The Letter, Hallelujah, The Broadway Melody, Longfellow's Evangeline

1929 Movies

The Letter, based on the Somerset Maugham story, was first filmed in 1929 with the stage star, Jeanne Eagels, in the lead. Jean Limur directed it for Paramount. In the shot above are Miss Eagels and Herbert Marshall as the lover. In the remake Marshall played the role of the husband, this time opposite Bette Davis.

One of the finest pictures of the year was Hallelujah, directed with masterly sensitivity and sympathy by King Vidor, for M-G-M. This story of the community soul of the Negro included this famous revival scene.

Another M-G-M contribution to 1929 was The Broadway Melody. This was a story of backstage life, with plenty of singing, dancing, and chorus work introduced plausibly enough to delight a large public. Three of its leading actors achieved individual triumphs.

United Artists produced a screen version of Longfellow's Evangeline that was part talkie and had a synchronized musical score underlining the story with great effectiveness. Furthermore, it had a beautiful setting, excellent photography, and Dolores Del Rio.

A year previously, in 1928, a young man named Walt Disney (he was then twenty-seven years old) had produced an animated cartoon--silent, of course --called Plane Crazy. Its principal character was a promising young actor destined to become famous as Mickey Mouse. In 1929, Disney again starred his precocious rodent in Steamboat Willie, shown here --the first Mickey Mouse with sound.

That same year, Disney produced The Skeleton Dance, the first "Silly Symphony." Its historical importance lies in the fact that it was the forerunner of his Fantasia, for it was an animated interpretation of a standard orchestral work--in this case, SaintSaëns' Danse macabre.

Of all the important stars, Garbo alone persisted in appearing in a silent film. Though practicing English, she felt that her speech was not vet good enough to risk in a talkie. In 1929 she starred in A Woman of Affairs, a screen version of Michael Arlen's popular novel, The Green Hat. John Gilbert was again her leading man.