Gold Diggers of Broadway
| Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Roy Del Ruth |
| Written by | Robert Lord based on the play by Avery Hopwood |
| Starring | Winnie Lightner Nick Lucas |
| Cinematography | Barney McGill and Ray Rennahan (Technicolor) |
| Edited by | William Holmes |
| Music by | Joseph Burke |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release dates | October 5, 1929 |
Running time | 101 min. |
| Language | English |
Gold Diggers of Broadway 1929 is a lost Warner Bros comedy/musical film which is historically important as the second sound film photographed entirely in Technicolor. It became a box office sensation, making Winnie Lightner a worldwide star and boosting guitarist crooner Nick Lucas to further fame as he sang two songs that became 20th century standards; Tip-toe thru the Tulips' and 'Painting the Clouds with Sunshine'.
It earned a domestic gross of $3.5 Million, extending to over $5 Million worldwide (adjusted for inflation in 2005 this would be a gross of around $240,000,000). The original production cost was approximately $500,000. This film was so popular that it quickly became the top grossing film of all time in 1929 and held this record until 1939. It was chosen as one of the ten best films of 1929 by Film Daily. As with many early Technicolor films, no complete print survives, although the last twenty minutes survive, but are missing a bridging sequence and unfortunately the last minute of the film.
Contemporary reviews, the soundtrack and the surviving footage suggest that the film was a particularly well made and fast moving comedy which was enhanced by the Technicolor and a set of lively and enduring pop songs. It encapsulated the spirit of the flapper era, giving us a rare glimpse of as world about to be changed utterly by the tragic stock market crash. The dialogue is unusually frank and witty, quite ahead of most others films in 1929 or 1930. The breakthough noted by Mordaunt Hall, reviewing in the 'New York Times' was that Warner Bros had abandoned sentiment in favour of musical comedy, with the emphasis on the fun. Prior to 'Gold Diggers of Broadway', most early talkie musicals were seeped in melodrama. This light touch made the film one of the first 'feel good' movies.
Unfortunately because the film is lost, the partial remake (Gold Diggers of 1933) is the most frequently seen version of the story. The film has become so completely forgotten that it has never featured in any 'most wanted' lost film lists and is completely missing from many modern reviews of the early talkie (1928 to 1930) period.
Plot
The story place in New York City and is about a group of 'gold-digging' Broadway showgirls who are all looking for love.
Template:Spoiler The film opens on an audience watching a lavish broadway show, featuring a giant gold mine production number ('Song of the Gold Diggers'). This is followed by famous guitarist Nick Lucas who sings the song 'Painting the Clouds with Sunshine' which climaxes on stage with a huge art deco revolving sun.
Backstage, the star of the show (Ann Pennington) is fighting over Nick with another girl. We are also introduced to a group of chorus girls who are all 'man hungry'. They are visited by a faded star who is reduced to selling cosmetic soap. They gossip about how they all want a man with plenty of money so they don't end up selling soap. We then discover that a stuffy businessman called Stephen Lee (Conway Tearle) angrily forbids his nephew Wally (William Bakewell), to marry one of the showgirls (Violet).
A corpulent lawyer friend Blake (Albert Gran) advises him to befriend the showgirl first before making a decision. However the showgirls are a group of friends who stick together and the most raucous girl called Mabel (Winnie Lighnter) takes a fancy to Blake calling him 'sweetie' and shows her appreciation by singing him a song ('Mechanical Man').
That evening, they all visit a huge night club. Mabel ends up on a table singing another song to Blake 'Wolf from the door' before jumping into his lap. Showgirl Jerry (Nancy Welford) extends the party to her appartment. Everyone gets drunk and after seeing Ann Pennington dance on the kitchen table, Steve decides he is 'getting to like these showgirls'. Blake says he is 'losing his mind or just plain mad'.
Keeping the fun going, Nick Lucas sings 'Tip Toe Thru the Tulips'. Complications come thick and fast after a balloon game with both Blake and Lee falling under the spell of Mabel and Jerry. Blake gets fed drinks from Mabel. The party ends with Lucas singing 'Go to bed' and Jerry contrives to get Lee back after everyone has left. She gets him more drunk whilst tipping her own drinks away when he isn't looking. Her aim is to get Lee to agree to allow Wally to marry. To do this she lies and is shown up by her own mother who accidentally finds both of them together.
The party ends with Lucas singing 'Go to bed' and Jerry contrives to get Lee back after everyone has left. She gets him more drunk whilst tipping her own drinks away when he isn't looking. Her aim is to get Lee to agree to allow Wally to marry. To do this she lies and is shown up by her own mother who accidentally finds both of them together.
Next morning Jerry is feeling disgraced. Mabel has been given an extra line for the show 'I am the spirit of the ages and the progress of civilisation', but cannot get the words right. Nick Lucas is told off for singing poor songs and sings another 'What will I do without you'. Ann Pennington fights with another showgirl and hurts her eye. Jerry is asked to take her place as the star of the evening performance. Mabel receives a proposal of marriage from Blake, but worries about her extra line.
The show starts with Nick Lucas reprising 'Tip Toe Thru the Tulips' with full orchestra in a huge stage set that shows girl tulips in a huge greenhouse. Backstage, Uncle Steve comes back to give his consent to his nephew and tell Jerry he wants to marry her.
The finale starts with Jerry leading the 'Song of the Gold Diggers' against a huge art deco backdrop of Paris at night. Various acrobats and girls litter the stage as all the songs are reprised in a fast moving, lavish production number. This ends with Jerry sweeping through the middle as the music reaches a climax. Mabel then says her line, but forgets the end! Template:Endspoiler
Background/Production
Based on the 1923 play The Gold Diggers (which was also turned into a film the same year, now lost), Gold Diggers of Broadway utilized Technicolor, Showgirls and sound as its main selling points.
Cast
As Listed in the Credits of the Film
- Nancy Welford - Jerry
- Conway Tearle - Stephen Lee
- Winnie Lightner - Mabel
- Ann Pennington - Ann Collins
- Lilyan Tashman - Eleanor
- William Bakewell - Wally
- Nick Lucas - Nick
- Helen Foster - Violet
- Albert Gran - Blake
- Julia Swayne Gordon - Cissy Gray
- Lee Moran - Dance Director
- Armand Kaliz - Barney Barnett
Preservation
The film was shot using Vitaphone sound on disc combined with full aperture nitrate Technicolor two-component prints. The discs (including the overture) have survived, but until around 1986 nothing survived from the film. It was at this time, that the last reel, minus the final minute was donated to the British Film Insitute as a mute nitrate Technicolor print. This was faithfully copied and thus restored. Nearly ten years later another reel was discovered in Australia (the end of the distribution line) and this turned out to be the penultimate reel featuring the 'Tip-toe thru the Tulips' production number. It was also missing a short bridging sequence. Footage from the start of the film also survives in a 1937 b/w trailer for 'Gold Diggers of 1937' and also in a nitrate fragment lasting approx twenty seconds, found with a toy projector.
Although the film had copyright renewed in the late 1950s, it does not appear to have been shown on Television (16mm b/w prints were made of other early Warner Bros talkies). It is currently unclear why the film wasn't reprinted but as with many titles with no optical soundtrack, conjecture might suggest that the Vitaphone discs may have been lost at that particular time.