- Published on
Warner Archive Collection DVD Cover
Date of Release: March 26, 1930
Studio: Warner Bros
Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Walter Morosco
Cinematographer: Barney McGill
Editor: Owen Marks
Screenplay: Gordon Rigby, Joseph Jackson
Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Sound: George R. Groves
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Leading Actors:
Al Jolson (Al Fuller)
Lois Moran (Nora Meadows)
Louise Dresser (Mrs. Fuller)
Lowell Sherman (Westy)
Noah Beery (Tonopaw Red)
Hobart Bosworth (Meadows)
Tully Marshall (Slats)
Mitchell Lewis (Tambo)
Lee Moran (Flat Feet)
Jack Curtis (Sheriff)
Stanley Fields (Pig Eyes)
Ray Cooke (Props)
Mammy was a film adaptation of Mr. Bones, an unproduced play by Irving Berlin and James Gleason.
The screenplay was written by Gordon Rigby and Joseph Jackson as a star vehicle for Al Jolson who had starred in the early talkies The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928), and Say it With Songs (1929).
Mammy was directed by Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian-American director whose incredibly prolific career would span over half a century (more on Curtiz below).
The film was released by Warner Bros in March 1930. Advertising centered around Al Jolson, and the minstrel show within the film. A print ad in Variety showed images of Jolson in a top hat and tails, Jolson in black face, and a marching band in front of a marquee blazing Al Jolson’s name. The ad exclaimed, “Nothing but laughs! Joyous Jolson Jubilee… Jokes, Jazz, Jollity!”
According to Variety, Al Jolson performed in person at the film’s opening, singing “I’m Happy” with Arthur Johnson on the piano. Jolson reportedly told the audience “I hope you’re not kidding me; that you really like this picture, although I suppose in the morning I will read where some cuckoo says it’s lousy.”
Mammy received mixed reviews. Most noted the film was one of the Jolson’s best, and praised Louise Dresser’s performance. Critics also lamented the thin plot and when they mentioned Lois Moran either found her lackluster or described her with belittling language.
Norbert Lusk, writing for Picture Play Magazine, stated “There's a great deal more fun and geniality woven into the mammy-o theme than in Mr. Jolson's early pictures.” Lusk noted the lack of tear-jerking sentimentality Jolson was known for - “…the story does not matter: it's Jolson's singing you want.” Of the leading lady, Lusk wrote “Miss Moran is a nice little heroine.”
Variety described Mammy as “A lively picture playing fast… This picture has something that is now all by itself in America, and that might be worth a strong plug in exploitation–a minstrel show.” The reviewer also made a rare mention of the use of Technicolor, stating it “Looks good.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Robert M. Coates noted that despite his own general dislike of minstrel shows, Al Jolson and Irving Berlin’s score provided “some pleasant moments.”
The Ohio State Lantern’s film and stage critic Seth W. Mattingly, Jr. described Mammy as a “delightful story of minstrel life, with plenty of songs… and plenty of dances.” Mattingly Jr. stated Dressler “plays the title role admirably.”
Al Jolson received a Photoplay award for “Best Performances of the Month (June)”.
Mammy was not commercially successful. As noted by Curtiz’s biographer Alan K. Rode, “Although the picture was one of the more entertaining of Jolson’s movies, Mammy grossed less than $200,000 over its considerable cost.” Musical theatre historian John Kerick states that by 1930, Al Jolson’s “reign as a top Hollywood star was already over.”
An original print of Mammy, including some two-strip Technicolor footage, was discovered in the Netherlands in the early 2000s. The print was restored by the UCLA Film and TV Archive and screened at the UCLA Film & Television Archive Eleventh Festival of Preservation in 2002.
In 2010, Mammy was released on the Warner Archive Collection label in 2010 (which was coincidentally a week shy of the 48th anniversary of director Michael Curtiz’s death). George Feltenstein, a Warner Home Video executive, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times stating that the issue of blackface was carefully considered in releasing Mammy –
“The archive collection makes it possible for us to release a film like this in a historical context as opposed to someone just innocently putting the movie on a shelf in a store not knowing what it is and running the risk of being viewed out of context.”
Modern day reviewers agreed despite the difficult issue of blackface, Al Jolson’s performance was the highlight of an otherwise tepid film. New York Times film critic Dave Kehr noted that Al Jolson was “Simultaneously one of the most significant and most embarrassing show business figures of the 20th century…” and “What once seemed progressive a way of introducing African-American music to a wider public now seems anything but.” Kehr enjoyed the restored Technicolor sequences, stating they “have a bright, busy, carnavalesque look appropriate for numbers like “Yes, We Have No Bananas” and the ribald “Night Boat to Albany.””
Reviewer Glenn Erickson felt that Mammy was one of Al Jolson’s “better musical vehicles” and stated that the film “was clearly intended as a nostalgic return to an earlier era of show business still familiar to the 1930 audience.” Erickson enjoyed the DVD, and stated that despite the limitations of the color restoration, “delivers a very clean transfer of this eighty year-old show.”
Film historian John Howard Reid reported that “the archives did a remarkably good job” with the restoration, but felt that the “Overture" was lacking in its sound. Reid berated the flimsy plot, but noted Al Jolson’s work - “Even at his worst… Jolson is still almost the best thing about Mammy…” Reid also had high praise for Louise Dresser, stating she outshone Jolson, and despite “her rather small” role… you’ll never forget her.” Reid concluded, “Just sit back and enjoy all the standard Irving Berlin minstrelsy.”
I found Mammy tedious and painful to watch. A trite plot, with unlikeable people performing in blackface, and a whimpering sap of a leading lady (Lois Moran, who appeared in the now lost 1929 musicals Words and Music and A Song of Kentucky).
After a 7-minute overture, the opening scene shows a parade taking place in the pouring rain.
Al Jolson sings “I’m Happy” in a torrential downpour and reminisces about “cotton fields and Mammy’s arms.”
The majority of the next 20 minutes are devoted to Meadow’s Merry Minstrels, headlined by the “golden voiced” Al Fuller. The show is intertwined with brief scenes letting the cinematic audience know the show is in financial trouble.
The cinematography of the minstrel show is well done. “Here We Are” is a full company minstrel number, complete with tambourines and banjos. The Technicolor number is cleverly filmed, alternating between the house right box of the theatre, front on midshots and close-ups of the actors, wide shots that allow the film audience to see the full stage picture, and also shots from the wings give a behind-the-scenes feel. The Technicolor unfortunately makes the blackface all the more glaring.
After much hamming and stuttering from Al, it turns out the villainous sheriff longs to be in show business and saves the show by becoming a producer. The show tours successfully, and Al’s Mama is sad that Al keeps leaving. Al embraces Mama and kisses her on the lips before jumping on the next train.
Meanwhile, token-girl-in-the-show Nora is unhappy because her crush Westy is a flirtatious fop who has eyes for every pretty girl but her. Al tries to make Westy jealous by proposing to Nora, but it backfires and everyone thinks they’re engaged for real.
Al sings “Looking at You,” a sweet ballad, sung in the context of a rehearsal. Al is framed by the male ensemble, which is an effective bit of staging and camera work. Nora simpers in the wings.
Al gets drunk and sings an up-tempo reprise of “Looking at You” while sitting at the piano before hopping up for a quick tap dance.
Unaware his gun has been loaded for real, Al shoots Westy on stage during their “comedic” bit.
Evading the police, Al hops the “Night Train to Albany” and returns home to his Mama to tell her he has to “go to Europe for three years.” Al sits at the piano and sings to Mama – “I’m Everything to my Mammy.” Louise Dresser barely gets to speak, and looks like she is acting in a silent film. Al kisses her on the lips multiple times, which feels incredibly awkward.
Al returns to the scene of the crime to face the music. Hank has confessed to the shooting, and Al is a free man once again. The final number, a reprise of “I’m Happy” features another parade, this time in Technicolor. The parade includes a shot of a smiling Black Mammy in the crowd. The film ends with Al singing, “Just let me sing and I’m happy!”
While the sappy plot, Al kissing his mother on the lips repeatedly, and Blackface minstrel numbers were painful to watch, researching the film was a lot of fun, and reminds me why I started this insane project in the first place.
It was fascinating to dive into the career of the aforementioned director Michael Curtiz who worked in film from the silent era at the turn of the 20th century through to Hollywood’s Golden Age in the 1960s. Curtiz directed over 170 films in a variety of genres, and is credited with discovering Erroll Flynn and Doris Day. His extensive film credits include the movie musicals Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), This is the Army (1943), Night and Day (1946), Romance on the High Seas (1948), Young Man with a Horn (1950), The Jazz Singer (1952), and White Christmas (1954). I feel it’s important to also mention he directed the film classic Casablanca (1942). You can see glimmers of his future potential in Mammy, but I’m looking forward to getting to his later work.
IMDb lists Orry-Kelly as the (uncredited) costume designer. Given that Orry Kelly was busy designing stage shows in New York between 1927 and 1930, and didn’t join Warner Bros until 1932, it’s doubtful the listing is correct. Despite this, I had so much fun learning about this incredible Australian who left his hometown of Kiama to pursue a creative life in the United States. Orry George Kelly, whose name was hyphenated to Orry-Kelly to make him sound French, worked on over 300 films, won 3 Oscars for Costume Design (An American In Paris (1952), Les Girls (1958), and Some Like it Hot (1960)) and was famous for creating iconic looks for Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Rosalind Russell, and Shirley Maclaine. Gillian Armstrong directed a brilliant documentary about Orry Kelly, Women He’s Undressed, which was released in 2015 and is now available to stream. A short but informative biography by Robert Parkinson, Orry Kelly: Miss Weston’s Protege - The Story of a Great Hollywood Costume Designer was also released in 2015, though is already surprisingly difficult to come by.
On to the next!
Studio: Warner Bros
Director: Michael Curtiz
Producer: Walter Morosco
Cinematographer: Barney McGill
Editor: Owen Marks
Screenplay: Gordon Rigby, Joseph Jackson
Music and Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Sound: George R. Groves
Costumes: Orry-Kelly
Leading Actors:
Al Jolson (Al Fuller)
Lois Moran (Nora Meadows)
Louise Dresser (Mrs. Fuller)
Lowell Sherman (Westy)
Noah Beery (Tonopaw Red)
Hobart Bosworth (Meadows)
Tully Marshall (Slats)
Mitchell Lewis (Tambo)
Lee Moran (Flat Feet)
Jack Curtis (Sheriff)
Stanley Fields (Pig Eyes)
Ray Cooke (Props)
Mammy was a film adaptation of Mr. Bones, an unproduced play by Irving Berlin and James Gleason.
The screenplay was written by Gordon Rigby and Joseph Jackson as a star vehicle for Al Jolson who had starred in the early talkies The Jazz Singer (1927), The Singing Fool (1928), and Say it With Songs (1929).
Mammy was directed by Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian-American director whose incredibly prolific career would span over half a century (more on Curtiz below).
The film was released by Warner Bros in March 1930. Advertising centered around Al Jolson, and the minstrel show within the film. A print ad in Variety showed images of Jolson in a top hat and tails, Jolson in black face, and a marching band in front of a marquee blazing Al Jolson’s name. The ad exclaimed, “Nothing but laughs! Joyous Jolson Jubilee… Jokes, Jazz, Jollity!”
According to Variety, Al Jolson performed in person at the film’s opening, singing “I’m Happy” with Arthur Johnson on the piano. Jolson reportedly told the audience “I hope you’re not kidding me; that you really like this picture, although I suppose in the morning I will read where some cuckoo says it’s lousy.”
Mammy received mixed reviews. Most noted the film was one of the Jolson’s best, and praised Louise Dresser’s performance. Critics also lamented the thin plot and when they mentioned Lois Moran either found her lackluster or described her with belittling language.
Norbert Lusk, writing for Picture Play Magazine, stated “There's a great deal more fun and geniality woven into the mammy-o theme than in Mr. Jolson's early pictures.” Lusk noted the lack of tear-jerking sentimentality Jolson was known for - “…the story does not matter: it's Jolson's singing you want.” Of the leading lady, Lusk wrote “Miss Moran is a nice little heroine.”
Variety described Mammy as “A lively picture playing fast… This picture has something that is now all by itself in America, and that might be worth a strong plug in exploitation–a minstrel show.” The reviewer also made a rare mention of the use of Technicolor, stating it “Looks good.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Robert M. Coates noted that despite his own general dislike of minstrel shows, Al Jolson and Irving Berlin’s score provided “some pleasant moments.”
The Ohio State Lantern’s film and stage critic Seth W. Mattingly, Jr. described Mammy as a “delightful story of minstrel life, with plenty of songs… and plenty of dances.” Mattingly Jr. stated Dressler “plays the title role admirably.”
Al Jolson received a Photoplay award for “Best Performances of the Month (June)”.
Mammy was not commercially successful. As noted by Curtiz’s biographer Alan K. Rode, “Although the picture was one of the more entertaining of Jolson’s movies, Mammy grossed less than $200,000 over its considerable cost.” Musical theatre historian John Kerick states that by 1930, Al Jolson’s “reign as a top Hollywood star was already over.”
An original print of Mammy, including some two-strip Technicolor footage, was discovered in the Netherlands in the early 2000s. The print was restored by the UCLA Film and TV Archive and screened at the UCLA Film & Television Archive Eleventh Festival of Preservation in 2002.
In 2010, Mammy was released on the Warner Archive Collection label in 2010 (which was coincidentally a week shy of the 48th anniversary of director Michael Curtiz’s death). George Feltenstein, a Warner Home Video executive, was quoted in the Los Angeles Times stating that the issue of blackface was carefully considered in releasing Mammy –
“The archive collection makes it possible for us to release a film like this in a historical context as opposed to someone just innocently putting the movie on a shelf in a store not knowing what it is and running the risk of being viewed out of context.”
Modern day reviewers agreed despite the difficult issue of blackface, Al Jolson’s performance was the highlight of an otherwise tepid film. New York Times film critic Dave Kehr noted that Al Jolson was “Simultaneously one of the most significant and most embarrassing show business figures of the 20th century…” and “What once seemed progressive a way of introducing African-American music to a wider public now seems anything but.” Kehr enjoyed the restored Technicolor sequences, stating they “have a bright, busy, carnavalesque look appropriate for numbers like “Yes, We Have No Bananas” and the ribald “Night Boat to Albany.””
Reviewer Glenn Erickson felt that Mammy was one of Al Jolson’s “better musical vehicles” and stated that the film “was clearly intended as a nostalgic return to an earlier era of show business still familiar to the 1930 audience.” Erickson enjoyed the DVD, and stated that despite the limitations of the color restoration, “delivers a very clean transfer of this eighty year-old show.”
Film historian John Howard Reid reported that “the archives did a remarkably good job” with the restoration, but felt that the “Overture" was lacking in its sound. Reid berated the flimsy plot, but noted Al Jolson’s work - “Even at his worst… Jolson is still almost the best thing about Mammy…” Reid also had high praise for Louise Dresser, stating she outshone Jolson, and despite “her rather small” role… you’ll never forget her.” Reid concluded, “Just sit back and enjoy all the standard Irving Berlin minstrelsy.”
I found Mammy tedious and painful to watch. A trite plot, with unlikeable people performing in blackface, and a whimpering sap of a leading lady (Lois Moran, who appeared in the now lost 1929 musicals Words and Music and A Song of Kentucky).
After a 7-minute overture, the opening scene shows a parade taking place in the pouring rain.
Al Jolson sings “I’m Happy” in a torrential downpour and reminisces about “cotton fields and Mammy’s arms.”
The majority of the next 20 minutes are devoted to Meadow’s Merry Minstrels, headlined by the “golden voiced” Al Fuller. The show is intertwined with brief scenes letting the cinematic audience know the show is in financial trouble.
The cinematography of the minstrel show is well done. “Here We Are” is a full company minstrel number, complete with tambourines and banjos. The Technicolor number is cleverly filmed, alternating between the house right box of the theatre, front on midshots and close-ups of the actors, wide shots that allow the film audience to see the full stage picture, and also shots from the wings give a behind-the-scenes feel. The Technicolor unfortunately makes the blackface all the more glaring.
After much hamming and stuttering from Al, it turns out the villainous sheriff longs to be in show business and saves the show by becoming a producer. The show tours successfully, and Al’s Mama is sad that Al keeps leaving. Al embraces Mama and kisses her on the lips before jumping on the next train.
Meanwhile, token-girl-in-the-show Nora is unhappy because her crush Westy is a flirtatious fop who has eyes for every pretty girl but her. Al tries to make Westy jealous by proposing to Nora, but it backfires and everyone thinks they’re engaged for real.
Al sings “Looking at You,” a sweet ballad, sung in the context of a rehearsal. Al is framed by the male ensemble, which is an effective bit of staging and camera work. Nora simpers in the wings.
Al gets drunk and sings an up-tempo reprise of “Looking at You” while sitting at the piano before hopping up for a quick tap dance.
Unaware his gun has been loaded for real, Al shoots Westy on stage during their “comedic” bit.
Evading the police, Al hops the “Night Train to Albany” and returns home to his Mama to tell her he has to “go to Europe for three years.” Al sits at the piano and sings to Mama – “I’m Everything to my Mammy.” Louise Dresser barely gets to speak, and looks like she is acting in a silent film. Al kisses her on the lips multiple times, which feels incredibly awkward.
Al returns to the scene of the crime to face the music. Hank has confessed to the shooting, and Al is a free man once again. The final number, a reprise of “I’m Happy” features another parade, this time in Technicolor. The parade includes a shot of a smiling Black Mammy in the crowd. The film ends with Al singing, “Just let me sing and I’m happy!”
While the sappy plot, Al kissing his mother on the lips repeatedly, and Blackface minstrel numbers were painful to watch, researching the film was a lot of fun, and reminds me why I started this insane project in the first place.
It was fascinating to dive into the career of the aforementioned director Michael Curtiz who worked in film from the silent era at the turn of the 20th century through to Hollywood’s Golden Age in the 1960s. Curtiz directed over 170 films in a variety of genres, and is credited with discovering Erroll Flynn and Doris Day. His extensive film credits include the movie musicals Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), This is the Army (1943), Night and Day (1946), Romance on the High Seas (1948), Young Man with a Horn (1950), The Jazz Singer (1952), and White Christmas (1954). I feel it’s important to also mention he directed the film classic Casablanca (1942). You can see glimmers of his future potential in Mammy, but I’m looking forward to getting to his later work.
IMDb lists Orry-Kelly as the (uncredited) costume designer. Given that Orry Kelly was busy designing stage shows in New York between 1927 and 1930, and didn’t join Warner Bros until 1932, it’s doubtful the listing is correct. Despite this, I had so much fun learning about this incredible Australian who left his hometown of Kiama to pursue a creative life in the United States. Orry George Kelly, whose name was hyphenated to Orry-Kelly to make him sound French, worked on over 300 films, won 3 Oscars for Costume Design (An American In Paris (1952), Les Girls (1958), and Some Like it Hot (1960)) and was famous for creating iconic looks for Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Rosalind Russell, and Shirley Maclaine. Gillian Armstrong directed a brilliant documentary about Orry Kelly, Women He’s Undressed, which was released in 2015 and is now available to stream. A short but informative biography by Robert Parkinson, Orry Kelly: Miss Weston’s Protege - The Story of a Great Hollywood Costume Designer was also released in 2015, though is already surprisingly difficult to come by.
On to the next!
SOURCES
Books
Articles
Websites
Other
Books
- John Howard Reid, Silent Movies Plus! More Silent Films and Early Talkies on DVD, Reid Books (2015)
- Alan K. Rode, Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film, University Press of Kentucky (2017)
- Robert Parkinson, Orry Kelly: Miss Weston’s Protege - The Story of a Great Hollywood Costume Designer, Impact Press (2015)
Articles
- Robert M. Coates, “More Minstrels and Mr. Jolson’s Mammy,” The New Yorker (March 29, 1930), p.11
- Cornelia Emerson, “Summer Program: Festivsal of Preservation,” UCLA Film and Television Archive Newsletter (April/May 2002)
- Glenn Erickson, “Mammy: Restored and Remastered Edition: Warner Archive Collection,” DVDTalk (April 11, 2010)
- Dave Kehr, “Lessons in 20th-Century History,” New York Times (April 16, 2010),
- John Kenrick, “Al Jolson Biography - Part III,” Musicals 101 (2004)
- Susan King, “Rare Al Jolson movie ‘Mammy’ now on DVD,” Los Angeles Times (April 6, 2010)
- Norbert Lusk, “The Screen in Review: A Minstrel’s Mammy,” Picture Play Magazine (July 1930), p.72
- Seth W. Mattingly, Jr., “Stage and Screen: Al Jolson’s “Mammy” In Second Week at Grand,” The Ohio State Lantern (June 9, 1930) p.2
- Uncredited, “Critical Comment on Current Films: Mammy,” Screenland (July 1930), p.87
- Uncredited, “Film Reviews: Mammy,” Variety (April 2, 1930), p.19
- Uncredited, “Hollywood Star Walk: Michael Curtiz,” Los Angeles Times (April 12, 1962)
- Uncredited, “Michael Curtiz, film director, dies,” Los Angeles Times (April 12, 1962), p.1
- Print Ad, Variety, (April 9, 1930), p.13
Websites
- AFI, “Mammy (1930),” Accessed via: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/10535-MAMMY?sid=7a850fea-71c2-4cea-830c-337db6cae5c1&sr=11.621535&cp=1&pos=0
- IMDb, “Michael Curtiz,” Accessed via: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002031/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_1_1
Other
- Dir. Gillian Armstrong, Women He’s Undressed, Damien Parer Productions (2015)
- Published on
Image from IMDb
A mediocre musical that provides a glimpse of Buster Keaton’s brilliant comedy.
Date of Release: March 22, 1930
Studio: MGM
Director: Edward Sedgwick
Cinematographer: Leonard Smith
Editor: William Le Vanway, George Todd
Production Designer: Cedric Gibbons
Screenplay: Richard Schayer, Paul Dickey
Music: Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk
Sound: Karl E. Zint, Douglas Shearer
Choreography: Sammy Lee
Production Designer:
Costumes: David Ward
Leading Actors:
Buster Keaton (Elmer Butts)
Anita Page (Elvira)
Trixie Friganza (Ma)
Robert Montgomery (Larry)
Fred Niblo (Director)
Edgar Dearing (Officer)
Gwen Lee (herself)
John Milan (himself)
Lionel Barrymore (himself)
William Haines (himself, a guest)
Free and Easy was Buster Keaton’s first talkie, and second film with MGM after a non-speaking role in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Buster Keaton was at the height of his career when he made Free and Easy, a somewhat ironic title given his sad decline following his move to MGM.
Production took place at the end of 1929 under the title On the Set. The film was released with the revamped title Free and Easy on March 22, 1930.
The plot follows Elmer Butz (Keaton), manager to Miss Gopher City and aspiring starlet Elvira (Anita Page) as he accompanies Elvira and her mother Ma Plunkett (Trixie Friganza) to Hollywood. After several hilarious mishaps, Elmer finds himself starring in a new musical and is awarded a studio contract. Not all ends happily however, as Elvira leaves to marry Larry (Robert Montgomery).
Demonstrating Keaton’s international appeal, the film was also shot in a Spanish-language version with Spanish actors, including Raquel Torres, and Keaton speaking Spanish phonetically. The Spanish version was released under the title Estrellados. An edited version of the original film with English and French intertitles was released in France.
Reviews were generally positive, praising the behind-the-scenes view into the MGM lot, the performances of Anita Page and Robert Montgomery, and most notably Buster Keaton’s comedic excellence. Reviewer Douglas Fox, writing for trade magazine Exhibitors Herald World, summarized “you have a picture that ought to attract people.” The National Board of Review Magazine noted the film was “exceedingly amusing where the star meets with many comic situations in his hapless manner but less so where he begins making slapstick.”
Buster Keaton received positive to glowing reviews. The New York Times film reviewer Mordaunt Hall enthused “In an extravaganza, with some violently funny episodes and others that are only mildly amusing, Buster Keaton… joins the ranks of the talking screen players and it is a pleasure to report that his voice… thoroughly suits his unique personality.” Writing for Hollywood Filmograph, Ed O’Malley stated Buster Keaton “has busted into the vocables, and if gusts of laughter coming from the auditories can be taken as criterion of his success, he surely has gone over the top with a wam…”
Free and Easy was a commercial hit. According to Keaton biographer James L. Neibaur, the film grossed $438,000 in the US alone. The film was still playing in December 1930, where it was advertised in Canada as “The Star-Studded Comedy Carnival.”
In 1958, Free and Easy was released on television under the title Easy Go.
In the early 1990s, TNT later aired Free and Easy under its original title.
Warner Bros released Free and Easy on DVD in 2004 as part of a 2-disc Buster Keaton Collection that also included The Cameraman, Spite Marriage, and a documentary So Funny It Hurts: Buster Keaton and MGM.
In 2014, the Warner Archive Collection released Free and Easy as a stand-alone DVD which included Estrellados.
Modern day reviewers agree that Keaton’s performance stands out in an otherwise banal film.
Reviewer J. Hoberman stated the film was “less a star vehicle than an advertisement for MGM,” and claimed that “Although inanely framed, Keaton’s performances are more than game.” Film historian Matthew Hoffman describes Free and Easy as “an awkward film,” but praises Buster Keaton’s performance. Hoffman noted “Despite the limitations imposed on him, Keaton is amazing... Unfortunately, when he’s not on the screen, the film is excruciating.”
I confess I had never seen a Buster Keaton movie until Free and Easy, and this film makes me want to seek out more of his work. I agree with other modern day reviewers – Keaton’s comedy is the saving grace of the film, and his sad clown persona is genuinely moving. Trixie Friganza as Ma Plunkett is a terrific foil to Keaton and it’s easy to see why she was a vaudeville headliner in her own right. The only musical numbers are scenes from the film which Elmer inadvertently finds himself in, over-the-top production numbers in period costume which do little to advance the plot.
Date of Release: March 22, 1930
Studio: MGM
Director: Edward Sedgwick
Cinematographer: Leonard Smith
Editor: William Le Vanway, George Todd
Production Designer: Cedric Gibbons
Screenplay: Richard Schayer, Paul Dickey
Music: Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk
Sound: Karl E. Zint, Douglas Shearer
Choreography: Sammy Lee
Production Designer:
Costumes: David Ward
Leading Actors:
Buster Keaton (Elmer Butts)
Anita Page (Elvira)
Trixie Friganza (Ma)
Robert Montgomery (Larry)
Fred Niblo (Director)
Edgar Dearing (Officer)
Gwen Lee (herself)
John Milan (himself)
Lionel Barrymore (himself)
William Haines (himself, a guest)
Free and Easy was Buster Keaton’s first talkie, and second film with MGM after a non-speaking role in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Buster Keaton was at the height of his career when he made Free and Easy, a somewhat ironic title given his sad decline following his move to MGM.
Production took place at the end of 1929 under the title On the Set. The film was released with the revamped title Free and Easy on March 22, 1930.
The plot follows Elmer Butz (Keaton), manager to Miss Gopher City and aspiring starlet Elvira (Anita Page) as he accompanies Elvira and her mother Ma Plunkett (Trixie Friganza) to Hollywood. After several hilarious mishaps, Elmer finds himself starring in a new musical and is awarded a studio contract. Not all ends happily however, as Elvira leaves to marry Larry (Robert Montgomery).
Demonstrating Keaton’s international appeal, the film was also shot in a Spanish-language version with Spanish actors, including Raquel Torres, and Keaton speaking Spanish phonetically. The Spanish version was released under the title Estrellados. An edited version of the original film with English and French intertitles was released in France.
Reviews were generally positive, praising the behind-the-scenes view into the MGM lot, the performances of Anita Page and Robert Montgomery, and most notably Buster Keaton’s comedic excellence. Reviewer Douglas Fox, writing for trade magazine Exhibitors Herald World, summarized “you have a picture that ought to attract people.” The National Board of Review Magazine noted the film was “exceedingly amusing where the star meets with many comic situations in his hapless manner but less so where he begins making slapstick.”
Buster Keaton received positive to glowing reviews. The New York Times film reviewer Mordaunt Hall enthused “In an extravaganza, with some violently funny episodes and others that are only mildly amusing, Buster Keaton… joins the ranks of the talking screen players and it is a pleasure to report that his voice… thoroughly suits his unique personality.” Writing for Hollywood Filmograph, Ed O’Malley stated Buster Keaton “has busted into the vocables, and if gusts of laughter coming from the auditories can be taken as criterion of his success, he surely has gone over the top with a wam…”
Free and Easy was a commercial hit. According to Keaton biographer James L. Neibaur, the film grossed $438,000 in the US alone. The film was still playing in December 1930, where it was advertised in Canada as “The Star-Studded Comedy Carnival.”
In 1958, Free and Easy was released on television under the title Easy Go.
In the early 1990s, TNT later aired Free and Easy under its original title.
Warner Bros released Free and Easy on DVD in 2004 as part of a 2-disc Buster Keaton Collection that also included The Cameraman, Spite Marriage, and a documentary So Funny It Hurts: Buster Keaton and MGM.
In 2014, the Warner Archive Collection released Free and Easy as a stand-alone DVD which included Estrellados.
Modern day reviewers agree that Keaton’s performance stands out in an otherwise banal film.
Reviewer J. Hoberman stated the film was “less a star vehicle than an advertisement for MGM,” and claimed that “Although inanely framed, Keaton’s performances are more than game.” Film historian Matthew Hoffman describes Free and Easy as “an awkward film,” but praises Buster Keaton’s performance. Hoffman noted “Despite the limitations imposed on him, Keaton is amazing... Unfortunately, when he’s not on the screen, the film is excruciating.”
I confess I had never seen a Buster Keaton movie until Free and Easy, and this film makes me want to seek out more of his work. I agree with other modern day reviewers – Keaton’s comedy is the saving grace of the film, and his sad clown persona is genuinely moving. Trixie Friganza as Ma Plunkett is a terrific foil to Keaton and it’s easy to see why she was a vaudeville headliner in her own right. The only musical numbers are scenes from the film which Elmer inadvertently finds himself in, over-the-top production numbers in period costume which do little to advance the plot.
RESEARCH SOURCES
Books
Articles
Websites
Other
Books
- Richard Barrios, A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film, Oxford University Press (1995)
- James L. Neibaur, The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM, Educational Pictures, and Columbia, Bloomsbury (2010)
Articles
- Brian Cady, “Free and Easy,” Turner Classic Movies (Nov 12, 2004)
- Lindsey D, “Free and Easy (1930)” The Motion Pictures (June 5, 2014)
- Douglas Fox, “Service on Pictures: Free and Easy,” Exhibitors Herald-World (April 26, 1930) p.28
- Ed. Bettina Gunczy, “Selected Pictures Guide: Free and Easy,” National Board of Review Magazine (March 1930) p.16
- Mordaunt Hall, “THE SCREEN; Buster Keaton Talks. "Music Hath Charms,” NY Times (April 19, 1930)
- J. Hoberman, “Silent Comic, Finding His Voice,” NY Times (March 23, 2014)
- Matthew Hoffman, “Buster Keaton in Free and Easy (1930),” Park Ridge Classic Film (March 10, 2017)
- Ed O’Malley, “Free and Easy,” Hollywood Filmograph (April 19, 1930), p.29
- Richard T. Ryan, “Want dopey fun? Then play ‘Dodgeball’: New to DVD,” The Ann Arbor News (Dec 10, 2004)
- Uncredited, “The Shadow Stage: Free and Easy,” Photoplay (May 1930), p.55
- Uncredited, “Big All-Star-Cast in “Free and Easy”,” Drumheller Review (Dec 19, 1930), p.4
- Uncredited, “TV Today: Wednesday, August 20, 1958,” Tampa Bay Times, (Aug 20, 1958), p.13B
- Uncredited, “Monday late night,” The Herald: TV Herald (Rock Hill, South Carolina), (Oct 4, 1992), p.11
Websites
- AFI Catalog, “FREE AND EASY (1930)
Accessed via: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/9238-FREE-AND-EASY?cxt=filmography - Buster Keaton, “Keaton’s Films”
Accessed via: https://web.archive.org/web/20120712140907/http://www.busterkeaton.com/ - Criterion Forum, “Buster Keaton Collection”
Accessed via: https://criterionforum.org/Video/buster-keaton-collection-warner-bros-dvd
Other
- Dir. Christopher Bird and Kevin Brownlow, So Funny It Hurts: Buster Keaton and MGM (2004)
- Published on
Instead of filming live musicals on a soundstage, producers should be filming live stage musicals, complete with a live audience, as a better way to give a wider audience access to live musical theatre.
NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! was an ambitious attempt to live-record a musical on a soundstage, and broadcast the feed, live, to the televisions of viewers across America. The production was watched by a massive 18.4 million viewers across the United States. Although the production received mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike, its success in introducing a wide audience to musical theatre has been celebrated.
Filming a live musical and broadcasting it is not a new phenomenon. Since the development of film, artists have attempted to capture live musicals for the screen, and The Sound of Music Live! is another installment in that history.
Gotta Sing!
Starting with the commercialization of film, producers turned to live theatre for content. With the development of the talkies in the 1920s, movie studios filmed short clips of vaudeville stars performing their routines to demonstrate the possibilities of the combination of sound and image. Broadway productions became fodder for Hollywood scripts, and, in the early movie musicals, whole scenes from currently running Broadway musicals were filmed and incorporated into the story. As movie musicals gained confidence and success, and blossomed into their own genre, live stage musicals were filmed less and less for the cinema.
Anything Goes on Television
A revival in the recording of live musical theatre occurred with the development, and availability, of television. The 1950s saw a “golden age” for live theatre on television, with theatre able to provide proven ready-made content, though most of these programs were filmed without a live audience.
Musicals were featured in short excerpts of currently playing productions, and programs such asBell Telephone Hour (NBC), The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS), and Tonight on Broadway (CBS) all featured live excerpts from Broadway. Between 1950 and 1955, the Colgate Comedy Hourfeatured popular shortened versions of contemporary musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, and Wonderful Town.
In 1955 NBC screened a full-length production of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, which thanks to its popular star, flying actors, and a variety of other effects, proved popular enough to continue to be aired into the 1960s. In 1957, CBS aired a live broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews. The production was viewed by over 100 million people.
As with cinema, television production quickly grew more sophisticated, and developed its own content more suited to its medium. Practitioners at the time believed that theatre had to be filmed in one long continuous shot, with the stage frame always visible, in order to create the illusion of the theatre. They were also limited by heavy and bulky cameras. This way of filming, along with poor quality recordings, due to light and sound designed for the theatre and not for television, created content that became less popular, compared to material specifically created for television.
A Niche Market
In 1972 Harold Prince recorded the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
Prince began to break from traditional filming methods, but without a means of distributing the recorded production, filming live theatre did not pick up again until almost a decade later.
The availability of VHS and new filming technologies in the early 1980s gave the filming of live musicals a new chance. The use of the new technologies allowed for the use of cinematic devices such as close-ups, cuts between scenes, and multiple angles. This paved the way for filming live theatre as dynamic and exciting as watching a film or well-produced television show. Through VHS, producers were able to tap into a niche market, and more and more productions were filmed, and distributed for public consumption. Excellent examples from this period include Sondheim’sSunday in the Park with George (1986) and Into the Woods (1991), both produced by Brandman Productions.
Throughout the 1990s, and continuing to the present day, producers have intermittently recorded live musicals, such as Victor/Victoria, Oklahoma!, Candide in Concert, and Love Never Dies, for commercial release on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. The Great Performances series on PBS has also aired many of these productions.
The Internet is Really, Really, Great... (for musicals!)
The availability of the internet in the early 2000s provided another means for distribution to a niche market.YouTube has made it possible to watch excerpts, and indeed whole recordings, of live musical theatre performances. Bootleg recordings, where audience members covertly film a live production and post the footage online, of live musicals are not entirely uncommon. BlueGobo, a kind of Youtube for musical theatre fans, provides an archive of musical theatre clips, mostly television performances, from the 1940s through to the present day.
The quality of clips on YouTube, and even Blue Gobo, can be shaky at best, and illegal at worst. On the bright side, independent companies have used the internet to provide high quality, legal, recordings of live musical productions to viewers. Broadway Worldwide created Direct from Broadway, a pay-per-view program of Broadway productions, including Jekyll and Hyde, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Sondheim’s Putting it Together. In 2010, Digital Theatre, a UK-based online company providing pay-per-view live theatre content, recorded Timothy Sheader’s 2010 Regent’s Park open-air production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. According to Suzie Rendle, Digital Theatre’s Operations Manager, the recording has been very successful, selling “hundreds a month...since the launch,” with downloads in over 63 countries, and increasing.
Martin Franklin, Director of the Digital Media program in the UK’s South Hill Park Centre for the Arts, moved into online video streaming following the success of online podcasts. In June 2012, South Hill Park Arts received a grant from the British Arts Council specifically for live streaming. The first production to be streamed was From Up Here, an original musical developed through Perfect Pitch, a UK-based organization that supports the development of new musicals. The production was streamed live for free, with the hope that the stream would generate interest for future productions, and increase attendance at the theatre itself.
Ohmigod You Guys!
As technology has improved, and recordings have become more sophisticated, the past five to ten years has seen the return of live musical theatre to television, and the cinema. In 2007 Legally Blonde: The Musical, was the first live musical production to air on television whilst still playing on Broadway. The producers aimed to use the broadcast to boost ticket sales, both on Broadway and for the national tour, and it worked. Two years after the screening, Variety reported that the telecast, along with the reality television program, Legally Blonde Search for the New Elle Woods, had helped to ensure strong ticket sales, and a continuous running tour since the show’s Broadway close in 2008. Since Legally Blonde, other Broadway musicals such as Fela!, RENT, and Into the Heights have been recorded and screened on television, and at the cinema. The availability of DVD recordings have been limited due to contractual agreements with performers and creatives.
In 2011, producer Ellen M. Krass filmed a special production of Company: Live from Lincoln Centre. The performance was released into cinemas around the world in 2012. Following the musical itself, the screening included an interview with Krass about the making of the production for cinematic release. Krass stated that she had experienced difficulty in obtaining funding for the project as investors had not yet heard of filming a live musical and releasing it as a commercial product!
Next to Normal Viewing
There are industry concerns that the availability of recorded live performance, whether on television, in the cinema, or on DVD, will replace attendance at the actual live performances. After all, the cost of a movie ticket, or watching content at home on television, or online, is vastly cheaper than the average cost of a theatre ticket.
Outside of musical theatre and into the worlds of opera and “straight” theatre, programs such asThe Met: Live and NT: Live have shown that filming live theatre for cinematic release is immensely profitable, attracts audiences who have not previously attended the theatre, and boosted ticket sales at the theatre themselves. The popularity of Legally Blonde the Musical, and The Sound of Music Live show that there is absolutely a market for filmed live musical theatre.
There is plenty of content ready for filming around the world. From the splendor of the Australian production of Love Never Dies, the fun and frivolity of the National Theatre’s London production ofOklahoma!, and the delight of star performances in the Lincoln Centre’s Company there are shows ready for filming and distribution.
So yes, let’s celebrate the success of The Sound of Music Live!. But rather than creating more soundstage musicals for broadcast, let’s get people into the theatre and film live stage musicals. We’ve been doing it for over a hundred years, and if the content from the last five years is anything to go by, it’s only going to keep getting better.
This article is based on my MA thesis, “Filming Performance: The Filming of Live Stage Musicals for Mass Distribution”, completed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2011.
NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! was an ambitious attempt to live-record a musical on a soundstage, and broadcast the feed, live, to the televisions of viewers across America. The production was watched by a massive 18.4 million viewers across the United States. Although the production received mixed reviews from critics and viewers alike, its success in introducing a wide audience to musical theatre has been celebrated.
Filming a live musical and broadcasting it is not a new phenomenon. Since the development of film, artists have attempted to capture live musicals for the screen, and The Sound of Music Live! is another installment in that history.
Gotta Sing!
Starting with the commercialization of film, producers turned to live theatre for content. With the development of the talkies in the 1920s, movie studios filmed short clips of vaudeville stars performing their routines to demonstrate the possibilities of the combination of sound and image. Broadway productions became fodder for Hollywood scripts, and, in the early movie musicals, whole scenes from currently running Broadway musicals were filmed and incorporated into the story. As movie musicals gained confidence and success, and blossomed into their own genre, live stage musicals were filmed less and less for the cinema.
Anything Goes on Television
A revival in the recording of live musical theatre occurred with the development, and availability, of television. The 1950s saw a “golden age” for live theatre on television, with theatre able to provide proven ready-made content, though most of these programs were filmed without a live audience.
Musicals were featured in short excerpts of currently playing productions, and programs such asBell Telephone Hour (NBC), The Ed Sullivan Show (CBS), and Tonight on Broadway (CBS) all featured live excerpts from Broadway. Between 1950 and 1955, the Colgate Comedy Hourfeatured popular shortened versions of contemporary musicals such as Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, and Wonderful Town.
In 1955 NBC screened a full-length production of Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin, which thanks to its popular star, flying actors, and a variety of other effects, proved popular enough to continue to be aired into the 1960s. In 1957, CBS aired a live broadcast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Julie Andrews. The production was viewed by over 100 million people.
As with cinema, television production quickly grew more sophisticated, and developed its own content more suited to its medium. Practitioners at the time believed that theatre had to be filmed in one long continuous shot, with the stage frame always visible, in order to create the illusion of the theatre. They were also limited by heavy and bulky cameras. This way of filming, along with poor quality recordings, due to light and sound designed for the theatre and not for television, created content that became less popular, compared to material specifically created for television.
A Niche Market
In 1972 Harold Prince recorded the London production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company.
Prince began to break from traditional filming methods, but without a means of distributing the recorded production, filming live theatre did not pick up again until almost a decade later.
The availability of VHS and new filming technologies in the early 1980s gave the filming of live musicals a new chance. The use of the new technologies allowed for the use of cinematic devices such as close-ups, cuts between scenes, and multiple angles. This paved the way for filming live theatre as dynamic and exciting as watching a film or well-produced television show. Through VHS, producers were able to tap into a niche market, and more and more productions were filmed, and distributed for public consumption. Excellent examples from this period include Sondheim’sSunday in the Park with George (1986) and Into the Woods (1991), both produced by Brandman Productions.
Throughout the 1990s, and continuing to the present day, producers have intermittently recorded live musicals, such as Victor/Victoria, Oklahoma!, Candide in Concert, and Love Never Dies, for commercial release on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. The Great Performances series on PBS has also aired many of these productions.
The Internet is Really, Really, Great... (for musicals!)
The availability of the internet in the early 2000s provided another means for distribution to a niche market.YouTube has made it possible to watch excerpts, and indeed whole recordings, of live musical theatre performances. Bootleg recordings, where audience members covertly film a live production and post the footage online, of live musicals are not entirely uncommon. BlueGobo, a kind of Youtube for musical theatre fans, provides an archive of musical theatre clips, mostly television performances, from the 1940s through to the present day.
The quality of clips on YouTube, and even Blue Gobo, can be shaky at best, and illegal at worst. On the bright side, independent companies have used the internet to provide high quality, legal, recordings of live musical productions to viewers. Broadway Worldwide created Direct from Broadway, a pay-per-view program of Broadway productions, including Jekyll and Hyde, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, and Sondheim’s Putting it Together. In 2010, Digital Theatre, a UK-based online company providing pay-per-view live theatre content, recorded Timothy Sheader’s 2010 Regent’s Park open-air production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. According to Suzie Rendle, Digital Theatre’s Operations Manager, the recording has been very successful, selling “hundreds a month...since the launch,” with downloads in over 63 countries, and increasing.
Martin Franklin, Director of the Digital Media program in the UK’s South Hill Park Centre for the Arts, moved into online video streaming following the success of online podcasts. In June 2012, South Hill Park Arts received a grant from the British Arts Council specifically for live streaming. The first production to be streamed was From Up Here, an original musical developed through Perfect Pitch, a UK-based organization that supports the development of new musicals. The production was streamed live for free, with the hope that the stream would generate interest for future productions, and increase attendance at the theatre itself.
Ohmigod You Guys!
As technology has improved, and recordings have become more sophisticated, the past five to ten years has seen the return of live musical theatre to television, and the cinema. In 2007 Legally Blonde: The Musical, was the first live musical production to air on television whilst still playing on Broadway. The producers aimed to use the broadcast to boost ticket sales, both on Broadway and for the national tour, and it worked. Two years after the screening, Variety reported that the telecast, along with the reality television program, Legally Blonde Search for the New Elle Woods, had helped to ensure strong ticket sales, and a continuous running tour since the show’s Broadway close in 2008. Since Legally Blonde, other Broadway musicals such as Fela!, RENT, and Into the Heights have been recorded and screened on television, and at the cinema. The availability of DVD recordings have been limited due to contractual agreements with performers and creatives.
In 2011, producer Ellen M. Krass filmed a special production of Company: Live from Lincoln Centre. The performance was released into cinemas around the world in 2012. Following the musical itself, the screening included an interview with Krass about the making of the production for cinematic release. Krass stated that she had experienced difficulty in obtaining funding for the project as investors had not yet heard of filming a live musical and releasing it as a commercial product!
Next to Normal Viewing
There are industry concerns that the availability of recorded live performance, whether on television, in the cinema, or on DVD, will replace attendance at the actual live performances. After all, the cost of a movie ticket, or watching content at home on television, or online, is vastly cheaper than the average cost of a theatre ticket.
Outside of musical theatre and into the worlds of opera and “straight” theatre, programs such asThe Met: Live and NT: Live have shown that filming live theatre for cinematic release is immensely profitable, attracts audiences who have not previously attended the theatre, and boosted ticket sales at the theatre themselves. The popularity of Legally Blonde the Musical, and The Sound of Music Live show that there is absolutely a market for filmed live musical theatre.
There is plenty of content ready for filming around the world. From the splendor of the Australian production of Love Never Dies, the fun and frivolity of the National Theatre’s London production ofOklahoma!, and the delight of star performances in the Lincoln Centre’s Company there are shows ready for filming and distribution.
So yes, let’s celebrate the success of The Sound of Music Live!. But rather than creating more soundstage musicals for broadcast, let’s get people into the theatre and film live stage musicals. We’ve been doing it for over a hundred years, and if the content from the last five years is anything to go by, it’s only going to keep getting better.
This article is based on my MA thesis, “Filming Performance: The Filming of Live Stage Musicals for Mass Distribution”, completed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2011.