Manhattan Parade is a
1931-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*Best Actress: Marie Dressler - Min and Bill...
musical comedy film photographed entirely in
TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
. It was originally intended to be released, in the United States, early in 1931, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner Bros. reluctantly released the film in December 1931 after removing all the music. The film was released outside the United States (since there was no backlash against musicals outside the United States) as a full musical comedy in 1931.
The film was the first Warner Bros.
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Manhattan Parade is a
1931-Academy Awards:*Best Picture: Cimarron - MGM*Best Actor: Lionel Barrymore - A Free Soul*Best Actor: Wallace Beery - The Champ*Best Actor: Fredric March - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde*Best Actress: Marie Dressler - Min and Bill...
musical comedy film photographed entirely in
TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
. It was originally intended to be released, in the United States, early in 1931, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner Bros. reluctantly released the film in December 1931 after removing all the music. The film was released outside the United States (since there was no backlash against musicals outside the United States) as a full musical comedy in 1931.
Production
The film was the first Warner Bros. film to be filmed in the improved
TechnicolorTechnicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA. Technicolor was the second major color film process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color motion picture process in Hollywood...
process which removed grain and improved both the color and clarity of the film. This improved process had first been used on
The RunaroundThe Runaround is a comedy-drama film that was photographed entirely in Technicolor. The film is important as the first to be filmed in a new Technicolor process which removed grain and resulted in a much improved color...
(1931) and resulted in an attempt at a color revival by the studios late in 1931.
Variety praised the color work in this film, stating that "the coloring is easy on the eye and never harsh or confusing as the early color pictures were."
Pre-Code Sequences
- Bobby Watson plays the part of a gay fashion designer named Paisley.
- In one sequence, Paisley protests that "I can cheapen myself and prostitute my art for just so long" when his boss Doris Roberts (Winnie Lightner
Winnie Lightner was an American motion picture actress. Perhaps her most famous role was as a gold-digger named Mabel, in Gold Diggers of Broadway...
) insists that he follow a customer's directions.
- Herbert (Charles Butterworth
Charles Butterworth, Ph.D. is a noted philosopher of the Straussian school and currently a professor of political philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park.Butterworth is also a translator and editor of numerous books, including:...
) says to Paisley: "What were we talking about, Madam?"
- John Roberts (Walter Miller), who is married to Doris, has an affair with a seventeen year old named Charlotte Evans (Greta Granstedt).
- Doris orders a large quantity of tin pie pans over the phone, explaining to the seller "We use them for brassieres..........what do we use the brassieres for?????.......to bake pies in!!!"
Music
Three songs were written for the film by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler:
- "I Love a Parade" (Production Number sung by Chorus)
- "Temporarily Blue" (Sung by Winnie Lightner)
- "I'm Happy When You're Jealous" (Sung by Winnie Lightner)
Trivia
- It will seem odd, to modern audiences, that when Charlotte Evans (the seventeen year old girl) finds out that John Roberts is cheating on her, that she threatens him with a "breach of contract" suit and not with the fact that she is seventeen. Relationships such as these were common in those days and apparently not viewed with the disdain that they are today. For example, the 26 year old movie star Grant Withers
Grant Withers , born Granville G. Withers, was a prolific American film actor with a sizeable body of work....
married the 17 year old Loretta Young-Early life:She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah as Gretchen Young, of Luxembourgian descent.At confirmation, she took the name Michaela. She and her family moved to Hollywood when she was three years old. Loretta and her sisters Polly Ann Young and Elizabeth Jane Young worked as child actresses,...
in 1930.
- I'm Happy When You're Jealous was recorded by Isham Jones and his Orchestra for Brunswick Records (Record Number 6204).http://redhotjazz.com/Songs/ishamjones/imhappywhenyoure.ram
- This was the first of two films which the comedy team of "Smith and Dale" starred in for Warner Bros. (the second being The Heart of New York
"The Heart of New York" is the 11th episode of the Supermarionation television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. It was first broadcast in the UK on December 8, 1967 on ATV Midlands. It was written by Tony Barwick and directed by Alan Perry....
). The team failed to be the success which Warner Bros. had hoped for and their contract was not renewed.
- The film pokes fun at Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian, and actor. According to PBS, he is considered the "first openly Jewish man to become an entertainment star in America"...
, who had reached a downturn in his career due to the public aversion to musical pictures. He had been released from his contract to Warner Bros. late in 1930.
Preservation
Only a black and white copy of the cut print released in 1931 in the United States seems to have survived. The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists.