films and causes them to have such stilted pacing. The silent/sound hybrid is weird to watch -- there's no narrative reason for some parts to have titles while others are spoken -- but it's like the fact that this film couldn't quite commit to being a complete talkie made it a better sound film than it would otherwise have been.

The title of the film comes from a song that Barthelmess's ex-con character makes famous and that launches his reformed life as a radio singer, a song which I hope you like because Barthelmess warbles it in its entirety for what feels like a dozen times.

"Weary River" was one of three films that brought Frank Lloyd a Best Director Oscar nomination in the 1928-29 award year, the other two being "The Divine Lady" and "Drag." This was a weird year for Oscar. Technically, there weren't any nominations; at the awards ceremony, only winners were announced in each category. I'm not sure how people knew to show up for the ceremony if they weren't officially nominated, but that's something to figure out some other day I guess. But historical documents have since suggested what films were being considered in each category, and "Weary River" was included in Best Director. Frank Lloyd did win, but he won only for "The Divine Lady," as it seems that, though an artist could be nominated for multiple films, the voters were able to show preference for what film actually went with the award.

A bit of trivia -- Lloyd was only the second and last person to win a Best Director Oscar for a film not also nominated for Best Picture (Lewis Milestone was the first, for "Two Arabian Knights" from the previous year, though the first Oscar ceremony included two Best Director awards, one for dramatic films and one for comedies, so it's no an exact comparison).

Grade: B-

I am a fan of early talkies.I have seen many but none quite like this.The first reel is silent,the second sound,the third starts off silent then 3 minutes in sound comes in.For the rest of the film,silent and sound constantly interchange.Was this supposed to be an experiment.Was it started as a silent picture.Were they short of sound apparatus some of the time?Why didn't they just make one sound and one silent version?We shall never know.I actuallybfound it quite entertaining even if I got fed up listening to Weary River.