La vie en rose

This is the first sound picture for the popular silent romantic team Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell and the result is a split decision. Gaynor is no Ruth Etting but she does have a sweet appeal that allows her to triumph with Betty Boop cutesy and a pedestrian falsetto. Farrell? Well they do make a good looking couple.

Molly (Gaynor) and Bea (Marjorie White) live a meager but merry existence above a market in congested lower Manhattan. Out on the far reaches of Long Island in the Hamptons poor little rich boy Jack Cromwell broods over his flirtatious intended. At a party for well heeled swells he gets drunk and goes slumming and crashes his car in Molly's neighborhood. To get his fiancé jealous he moves Molly and her pals into a mansion next door. Secretly in love Jack, Molly reluctantly goes along with the ruse.

For an early sound work Sunnyside Up does a fine job of capturing large as well as small action with decent clarity. There's an excellently tracked and recorded scene establishing the lower east side melting pot and Gaynor's warbling of "I'm a Dreamer" live is an early highlight of the technology.

While Gaynor has a passable voice Farrell is reduced to being arm candy leaving the funny moments to Elf Brendel and Marjorie White's ball of energy Bea. The plot is improbable like most musicals but it's worth putting up with to hear a rendition or two of Sunnyside Up and If I Had a Talking Picture of You.

Sunnyside Up lays claim to the fact that it is the first original musical for the screen. It might very well be and if so deserves no small credit to the score that the Broadway team of DeSylva,Brown&Henderson wrote for it.

It also was the talking debut of the Fox screen team of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor. They do sound a bit arch for today's taste, but at this time nearly everyone on the screen sounded that way. There singing voices are pleasant, but nothing else. But the screen chemistry is unmistakable.

The plot is typical for a stage musical at the time involving a poor girl falling for a rich boy. Farrell is the society kid who almost runs down a kid in Gaynor's neighborhood in the city. She takes him and he gets the bright idea to bring her out to Southampton to make his prospective fiancé Sharon Lynn jealous. But it all works too well as Gaynor goes for Farrell big time.

The thin plot is just an excuse to hang several musical numbers at the society party in the Hamptons and at a block party in the city which was the case for stage films. As Sunnyside Up was written directly for the screen, they didn't have to rewrite it to disguise any stage origins. Although Gaynor and to a lesser degree Farrell do their numbers most of the singing and dancing is taken up by Sharon Lynn and friends of Gaynor, Marjorie White and Frank Richardson.

The two best known songs I'm A Dreamer Aren't We All and If I Had A Talking Picture Of You were a couple early records that Bing Crosby did with the Paul Whiteman band. They are probably the best known recordings from this score.

Sunnyside Up still retains a lot of the charm it had even if its overacted for today's audience taste.

This is a unique film in the history of musicals. Neither of the leads can sing; most of the dancing, whether by the stars or chorus girls, is rudimentary at best; the story is a familiar litany of 1920's stage cliches, and was dated almost immediately. Yet, it is utterly charming and effective. Part of this has to do with the appealing cast (particularly Janet Gaynor), but most of the credit goes to songwriter/producers DeSylva Brown & Henderson, and director David Butler. The music is integrated into the story in a dramatically sophisticated and cinematically daring way. The production number "Turn On the Heat" is, conceptually, a model for what Busby Berkeley would do in the 1930's.

If your only exposure to early musicals is that award-winning dud "The Broadway Melody", check out "Sunny Side Up" (or, for that matter, "The Love Parade"). You'll be pleasantly surprised.

This movie is so entertaining. Janet Gaynor is sweet but doesn't make you sick. She does some great dancing, funny thing is she does some moves you would see Fred Astaire do but he wasn't even in the movies when this movie came out, so I guess it's true when they say nothing is really new, someone has done it before. I didn't even know Janet could dance and sing. I can see why she was considered America's sweetheart and the personification of an young American girl, many felt she was a positive role model and introduce a new image unlike wild Clara Bow. Marjorie White, she has yet to disappoint me in any performance she gives. She steals just about every scene she's in but the whole cast holds their own. Marjorie was a great comedienne and so pretty. She was the first musical comedy star in my eyes. I wish more spotlight is put on her and her films. She's as better or up there with Carole Lombard, Patsy Kelly, Lucille Ball, and Thelma Todd. Marjorie is a natural. She died young and tragically in 1935. This is a nice little movie, Hollywood don't do movies like these anymore, innocent but not saint and it's so entertaining and charming. Like the other reviewer I thought it be a dud to. Just about all the stars of the movie sing and dance to sweet songs. Sharon Lynn sings a sweet song. Frank Richardson is a riot. Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor were the top screen couple in the early 1930's. Farrell couldn't seem to get out of that shadow. Movie fans always wanted to see them together, it was a hard for either to break and do other things. This is a nice movie to enjoy with your family, it's a change from what we see on TV today. Oh another thing to point out is I think Marjorie White was the first to say a curse word in a major movie. She said "hell" It's not really bad but it had my jaw drop because I never heard any stars say that in early movies, its such an innocent time, of course I wouldn't be shock by it today, people use worser words then that but it was funny and cute coming from cutie pie Marjorie White.

Did Busby Berkeley view this film before making THE GANG'S ALL HERE (also at Fox)? The "water curtain" effect is exactly the same...the production number is also set on a Long Island estate...the heroine sings a sad solo number to the audience at the benefit...there are big inflated bananas. It's hard to imagine this wasn't at least an inspiration for his big Technicolor triumph.

SUNNY SIDE UP defies all the expectations you have of early sound musicals...it's lively, well acted, funny and--get this--beautifully photographed. If you have only been exposed to pioneering musicals like THE Broadway MELODY, THE SINGING FOOL, and SHOW OF SHOWS, this will feel like it arrived from Mars. Time has been kind to Janet Gaynor, who had a marvelous range (see her in Murnau's SUNRISE) and was almost devoid of the usual affectations and Talkie mannerisms. She gives a beguiling performance here. And as an added bonus: one of the most insane of all pre-Code musical numbers.

The great reviews don't lie. See this!