By the time Paramount joined the All-Talking Picture revolution, nearly a year had passed since Warners’ THE JAZZ SINGER opened. (LIGHTS OF NEW YORK and THE SINGING FOOL solidified the trend in July & September.) Yet, already something of a critical backlash was brewing against films with little to recommend them beyond synch-sound songs, bad dialogue & sound effects. (Sizzling bacon in a pan no longer earning spontaneous applause.) Hence the insistence on QUALITY seen on our poster. And in some ways, this little melodrama (letters of blackmail, a dying man’s noble gesture, justified poisoning, a fabulous early X-Ray metal contraption), taken from a modest B’way success, does offer a bit of dramatic structure, even a glimmer of editing rhythm. (Inter-cut with some slightly speedier footage taken from the alternate silent version.) But now, only of interest as historical curiosity: leading ladies flailing hopelessly (Evelyn Brent in two spectacular outfits has shed her mysterious silent allure; Doris Kenyon never had one to begin with); Clive Brook already showing implacable reserve & William Powell self-correcting his stagy elocution about halfway in. (Powell, appropriately grey & gaunt from the start, must have seen his ‘dailies.’) His quick improvement soon to be matched in all departments, and not only at Paramount.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: To see why people who cared about film were so critical of The Talkies, watch Brent & Powell earlier this year in von Sternberg’s late silent masterpiece THE LAST COMMAND. Regrettably, another von Sternberg silent from ‘28 with them, THE DRAGNET, now lost.
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