Musical Movie 1920's

A Musical Monologue is a 1923 American short film produced by Lee De Forest in his Phonofilm sound-on-film process. The film features Phil Baker, well-known vaudevillian, singing and playing the accordion.

This film was one of the films DeForest showed on 12 April 1923 to an audience of electrical engineers at the Engineering Society Building's Auditorium at 33 West 39th Street in New York City. The film premiered with 17 other short Phonofilms on 15 April 1923 at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.

A Plantation Act (1926) is an early Vitaphone sound-on-disc short film starring Al Jolson, the first film that Jolson starred in. On a film set with a plantation background, Jolson in blackface sings three of his hit songs: "April Showers", "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody", and "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)". The film presents him as if in a live stage performance, complete with three curtain calls at the finish. Its premiere took place on October 7, 1926, at the Colony Theatre, New York, where it concluded a program of short subjects that accompanied Warner Brothers' second feature-length Vitaphone film The Better 'Ole. The "Intermission" card which appears at its end derives from that use. Critics praised A Plantation Act as the hit of the show.

The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. As the first feature-length motion picture with not only a synchronized recorded music score, but also lip-synchronous singing and speech in several isolated sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of sound films and the decline of the silent film era. Directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system, the film, featuring six songs performed by Al Jolson, is based on a play of the same name by Samson Raphaelson, adapted from one of his short stories, "The Day of Atonement".

My Man (1928) is a black and white part-talkie American comedy-drama musical film from Warner Bros. starring Fannie Brice and featuring Guinn "Big Boy" Williams. It was Fannie Brice's feature film debut at the age of 37. She was a star in the Ziegfeld Follies before she started acting in motion pictures. At the time this movie was made there were still some silent movies in production and being released. It would not be until 1929 that talking movies would completely take over, but Warner Bros. had completely stopped making silent movies and switched to sound pictures by the end of that year, either part talking or full talking. Warners would also start making movies in color as well as sound movies.

The Singing Fool is a 1928 musical drama Part-Talkie motion picture which was released by Warner Bros. The film stars Al Jolson and is a follow-up to his previous film, The Jazz Singer. It is credited with helping to cement the popularity of both sound and the musical genre.

Lucky Boy is a 1928 American musical drama film starring George Jessel.The film was mainly a silent film, with synchronized music and sound effects, as well as some talking sequences.

Applause is a 1929 black-and-white backstage musical talkie, shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, New York, during the early years of sound films. The film is notable as one of the few films of its time to break free from the restrictions of bulky sound technology equipment in order to shoot on location around Manhattan.

The Battle of Paris (a.k.a. The Gay Lady) is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical film.Gertrude Lawrence plays a singer in Paris during World War I. After stealing from Tony (Walter Petrie), an American artist, the two fall in love.

Broadway is a 1929 film directed by Paul Fejos from the play of the same name by George Abbott and Philip Dunning. It stars Glenn Tryon, Evelyn Brent, Paul Porcasi, Robert Ellis, Merna Kennedy and Thomas E. Jackson.[1]

This was Universal's first talking picture with Technicolor sequences. The film was released by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD with Paul Fejo's Lonesome on August 2012.

Broadway Babies, aka Broadway Daddies (UK) and Ragazze d'America (Italy), is a 1929 all-talking Pre-Code black and white American musical film produced and distributed by First National Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. The film was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starred Alice White and Charles Delaney. This was White's first sound film with dialogue.

The Broadway Melody, also known as The Broadway Melody of 1929, is an American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor sequence, which sparked the trend of color being used in a flurry of musicals that would hit the screens in 1929–1930. Today the Technicolor sequence is lost; only a black and white copy survives in available versions. The film was the first musical released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was Hollywood's first all-talking musical.

Broadway Scandals is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical film,Photoplay Magazine was unenthusiastic in its review of Broadway Scandals: "If this picture appeared six months ago, it would have looked better, for it is a late entrant in the line of love stories back of the theater curtain." Egan and Myers did well in their roles, while "Sally O'Neil tries hard.

Close Harmony (1929) is an American Pre-Code comedy-drama musical film released by Paramount Pictures.A musically talented young woman named Marjorie who is part of a stage show, meets a warehouse clerk named Al West who has put together an unusual jazz band. She becomes interested in him and his work and so manages to use her influence to get him into the program for one of the shows at her theatre company.

The Cock-Eyed World is a 1929 American pre-Code musical comedy feature film. One of the earliest "talkies", it was a sequel to What Price Glory? (1926), it was directed and written by Raoul Walsh and based on the Flagg and Quirt story by Maxwell Anderson, Tom Barry, Wilson Mizner and Laurence Stallings. Fox Film Corporation released the film at the Roxy in New York on August 3, 1929.

The film stars Victor McLaglen and Edmund Lowe, reprising their original roles, as well as Lili Damita. The picture was also released in a silent version on October 5, 1929.

The Cocoanuts is a 1929 musical comedy film starring the Marx Brothers. Produced for Paramount Pictures by Walter Wanger, who is not credited, the film stars the four Marx Brothers, Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, and Margaret Dumont. It was the first sound film to credit more than one director (Robert Florey and Joseph Santley), and was adapted to the screen by Morrie Ryskind from the George S. Kaufman Broadway musical play. Five of the film's tunes were composed by Irving Berlin, including "When My Dreams Come True", sung by Oscar Shaw and Mary Eaton.

Dance Hall was an American Pre-Code musical film directed by Melville Brown and written by Jane Murfin and J. Walter Ruben, based on the short story of the same name by Vina Delmar.[4][5] It was RKO's second to last release of the decade, and was a critical and financial flop.

The Dance of Life (1929) is the first of three film adaptations of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, the others being Swing High, Swing Low (1937) and When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948).

The Dance of Life was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in Astoria, Queens, and included Technicolor sequences, directed by John Cromwell and A. Edward Sutherland.

In 1957, the film entered the public domain (in the USA) due to the claimants failure to renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.

The Desert Song is a 1929 American Pre-Code operetta film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring John Boles, Louise Fazenda, and Myrna Loy. It was photographed partly in two-color Technicolor, the first film released by Warner Bros. to be in color. Although some of the songs from the show have been omitted, the film is otherwise virtually a duplicate of the stage production and extremely faithful to it. It was based on the hit musical play with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel

The stage musical opened at the Casino Theatre on Broadway on November 30, 1926 and ran for a very successful 465 performances. Based on the success of this film, Warner Bros. quickly cast John Boles in an all color musical feature called Song of the West which was completed by June 1929 but had its release delayed until March 1930.

Devil-May-Care is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical film with a Technicolor sequence of the Albertina Rasch Dancers, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on 27 December 1929. The film was Ramon Novarro's talkie debut

The film is known by a variety of other names, including Battle of the Ladies (USA - working title), Der Leutnant des Kaisers (Austria), Der jüngste Leutnant (Germany), Il tenente di Napoleone (Italy) and O lohagos tis aftokratorikis frouras (Greece).

The Forward Pass is a 1929 American Pre-Code football drama musical film directed by Edward F. Cline, starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Loretta Young. John Wayne was an uncredited extra in the film. The film is believed to be lost.

Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, also known as Movietone Follies of 1929 and The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, was a black-and-white and color American musical film released by Fox Film Corporation

Glorifying the American Girl is a 1929 American Pre-Code, musical comedy film produced by Florenz Ziegfeld that highlights Ziegfeld Follies performers. The last third of the film (which was filmed in early Technicolor) is basically a Follies production, with cameo appearances by Rudy Vallee, Helen Morgan, and Eddie Cantor.

Rex Beach was paid $35,000 for the original story.

Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American Pre-Code musical comedy film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Winnie Lightner and Nick Lucas. Distributed by Warner Bros., the film is the second two-color Technicolor all-talking feature-length movie (after On With the Show, also released that year by Warner Bros).

Gold Diggers of Broadway was also the third movie released by Warner Bros. to be shot in color; the first was a black-and-white, part-color musical, The Desert Song (1929). Gold Diggers of Broadway became a box office sensation, making Winnie Lightner a worldwide star and boosting guitarist crooner Nick Lucas to further fame as he sang two songs that became 20th-century standards: "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine."

Footlights and Fools is a 1929 American sound film directed by William A. Seiter that was billed by Warner Brothers as an all-talking musical film and released in Vitaphone with Technicolor sequences.

The Great Gabbo (1929) is an American Pre-Code early sound film musical drama film directed by James Cruze, based on a story ("The Rival Dummy") by Ben Hecht and starring Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson.

As originally released by Sono Art-World Wide Pictures, the film featured sequences in Multicolor. The current prints, restored by the Library of Congress and released by Kino International on DVD, now exist only in black and white.