Hank Mahoney (Bessie Love), and her sister, Queenie (Anita Page), perform a sister vaudeville act. With help from a friend, Eddie Kerns (Charles King), the sisters come to Broadway, New York City, to perform in one of producer Francis Zanfield's new shows.
Eddie was in love with Hank at one time, but when he layed his eyes on Queenie, he fall in love with her, leaving Hank in the dust. Queenie, though, is courted by Jock Warriner, a member of the New Yorker high society. It takes a while for Queenie to recognize that she is for Jock nothing more than a toy.
It takes time for Hank to let it sink in that Eddie is madly in love with Queenie. A bitter fued erupts with raging jealousy between Hank and Queenie, with no signs of letting up. Can the sisters become friends again before it is too late for everyone?
While the music of The Broadway Melody is good, it seems to be telling it's own story rather than helping along the main story. This is but one of the film's few drawbacks. Claiming to be the first "All talking! All singing! All dancing! musical," The Broadway Melody is more "All talking!" than singing or dancing. This does not take away from the film; it only helps to enhance the pure melodrama of the rest of the movie.
The film focuses on a "love quadrangle" between Hank, Eddie, Queenie and Jock Warriner. Hank loves Eddie, but Eddie is in love with Queenie. Queenie is infatuated with Jock Warriner, but he only thinks of her as a toy, to beused whenever he is "in the mood." It at this point that the film leaves it's "All Singing! All Dancing!," moniker, becomming, as another reviewer put it, "All crying! All fighting!"
The film even manages to touch on some very risqué (for the time) topics. Hints of lesbianism and homosexuality are sprinkled right into the plot. (Note overly flambouyant costume designer near the beginning of the film).
The Broadway Melody sold enough 35¢ admissions to make over $4,000,000, so the producers must have done something right. With dated costumes, mediocre musical numbers that would only be surpassed in quality with new films and two quarling, wanna-be diva's, The Broadway Melody may have been the first true motion picture musical, but it sure isn't the best. No, the best was yet to come.
Plot: 
The film, supposed to be a musical, is more melodrama than anything else. The songs don't work very well within the film, but the rest of the film is fine. A solid drama.
Visual Effects:
There are few if any visual effects in the film. Sets look good, however, and were decorated appropriatly.
Cinematography is dull and plain; there is nothing special about any of the camera shots in the film. The cinematography, even for a musical no less, could have been a lot better.
Sound:
The songs of The Broadway Melody, though they don't help the film at all, were still good in their own right even if they weren't very memorable. The title track, The Broadway Melody, was the first song sung in the film and is the best song of the whole bunch.
Character Development: 
You can really see a change in the main characters, and especially in Queenie, who grows up a helluva lot. Even Hank's attitude changes; she accepts what happens and gets on with her life.
Atmosphere:
Don't think of this film as a musical... it is, and then again it isn't. There is more drama than musical, but the dramatic side is still pretty good on it's own.
Realism:
Warren’s Rating:
Movies it was nominated with for Best Picture (No official nominees had been announced this year):
Alibi, (1929); The Hollywood Revue of 1929, (1929); In Old Arizona, (1928); The Patriot, (1928);
6.43/10 Is the movie worth your time to watch?
17-04-05
