Self-sacrifice follows, set to peppy songs and dance numbers which in addition to the title tune, featured future chestnuts "You Were Meant For Me" and "Give My Regards To Broadway."
Out of necessity, sound man Douglas Shearer invented the concept of the "playback" — pre-recording a song that performers would then dance and lip-synch to — when the choreography on a huge dance number that had already been performed and recorded was deemed unsuitable. Rather than bring the orchestra back to the sound stage, Shearer figured out how to reuse the sound from the previous take, and the cast performed the dance number with its new choreography to a playback of the song.
This technique became the industry standard for decades.
The Broadway Melody was the top grossing movie of 1929 and the first sound film to win the Academy Award for best picture. Its success further cemented sound's commercial future.
The Broadway Melody is quite probably the weakest best picture winner ever, and that's saying something. As musicals go, it did feature the aforementioned classic songs, but the story is trite, the pacing is leaden, and the acting, especially among the supporting cast, is too awful to be believed.
And despite Douglas Shearer's technical innovations, the early sound equipment just wasn't up to the task. Lyrics get muddled, shoes hammer like cannon fire and the rustling of the actresses' dresses drown out the dialogue.
Which is a shame because Anita Page is as cute as a bug's ear! (Read more about her here.)
For Oscar historians and masochists only.
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