La vie en rose

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.

When I purchased this movie, I expected it to be a dud, from all the bad press it has received. But it is actually very funny, entertaining, and charming. I especially liked Bea's character, and the motorcycle chase at the end was hilarious. I also thought that Charles Farrell did an excellent job his Cape Cod accent fits this character perfectly. It's great!

During a hot New York City Fourth of July, poor but bubbly Janet Gaynor (as Molly Carr) plots to meet wavy-haired millionaire Charles Farrell (as Jack Cromwell), then accompanies him to high-browed Southampton. Though recorded primitively, Ms. Gaynor and Mr. Farrell made beautiful box office music together in their first all-talking, part-singing motion picture. Several of the songs crowded themselves into Hit Parades, by several recording acts; "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" (#5), "Aren't We All" (#6), "Turn on the Heat" (#7), and "Sunny Side Up" (#9) led the pack.

Note, the film squeaks and creaks. Everyone seems to have been the victim of some high-pitched sound recording, though the studio may have wanted their stars to sound like juvenile tenors. Perhaps modern technology will some day restore everyone to some deeper tones. While sometimes tedious, this was all very new and original in 1929. The opening street sequence is excellent and a few of the songs are cute. Watch for Jackie Cooper as the boy who has to go to the bathroom. Gaynor and Farrell were a charming and popular pair, and even more so after "Sunnyside Up" was released.

****** Sunnyside Up (10/3/29) David Butler ~ Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Marjorie White, Ed Brendel

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.

This was the first talkie for Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, who starred in numerous romantic silent films together. Their chemistry is wonderful. This film was also one of the first film musicals. The supporting cast is terrific and there's a fun cameo by little Jackie Coogan who recites a poem (or at least starts to recite). The "Turn Up The Heat" dance sequence is a hoot. Very pre-code sensual with chorines writhing on the floor and palm trees complete with bananas shooting erectly up out of the floor (the movie theater audience howled) . Saw this film today at The Museum of Modern Art here in NYC as part of their "To Save and Project" series. The film has been beautifully restored and future generations will now be able to see this "classic" pristine print. Thank You MOMA.