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Well, we've made it to 1929! And as mentioned in "The Next Four", although I can't actually watch the first four films 1929, I have done a little research into their history...
Despite being a commercial hit, Close Harmony survives only in 4 “quite shrunken” film reels at the UCLA Film and TV Archives. Close Harmony was directed by a duo, John Cromwell, a Broadway actor and later to become an established film director (and father of James Cromwell, better known as Farmer Hoggett inBabe, or George Sibley in that most fabulous of television series Six Feet Under), and Arthur Sutherland, an already established Hollywood director and actor. According to the book The First Hollywood Musicals, this kind of pairing of Hollywood and Broadway directors was common for Paramount movies at the time, with the belief that “the stage-trained half could concentrate on handling dialogue”.
Despite being a commercial hit, Close Harmony survives only in 4 “quite shrunken” film reels at the UCLA Film and TV Archives. Close Harmony was directed by a duo, John Cromwell, a Broadway actor and later to become an established film director (and father of James Cromwell, better known as Farmer Hoggett inBabe, or George Sibley in that most fabulous of television series Six Feet Under), and Arthur Sutherland, an already established Hollywood director and actor. According to the book The First Hollywood Musicals, this kind of pairing of Hollywood and Broadway directors was common for Paramount movies at the time, with the belief that “the stage-trained half could concentrate on handling dialogue”.
Close Harmony is another “vaudeville backstage hit”, because while talkies were taking off, it made sense to go to the other “talking” entertainment of the day, vaudeville and Broadway! The stars of the film were the beautiful Nancy Carroll and the dapper Charles “Buddy” Rogers. Both had recently starred in one of Paramount’s most successful silent films, and it was decided to showcase their musical talents in a talkie. Nancy Carroll was an established Broadway actress, and would go onto become a popular film actress. According to the IMDB, she received more fan mail than “any of her Hollywood peers of the same era”. I look forward to actually watching her perform in a later film for 1929, Sweetie. Charles “Buddy” Rogers was already an established film actor, having starred in the 1927 film Wings, the first film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards (of which you can read a modern day review by Matt Foster, an Aussie actor in New York who inspired this project with his blog “Matt vs. The Academy", and his attempt to watch every movie ever nominated for Best Picture). Rogers was also a talented musican, and is reported to have been able to play instruments from all sections of the orchestra!
As talkies really start to take off, and as mentioned in my post about Lucky Boy, we begin to see some artistic merit being displayed in the cinematography. Again according to The First Hollywood Musicals, “Cromwell and Sutherland exhibit some dexterirty with the camera, twice using lenghty shots that move the action from the dressing rooms to the Babylon stage area”.
Despite being a commercial success, it is possible that the film was not well received critically. The prominent film magazine of the day, Photoplay, claimed that Close Harmony was “the last word in talking pictures”! Oh critics, what do they really know?!
Close Harmony is a Paramount production, and if the musings of the Vitaphone Blog are anything to go by, it perhaps will not be available for public consumption for a while -
As talkies really start to take off, and as mentioned in my post about Lucky Boy, we begin to see some artistic merit being displayed in the cinematography. Again according to The First Hollywood Musicals, “Cromwell and Sutherland exhibit some dexterirty with the camera, twice using lenghty shots that move the action from the dressing rooms to the Babylon stage area”.
Despite being a commercial success, it is possible that the film was not well received critically. The prominent film magazine of the day, Photoplay, claimed that Close Harmony was “the last word in talking pictures”! Oh critics, what do they really know?!
Close Harmony is a Paramount production, and if the musings of the Vitaphone Blog are anything to go by, it perhaps will not be available for public consumption for a while -
Close Harmony is one of a large clutch of Paramount early talkies that survive and enjoy good health, yet remain largely unseen save for sporadic archive screenings. So it goes. Oh, for a boxed DVD set of Paramount's contribution to the early sound era!
I couldn’t agree more!
UPDATE: Review can be read here.
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