The Broadway Melody

Name: The Broadway Melody
Released: 1929-02-08T00:00:00.000000Z
Rating: 5.2

All talking. All singing. All dancing.

1929 • 101 min • ★ 5.2 (170) • Released

Drama Music Romance

The vaudeville act of Harriet and Queenie Mahoney comes to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs them for his number in one of Francis Zanfield's shows. When Eddie meets Queenie, he soon falls in love with her—but she is already being courted by Jock Warriner, a member of New York high society. Queenie eventually recognizes that, to Jock, she is nothing more than a toy, and that Eddie is in love with her.

IMDb ↗

Original title: The Broadway Melody
Language: EN
Country: US
Budget: $379,000
Revenue: $4,358,000

Reviews & Ratings 1

CinemaSerf

Jul 27, 2025 · via TMDB

★ 6.0

“Eddie” (Charles King) invites his girlfriend “Hank” (Bessie Love) and her sister “Queenie” (Anita Page) to join a show being staged by legendary producer “Zanfeld” (Eddie Kane) on Broadway. That’s about as simple as the plot gets because quite swiftly he switches his allegiance to the other sister but she’s a decent sort of gal and tries to return the attentions of socialite “Jock” (Kenneth Thomson). Those attentions are really only skin deep, though, and as we watch we all too readily realise where the real love story lies. Whilst all of this melodrama is playing out, director Harry Beaumont makes best use of his theatrical setting to intersperse this game of who is dating who with some quite well choreographed and scored song and dance routines in the best traditions of (sometimes quite risqué vaudeville. It’s an early talkie and it looks it. None of the cast look particularly comfortable with their lines, but they do look much more natural when the gals are on the stage or frenetically lurching from heartbreak to lovestruck - usually very loudly, backstage too! Love is a class act and she certainly steals the show here but that’s maybe it’s problem. It is a film about a show, whereas it might have been better had it just been a show, and cut out the romancing elements that do create their own suds just once too often. It is a lively enterprise, though, and looks as if those behind the camera knew just how to show how manic, haphazard and hectic life behind the curtain could be, and that’s without any love triangles! It hasn’t really stood the test of time, but I do wonder how many films made now will still have any entertainment value in a century?

User reviews courtesy of TMDB.

Keywords 24

black and white broadway broadway show chorus girl dance act dancing dancing girls dressing room love triangle musical new york city partially lost film pre-code show business show girls singer singing sister sister relationship sisterhood sisters love tap dancing undressing vaudeville vaudeville company

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