Best Pictures #20:
1928-29 Academy Awards Outstanding Picture Nominee
I’m not sure how one goes about reviewing a revue… The numbers
are entertaining and with Jack Benny as one of the masters of ceremonies,
Conrad Nagel being the other, it is hard to go wrong. The Hollywood Revue was put together by MGM to showcase its major
stars making their talkie debut with this collection of comedy skits and musical
numbers. The cast includes, Jack Benny, Conrad Nagel, Charles King, Anita Page, Bessie Love, Joan Crawford, Marion Davies, William Haines, Lionel Barrymore, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Marie Dressler, Laurel & Hardy ,and more. However, MGM’s biggest star, Greta Garbo, is noticeably absent from the star
studded cast because she decided that Anna Christie would be her speaking debut.
The stars of MGM’s other big musical from 1929, The Broadway Melody, all make an
appearance in The Hollywood Revue. Charles King sings and
banters with Conrad Nagel, who then serenades Anita Page, King’s love interest
in The Broadway Melody, with “You
Were Meant for Me,” a droll reference to a scene from that musical. Bessie Love, the other co-star of The Broadway
Melody, takes part in a special effects bit with Jack Benny. She appears in
miniature size and sets up punchlines for Jack Benny who holds her in the palm
of his hand. When he sets her down on stage she grows to normal size and
performs a delightful number called “I Never Knew I Could Do a Thing Like
That.” Bessie Love is also quite delightful herself in her banter with Benny
and musical performance. She sings but doesn’t dance so much as she is
literally tossed around by the male chorus line. It’s fun to watch, especially
when they flip her completely over from one chorus line to the next, but I
can’t imagine how disorienting that all must have felt for her.
The Hollywood Revue
is the film debut of Jack Benny who, as you might imagine, is very entertaining
and funny as the master of ceremonies. There’s a running gag of him being
slapped by women he thinks he "recognizes." One of the several humorous interludes
he has is with actor William Haines in which Haines tears a piece of Benny’s
suit for every city where he has seen Benny on the stage. The next time we see
Benny he is wearing a suit of armor. This is one of a few skits in which stage
and screen actors take playful jibes at each other and have fun with the
rivalry between stage and screen actors. What an actor could do on stage versus
on screen had a clear and distinct delineation during the silent era but with
the advent of sound that line was gone. Jack Benny’s one-liners and violin
could now be heard on film the same way they could only previously have been
experienced by attending a stage performance.
The screen could now be filled with elaborate musical
numbers like “Tommy Atkins on Parade” performed by Marion Davies. A full
marching band and dancers take up the entire screen. Davies does a tap number
and dances with a line of men dressed like palace guards. Many people today,
myself included, think of Marion Davies primarily as the mistress of publishing
tycoon William Randolph Hearst, the inspiration for Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane. This was the first time I
had seen any of Davies’ work and I’m glad to put a real face and voice to her
name. Laurel and Hardy showcase their comedy in a skit in which they play inept magicians.
Buster Keaton has a comical dance number, but he does not sing or speak. In the
final musical number in which every cast member gathers on stage to sing
“Singin’ in the Rain,” Buster Keaton is the only one not singing.
The Hollywood Revue
might be most known, by those that know it at all, for the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene with John Gilbert and Norma Shearer.
This sequence is thought by some to be the catalyst for the decline of
Gilbert’s career after audiences heard his high pitched voice. Further rumors
say that this sequence was the inspiration for the plot of the 1952 Gene Kelly
musical, Singin’ in the Rain. It is
thought that audiences felt Gilbert's voice did not match the onscreen persona he had
cultivated in the silent era. There are other likelihoods for the decline of Gilbert’s career that have nothing to do with his voice, but this is the
narrative that has persisted. The sequence itself is one of the more enjoyable
ones in The Hollywood Revue. Gilbert
and Shearer play themselves playing Romeo and Juliet and are being directed by
Lionel Barrymore, also playing himself. Barrymore tells them he received studio
notes to make the dialogue snappier and modern. Their performance of the updated
balcony scene loaded with peppy slang of the era is pretty amusing. As for
Gilbert’s voice, though he is certainly not a baritone, the phrase “high
pitched” does not accurately describe his voice either. I think he sounds very
contemporary and casual, and maybe that is not the tone of voice you would
expect to hear from someone in a period costume. This scene is one of two that
was shot in technicolor which I’m sure impressed audiences of the day, however,
on the DVD, available through Warner Archive, it is the only scene in
technicolor.
The Hollywood Revue
is certainly a curio of the early sound era. It does a good job of giving the
viewer the feeling that they are an audience member for a stage show. The
camera is mostly stationary. There are some close ups and medium shots and an
occasional pan, but the static shots of the actors and performances actually
works for this particular movie. The camera is your POV from your seat in the
theater watching this impressive all-star revue. The Hollywood Revue is pretty entertaining though it runs a bit
long for a film of its era, nearly a full two hours. There isn’t much to The Hollywood Revue, but that is not necessarily
something negative for this particular musical movie. It is certainly an
interesting viewing experience for a modern moviegoer. 
Nominee:
MGM
Producer:
Irving Thalberg, Harry Rapf
Director:
Charles Reisner
Screenplay:
Al Boasberg and Robert E. Hopkins
Cast: Conrad
Nagel, Jack Benny
Release
Date: June 20th, 1929
Total
Nominations: 1, including Outstanding Picture
Win(s): N/A
Win(s): N/A
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