Gold Diggers of Broadway
Gold Diggers of Broadway | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roy Del Ruth |
Written by | Robert Lord (scenario & dialogue)[1] De Leon Anthony (titles)[1] |
Based on | The Gold Diggers (1919 play) by Avery Hopwood |
Starring | Winnie Lightner Nick Lucas |
Cinematography | Barney McGill Ray Rennahan (Technicolor) |
Edited by | William Holmes |
Music by | Joseph Burke (music) Al Dubin (lyrics) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 105 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $532,000[2] |
Box office | $3,967,000 (worldwide rental)[3] |
Gold Diggers of Broadway is a 1929 American
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".
Based on the 1919 play The Gold Diggers[4]—which was also turned into a silent film of the same name in 1923—Gold Diggers of Broadway utilized showgirls, Technicolor, and sound as its main selling points.
It was chosen as one of the ten best films of 1929 by
Because Gold Diggers of Broadway has been considered a partially lost film since the 1970s, the loose remake, Gold Diggers of 1933, is the most frequently seen version of the story.
Plot
The film opens on an audience watching a lavish 1929
Backstage, the star of the show (
Businessman Stephen Lee (Conway Tearle) angrily forbids his nephew Wally (William Bakewell) to marry Violet, one of the showgirls. A corpulent lawyer friend, Blake (Albert Gran), advises him to befriend the showgirl first before making a decision. The showgirls are friends who stick together, and the most raucous girl called Mabel (Winnie Lightner) takes a fancy to Blake, calling him 'sweetie' and showing her appreciation by singing him a song ("Mechanical Man").
That evening, they all visit a huge nightclub. Mabel ends up on a table singing another song to Blake, "Keeping the Wolf from the Door", before jumping into his lap. Showgirl Jerry (Nancy Welford) moves the party to her apartment. Everyone gets drunk and after seeing Ann Pennington dance on the kitchen table, Lee decides he is 'getting to like these showgirls'. Blake says he is 'losing his mind or just plain mad'. Keeping the fun going, Lucas sings "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." Complications come thick and fast after a balloon game, with both Blake and Lee falling under the spell of Mabel and Jerry. The party ends with Lucas singing "Go to Bed" and Jerry contriving to get Lee back after everyone has left. She gets him more drunk whilst tipping her own drinks away when he is not looking. Her aim is to get Lee to agree to allow Wally to marry. To do this, she lies and is shown up by her own mother, who accidentally finds them together.
Next morning, Jerry feels disgraced. Mabel has been given an extra line for the show "I am the spirit of the ages and the progress of civilization", but cannot get the words right. Lucas is told off for singing poor songs and sings another "What will I do without you". Ann Pennington fights with another showgirl and hurts her eye. Jerry is asked to take her place as the star of the evening performance. Mabel receives a proposal of marriage from Blake, but worries about her extra line.
The show starts with Nick Lucas reprising "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"' with full orchestra in a huge stage set that shows girl tulips in a huge greenhouse. Backstage, Uncle Steve comes back to give his consent to his nephew and to tell Jerry he wants to marry her.
The finale starts with Jerry leading the "Song of the Gold Diggers" against a huge art deco backdrop of Paris at night. Various acrobats and girls litter the stage as all the songs are reprised in a fast moving, lavish production number. Finally, male choristers lift Mabel into the air, whereupon she strikes a pose resembling the Statue of Liberty and exclaims, "I am . . . I am . . . Oh, darn it, I've forgotten that second line!" The music swells, and the film comes to its glorious end.[5]
Cast
- Nancy Welford as Jerry Lamar
- Conway Tearle as Stephen Lee
- Winnie Lightner as Mabel Munroe
- Ann Penningtonas Ann Collins
- Gertrude Short as Topsy St Clair
- Lilyan Tashman as Eleanor
- William Bakewell as Wally Saunders
- Nick Lucas as Nick
- Helen Foster as Violet Dayne
- Albert Gran as Blake
- Julia Swayne Gordon as Cissy Gray
- Lee Moran as Dance Director
- Armand Kaliz as Barney Barnett
Cast notes:
- Winnie Lightner became one of Warner Bros. biggest stars in 1930. She starred in two lavish Technicolor features in that year: Hold Everything and The Life of the Party. Winnie Lightner's first appearance as the title character in the 1931 Olsen & Johnson comedy Gold Dust Gertiepays homage to her success in Gold Diggers of Broadway by utilizing "Song of the Gold Diggers" as the musical underscoring during this sequence. Her flapperish care-free demeanor became decidedly dated as the conservatism of the 1930s took its course and this probably explains why she retired from films in 1934.
- Director Roy Del Ruth began a relationship with Winnie Lightner in 1929, but they did not marry until 1948.
- The only actors in the 1929 film to have also appeared in the 1923 silent version, television series of that name.[6] She also starred with Claudette Colbert in the original 1934 version of Imitation of Life, largely considered her greatest role.
Production
The song "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" was originally the main theme for the film. After
The two production numbers for "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" both start on a smaller set and move to a larger one. To change between sets while the song was sung and create a seamless transition, instead of using a curtain, a shot of a stagehand was shown, throwing a sparking electric lighting switch which darkens one scene out and fades in another. The basic storyline was modified and reused in later Warner Bros. films such as Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) and Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951).
Majestic Pictures attempted to cash in on the "Gold Diggers" concept by naming a feature Gold Diggers of Paris, but Warner Bros. prevented that via legal action. Warner Bros. released a film called Gold Diggers in Paris in 1938.
Technicolor
Gold Diggers of Broadway was filmed in Technicolor.[8] According to Herbert Kalmus, the co-founder and President of the company,[9] the system Technicolor used at that time was a subtractive imbibition two-color process introduced in 1928[8][10] that utilized filters and a normal-thickness dye-transfer print, as opposed to two prints cemented together, as had previously been the case.[10] Warner Bros. was one of the primary users of the new system, although other studios utilized it as well, often for color sequences within an otherwise black-and-white film. Warner Bros., however, often made films that were color throughout: In 1930, they released 15 films that used two-color Technicolor, only four of which used color only for limited sequences.[10]
Songs
- ¶ – Indicates songs with music by Joseph Burke and lyrics by Al Dubin.[1]
- ¶ – "Song of the Gold Diggers" (WB Vitaphone orchestra and stage chorus)
- ¶ – "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" (Nick Lucas with WB Vitaphone orchestra and stage chorus)
- ¶ – "And Still They Fall in Love" (Winnie Lightner with backing)
- ¶ – "Song of the Gold Diggers" (Nancy Welford)
- ¶ – "Mechanical Man" (Winnie Lightner with backing)
- ¶ – "Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" – reprise (Nick Lucas with band)
- ¶ – "Keeping the Wolf from the Door" (Winnie Lightner with band)
- ¶ – "Tip-toe thru the Tulips" (Nick Lucas with guitar and band). This song was nominated for the American Film Institute's 2004 list AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.[11]
- "The Pennington Glide" (Instrumental – Apartment Party Sequence) (Title cited in script)[12]
- ¶ – "In a Kitchenette" (Nick Lucas on guitar)
- ¶ – "Go to Bed" (Nick Lucas on guitar)
- ¶ – "What Will I Do Without You?" (Nick Lucas on guitar)
- ¶ – "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" – reprise (Nick Lucas with WB Vitaphone orchestra and chorus)
- ¶ – Finale featuring Nancy Welford with WB Vitaphone orchestra – "Song of the Gold Diggers" introduction/"Tip-toe thru the Tulips" (instrumental WB Vitaphone orchestra) /"Painting the Clouds with Sunshine" (instrumental WB Vitaphone orchestra) and chorus/"Mechanical Man" (instrumental WB Vitaphone orchestra) / Nancy Welford with WB Vitaphone orchestra – "Song of the Gold Diggers" – reprise and finale.
Reception
Box office
According to Warner Bros records, the film earned $2,540,000 domestically and $1,427,000 foreign. It was the studio's most popular film of the year.[3]
Critical
Contemporary reviews by film critics were very positive. Mordaunt Hall wrote in his review for The New York Times:
The fun, coupled with the lovely pastel shades, the tuneful melodies, a sensible narrative, competent acting and elaborate stage settings, resulted in an extraordinarily pleasing entertainment. It caused one to meditate in the end on the remarkable progress of the screen, for not only are the voices reproduced with rare precision, but every opportunity is taken of the Technicolor process in producing the hues and glitter of a musical comedy.[13]
Variety called it "a very good entertainment on the screen" and highly acclaimed Lightner's performance, writing, "Somebody tossed the picture right into Winnie Lightner's lap, or else she stole it." It, too, was very impressed by the color process, writing, "While the Warners' Say It with Songs is also an all-colored talker, somehow here the Technicolor process appears to give a greater strength to the picture; a part of it."[14]
Preservation
Gold Diggers of Broadway was filmed using the
Two excerpts from the film were to have been released as bonus features on the 80th Anniversary 3-Disc Deluxe Edition DVD of
Reel(s) | Preservation |
---|---|
1–3 | Believed to be held in the BFI archive, soundtrack discs exist. |
4–8 | Film presumed lost, soundtrack discs exist. |
9 | Film survives nearly complete, soundtrack disc exists. |
10 | Film survives except final minute, soundtrack disc exists. |
In popular culture
- Gold Diggers of Broadway is referenced in Michael Moorcock's book Breakfast in the Ruins. In a scene set in 1929, an American boy takes his girlfriend to see it.
- Another reference is in Ariel Archer’s book “Bridges of Onyx and Gold,” where the two protagonists attend the film’s debut in New York in late August of 1929.
See also
- List of early color feature films
- List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)
- List of incomplete or partially lost films
- List of early Warner Bros. talking features
References
- ^ a b c d e Gold Diggers of Broadway at the American Film Institute Catalog
- .
- ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1–31 p 10 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
- ^ IBDB The Gold Diggers
- ISBN 0-634-00765-3
- IMDb, imdb.com; accessed August 11, 2015.
- ^ NBC. "Nick Lucas, Phyllis Diller, Victoria May 'Miss Vicki' Budinger, Tiny Tim, host Johnny Carson" Getty Images (December 17, 1969)
- ^ a b Kalmus, H. T. "Tecnicolor Adventures in Cinemaland" Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (December 1938); republished in Fielding, Raymond, ed. A Technological History of Motion Pictures and Television Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1967. p.55
- ^ "Technicolor history" The American WideScreen Museum (1999–2003). Accessed December 5, 2015
- ^ a b c "Technicolor history" The American WideScreen Museum (1999–2003). Accessed November 19, 2015.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Songs Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved July 30, 2016.
- ^ Gill, Alfredo & His Band and Vocal Chorus "The Gold Diggers of Broadway" London: Edison Bell Winner Record
- ^ Hall, Mordaunt (August 31, 1929). "Movie Review". The New York Times. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
- ^ "Gold Diggers of B'way". Variety. New York. September 4, 1929. p. 13.
- ^ Mosher, John (September 7, 1929). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. p. 75.
- Film Daily. New York. September 8, 1929. p. 9.
- ^ "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute".
- ^ "Collections Search | BFI | British Film Institute".
- ^ "TOP 10 Best New DVD Releases of 2019 - Latest Info". Best 7 Reviews. March 8, 2019.
- ^ "Gold Diggers of 1937". September 16, 2008 – via Amazon.
- ^ Gold Diggers of Broadway, youtube.com; accessed August 11, 2015.
External links
- Gold Diggers of Broadway at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Gold Diggers of Broadway at IMDb
- Gold Diggers of Broadway Soundtrack on Internet Archive
- Gold Diggers of Broadway at the TCM Movie Database
- Synopsis at AllMovie
- Gold Diggers of Broadway on YouTube
- Early Technicolor discoveries from the BFI National Archive on YouTube(Gold Diggers of Broadway clip starts at 4:53)