Even though by 1929 talkies were here to stay it is amazing how many studios were still worried that they were only a passing fad. The easiest explanation to account for the number of films made in both silent and sound versions was the sheer cost involved in fitting out cinemas for "talkie" equipment. A lot of cinemas from little towns couldn't afford the expense of what may have turned out to be just a fad. So while you have Mordaunt Hall of the NYT in 1929 spending most of the review rhapsodizing over the tonal quality of the typewriters, whistles, the fact that Mary Duncan not only had superb diction but could sing and hum and that Warner Baxter managed to convey not only a nervous type, a calm individual but also an unscrupulous specimen just by voice intonations - the only print now available is silent.
This was a pretty nifty court-room drama opened up in a novel way with the viewpoint of both prosecution and defense being shown via flash backs. Myrtle (Florence Lake) and Valerie Briand (Sylvia Sidney) are eager to get seats for the trial of Harvey Manning (debonair Edmund Lowe) - model citizen, dutiful husband but as the camera pans around the court some people remain skeptical. The picture has been painted of the Mannings as a pair of almost sickeningly besotted newly-weds who indulgently smile at their intense friend Jack Winfield (Warner Baxter) who has developed a fixation about Vi (Mary Duncan) and comes to one of their cocktail parties to share some romantic verse he found in a book. Vi feels he is too intense and artistic for her to feel at ease with and when he refuses to leave shots are fired!!
Suddenly the D.A. (with silence you miss Purnell Pratt's raspy drawl) is on his feet, painting a different picture of a couple living in an "open marriage" and part of a loose living cocktail set (Natalie Moorehead's platinum bob is conspicuous). Winfield is more fun loving, scoffing at some mushy poetry he found on his desk. The sequence is seen through a mist of cigarette smoke where even the chauffeur is seen as one of Vi's cast off conquests. Interesting how this section as played silently comes off as so melodramatic, gestures are expansive. Vi sits down to sing and hum and won't be stopped by Harvey's restraining hand.
But wait!! There's one more piece of the puzzle and it is up to Sylvia Sidney as the often mentioned notorious "Elsie Smith" in an emotional fight through the court-room crowd to clear Harvey's name. In this third piece of the triangle, Winfield is portrayed as an out and out rotter. Elsie has been his common law wife but when he tires of her and the baby, puts about the rumour that she is seeing other men. "She doesn't even know the name of the baby's father" would have shocked cinema goers in it's day.
Sylvia Sidney was spotted by talent scouts, along with Frederic March and Florence Eldridge when they were appearing in a play in Denver, Colorado during a lull in Broadway roles. Hollywood was desperate for young stage performers who were able to enunciate clearly to star in the new talkie movies!!
Highly Recommended
This was a pretty nifty court-room drama opened up in a novel way with the viewpoint of both prosecution and defense being shown via flash backs. Myrtle (Florence Lake) and Valerie Briand (Sylvia Sidney) are eager to get seats for the trial of Harvey Manning (debonair Edmund Lowe) - model citizen, dutiful husband but as the camera pans around the court some people remain skeptical. The picture has been painted of the Mannings as a pair of almost sickeningly besotted newly-weds who indulgently smile at their intense friend Jack Winfield (Warner Baxter) who has developed a fixation about Vi (Mary Duncan) and comes to one of their cocktail parties to share some romantic verse he found in a book. Vi feels he is too intense and artistic for her to feel at ease with and when he refuses to leave shots are fired!!
Suddenly the D.A. (with silence you miss Purnell Pratt's raspy drawl) is on his feet, painting a different picture of a couple living in an "open marriage" and part of a loose living cocktail set (Natalie Moorehead's platinum bob is conspicuous). Winfield is more fun loving, scoffing at some mushy poetry he found on his desk. The sequence is seen through a mist of cigarette smoke where even the chauffeur is seen as one of Vi's cast off conquests. Interesting how this section as played silently comes off as so melodramatic, gestures are expansive. Vi sits down to sing and hum and won't be stopped by Harvey's restraining hand.
But wait!! There's one more piece of the puzzle and it is up to Sylvia Sidney as the often mentioned notorious "Elsie Smith" in an emotional fight through the court-room crowd to clear Harvey's name. In this third piece of the triangle, Winfield is portrayed as an out and out rotter. Elsie has been his common law wife but when he tires of her and the baby, puts about the rumour that she is seeing other men. "She doesn't even know the name of the baby's father" would have shocked cinema goers in it's day.
Sylvia Sidney was spotted by talent scouts, along with Frederic March and Florence Eldridge when they were appearing in a play in Denver, Colorado during a lull in Broadway roles. Hollywood was desperate for young stage performers who were able to enunciate clearly to star in the new talkie movies!!
Highly Recommended