Best Picture Winners: 1929 - 1930

The Broadway Melody (1929)

Frequently cited at the first all-talking movie musical, The Broadway Melody is historically significant, and it is that reason (and perhaps that reason alone) that makes its win as the Best Picture of 1928/1929 comprehensible. Studios were still experimenting with sound, and perhaps it was sufficient for viewers that just hearing actual dialogue or experiencing “real” musical numbers was enough to overlook a very conventional, predictable story. Today, The Broadway Melody is hopelessly dated and, but for the most diehard musical fan, sometimes difficult to sit through.Sisters Hank (Bessie Love) and Queenie (Anita Page) Mahoney come to New York so Hank’s childhood sweetheart and Fiancée, Eddie Kearns (Charles King), can give them a job in his latest Broadway-bound show. But once Eddie takes one gander at the grown-up Queenie, the futures of Eddie and Hank and the Mahoney Sisters are no longer set in stone.The highlights of the film are the obvious ones: the song and dance numbers. The film gets off to a good start as Eddie is seen composing his enjoyable new song, “The Broadway Melody.” The highlight is the elaborately staged "Wedding of the Painted Doll" (originally shot in Technicolor). These were just hints of what studios had in store for musicals but the musical sequences work just fine here. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them.Most of the story is taken up by too-familiar plot points: Eddie falls in love with Queenie just because she’s a pretty face; Queenie falls for the wrong man despite warnings from others; Hank immediately is disliked by a fellow starlet (Mary Doran) for no discernible reason other than the “laws of screenwriting”; and the tired device of making comic relief out of the guy who stutters (Jed Prouty.) (Still, this may have been something of a novelty for a 1929 talking picture!) The problem is that all of this is just not terribly interesting. The dialogue sounds scripted, not natural. Anita Page does not do a convincing job as the “bad” Queenie. Scenes go on much longer than they need to (the arrival of the sisters’ at their hotel, for example). Hank is supposed to be the sympathetic one yet is too controlling and bossy most of the time. The biggest problem is, however, that the Mahoney Sisters just aren’t that good. It’s hard to cheer for people whom you think don’t belong where they want to be.I’m glad I saw The Broadway Melody from a cinema education perspective. But it’s hard to imagine selecting this film when one is in the mood for a good musical – or film, for that matter.

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

A movie I thought I’d like more than I did, All Quiet on the Western Front is as unsubtle an anti-war film as you’re likely to see. The film makes its point over and over and over and over – with each character given their own monologue/soliloquy on what their hopes and dreams were and what they are now, each delivered in the same, quivering, tragic delivery that ultimately makes most of the characters indistinguishable. It’s a “too much” approach to material that would have been just fine following the main character’s through the horrors of war.It’s Germany, 1917, and high schools are recruiting young men to join the armed forces. Paul Bäumer (Lew Ayres) joins along with several fellow classmates. Initially they are excited and eager to fight for the Father Land. But it doesn’t take long for the realities of war – hunger, no living accommodations, death – to convince them war is hell.The battle sequences are impressive and frightening. No one is safe – as gunfire or mortar shells may suddenly invade an otherwise calm scene. Characters may be given lengthy death scenes, or they may be suddenly killed without a further word. One of the most powerful scenes has the troops holed up underground, as the dirt from their makeshift ceiling rains on them as mortar fire bombards their surroundings. At least one character goes completely crazy just due the uncertainty of his survival. There is nothing quaint about the film’s portrayal of war: it is brutal, violent, and devastating.With that in mind, why oh why did the makers of the film feel the need to have its young cast deliver repeated speeches about how this all sucks? They young cast, quite frankly, isn’t very good, although ultimately Lew Ayres creates a moving character. They are mostly clichés when the play the gung-ho soldier and clichés when they change their views. They feel like the same character. Had the film followed just Paul Bäumer as he processes what happens around him, or at least cut short some of the monologues, the film would still have made its point without beating us about the head.The older cast fares much better, especially Louis Wolheim as Kat Katczinsky, the seasoned soldier who befriends Bäumer. Here is a character and performance who communicates his views more by how he says what he says, instead of endless speeches about the realities of war. The relationship that develops between Frank and Kat is what gives the film’s final moments such power.I have a feeling that a second viewing of this film may prove a better experience. But the initial impression is a great film that is harmed by its insistence on repeatedly telling us things we can plainly see in front of us. Still, All Quiet on the Western Front has much to recommend it and scenes of great power.