The road-show troupe of a top Broadway show go cross-country while taking the audience along on the on-stage scenes as well as what happens and is happening back stage of the production. The spectacular dancing ensembles and colorful costumes and pulchritude on-stage offers a contrasting background to the drabness of the backstage, where joy, sorrow, tragedies, deception, and romance are intertwined.
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Bessie Love brings on the sass, adorableness, and talent to this early musical from MGM! Marie Dressler and Polly Moran were hilarious.
Impossible to accurately gauge, since it is missing so much footage (lost Technicolor musical numbers). But what is here is far from great. I did enjoy the songs that are left to us in black & white. And Bessie Love is an adorable leading lady. But the story is a shambles, and it has such unlikable characters that you start wondering what exactly you're watching it for. The story centers on the touring cast of a musical, but a strange one, because all of the actors seem to be the characters they play onstage whenever they are offstage. Leading man Charles King is a major sap and a jerk, for whom, somehow, Bessie Love has an unrequited love. But King falls…
MGM Musicals Project #8:
The existing cut of this movie is in pretty rough shape, with a couple entire sequences missing. But I think it’s so fascinating to be able to watch something lost to time like this, even in fragments, even if it isn’t anything special. Marie Dressler is a hoot! There’s a truly bizarre scene where Bessie Love reacts to something dramatic by cackling for literally a couple solid minutes, and I have no idea if it’s supposed to be funny or chilling.
Favorite song: Happy Days Are Here Again
Early MGM musical reuniting two of The Broadway Melody's stars (Charles King & Bessie Love) and adding two popular MGM comediennes (Marie Dressler & Polly Moran) plus Jack Benny for comic support. The final reel of this musical (filmed in early Technicolor) is considered lost - particularly sad because the cast sings the hit song, "Happy Days Are Here Again." The soundtrack remains, however, and Warner Archives has pieced the final moments together with stills from the film.
