On with the Show! (
1929-Events:The days of the silent film were numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound was on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
) is historically important in cinema history as the first modern
soundSound is a travelling wave which is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.- Perception of sound...
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...
.
Warner Brothers promoted
On With the Show! as being in "Natural Color." The pioneers of sound were the first to introduce sound combined with color. Adverts proclaimed 'Now color takes to the screen'. The novelty of the color alone was enough to ensure a worldwide gross of over $2 million, at the time an outstanding figure.
On with the Show! (
1929-Events:The days of the silent film were numbered. A mad scramble to provide synchronized sound was on.*January 20 - The movie In Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors....
) is historically important in cinema history as the first modern
soundSound is a travelling wave which is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.- Perception of sound...
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...
.
Warner Brothers promoted
On With the Show! as being in "Natural Color." The pioneers of sound were the first to introduce sound combined with color. Adverts proclaimed 'Now color takes to the screen'. The novelty of the color alone was enough to ensure a worldwide gross of over $2 million, at the time an outstanding figure. For Warners this would be the first in a series of contracted films made in color. It generated much interest in Hollywood and virtually overnight, most other major studios began films shot in the process. The film would be eclipsed by far greater success of the second
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...
film,
Gold Diggers of Broadway. Unfortunately, the original negative of
On With the Show is now lost and no
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...
prints have survived, only prints in black-and-white. A fragment of an original color print lasting about 20 seconds was recently discovered and used for the frame images shown here.
The film was a combination of a few genres. Part backstage musical using the now familiar 'show within a show' format, part mystery and part comedy. It featured famed singer
Ethel WatersEthel Waters was an American blues and jazz vocalist and actress.She frequently performed jazz, big band, rock and roll and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues...
in two songs written and staged for the film. "
Am I Blue?"Am I Blue?" is a song written by Harry Akst and Grant Clarke in 1929, and was a big hit that year for Ethel Waters. It has become a standard, recorded hundreds of times by numerous artists since its initial appearance, and was even performed by the character of Batman in the animated series...
" and "Birmingham Bertha" (with dancer John Bubbles).
The cast includes
William BakewellWilliam Bakewell , also known as Billy Bakewell, was an American actor, who achieved his greatest fame as one of the premiere juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.-Life and career:...
as the head usher eager to get his sweetheart, box-office girl
Sally O'NeilSally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
, noticed as a leading girl.
Betty CompsonBetty Compson was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive filmography. As a youth her father died and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother...
plays the temperamental star and Arthur Lake the whiny young male lead.
Louise FazendaLouise Fazenda was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films.-Early life:She was born in Lafayette, Indiana. Her father, Joseph Fazenda, was a merchandise broker. After moving west Louise attended Los Angeles High School and St. Mary's Convent...
is the company's eccentric comedienne, who is given little to do but laugh at inappropriate moments, her hair hennaed an improbable shade of red.
Joe E. BrownJoseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian. In 1902 at the age of 10, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvellous Astons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a...
plays the part of a mean comedian who constantly argues with
Arthur LakeArthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie to life in film, radio, and television....
.
All of the characters are stereotypes and much of the attempts at humor are fascinating historically, but were dated even at the time of the film's release. Contemporary critic
Mordaunt HallMordaunt Hall was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for The New York Times, from October 1924 to September 1934....
noted in his
New York Times review that he imagined the lovely hues "writhed in agony" serving such a story.
Despite this, the direction by
Alan CroslandAlan Crosland was an American actor and film director.Born in New York City, New York to a well-to-do family, Alan Crosland attended from Dartmouth College. After graduation he took a job as a writer with the New York Globe magazine...
is far snappier than many other films of the period. Moving camera shots and angled, composed scenes do feature when many other early sound films have cameras firmly planted on the floor. The staging of the musical numbers is competent and the settings have been designed with some care to use
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...
in a flashy, if obvious way. Thus
Sally O'NeilSally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
finds herself in a storeroom crammed with colored vanity cases and many of the performers are heavily rouged on the cheeks with matching "cherry lips."
This is one of four 1929 Warner Bros. Technicolor films that blazed a trail, creating a brief year-long craze for color films. The others were the smash hit comedy
Gold Diggers of Broadway, a lavish revue
The Show of Shows, and a
ZiegfeldFlorenz "Flo" Ziegfeld, Jr. was an American Broadway impresario. He is best known for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies , inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl".-Early life and career:Ziegfeld was born in Chicago to German...
stage adaptation
SallySally is the third sound feature photographed in Technicolor released in 1929 .It was based on the Broadway stage hit, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld...
.
Plot
With unpaid actors and staff, the stage show
Phantom Sweetheart seems doomed. To complicate matters, the box office takings have been robbed and the leading lady refuses to appear. Can the show be saved?
Cast (in credits order)
- Arthur Lake
Arthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie to life in film, radio, and television....
as Harold Astor
- Betty Compson
Betty Compson was an American actress. Born Eleanor Luicime Compson in Beaver, Utah, she had an extensive filmography. As a youth her father died and she was forced to drop out of school and earn a living for herself and her mother...
as Nita French
- Joe E. Brown
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian. In 1902 at the age of 10, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvellous Astons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville circuits. He gradually added comedy into his act and transformed himself into a...
as Joe Beaton
- Sally O'Neil
Sally O'Neil was an American film actress of the 1920s. She was born as Virginia Louise Noonan, one of 11 children born to a judge in Bayonne, New Jersey. One of her sisters was actress Molly O'Day....
as Kitty (as Sally O'Neill)
- William Bakewell
William Bakewell , also known as Billy Bakewell, was an American actor, who achieved his greatest fame as one of the premiere juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.-Life and career:...
as Jimmy
- Louise Fazenda
Louise Fazenda was an American film actress, appearing chiefly in silent comedy films.-Early life:She was born in Lafayette, Indiana. Her father, Joseph Fazenda, was a merchandise broker. After moving west Louise attended Los Angeles High School and St. Mary's Convent...
as Sarah Fogarty
- Sam Hardy (actor) as Jerry
- Harry Gribbon
Harry Gribbon was an American film actor. He appeared in 144 films between 1915 and 1938.He was born in New York, New York, and died in Los Angeles, California...
as Joe
- Lee Moran
Lee Moran was an American film actor, director and writer of the silent era. He appeared in 462 films, directed 109 and wrote for a further 92 between 1912 and 1935....
as Pete, the Stage Manager
- Wheeler Oakman
Wheeler Oakman was an American film actor.Usually appearing as a henchman in films, rarely a leading role, he appeared in over 280 films between 1912 and 1948.In 1932 he appeared alongside John Wayne in the film Texas Cyclone....
as Bob Wallace
- Marion Fairbanks as Dorsey Twin
- Madeline Fairbanks as Dorsey Twin
- Purnell B. Pratt as Sam Bloom
- Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
as Dad
- Ethel Waters
Ethel Waters was an American blues and jazz vocalist and actress.She frequently performed jazz, big band, rock and roll and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues...
as Ethel Walters
- Otto Hoffman
Otto Hoffman , was an American film actor. He appeared in 199 films between 1915 and 1944.He was born in New York and died in Los Angeles, California from lung cancer.-Selected filmography:* Red River Robin Hood...
as Bert
- Harry Fink as Father in Show
- Josephine Huston - Harold's Fiancee in Show