{"id":24355,"date":"2017-02-22T18:00:47","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T23:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=24355"},"modified":"2017-02-22T18:40:55","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T23:40:55","slug":"the-talk-of-hollywood-1929","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/22\/the-talk-of-hollywood-1929\/","title":{"rendered":"The Talk of Hollywood (1929)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the release of \u201cThe Jazz Singer<\/a>,\u201d which forever changed the way audiences see and hear films. Today, it is difficult to imagine the chaos that sound recording brought to the film industry, but back in the day the introduction of the microphone and the sound engineer resulted in the destruction of some prominent careers.<\/p>\n

The 1929 independent feature \u201cThe Talk of Hollywood\u201d was the first film to detail the impact that the \u201ctalkies\u201d had on the motion picture capital. The production also takes advantage of the lenient Pre-Code era by incorporating racy and politically incorrect humor into its often-savage satire of the business side of the movie world.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The center of \u201cThe Talk of Hollywood\u201d is the producer J. Pierpont Ginsburg, played by comic Nat Carr. With his thick Yiddish accent, his endless slaughtering of English (\u201cTalking pictures are in their infantry!\u201d) and his constant cheapness in keeping the budget down, Ginsburg is a ferocious parody of the Jewish executives that ran the major Hollywood studios. But despite his bluster and penny pinching, Ginsburg is also a sentimentalist who pines for his late wife and dotes on his adult daughter, who is engaged to his young (and Christian) lawyer John Applegate.<\/p>\n

Ginsburg made his fortune in silent movies, but the arrival of talkies put his studio in an uproar. He is appalled by the effeminate speaking voice of his new leading man and declares, \u201cThis is a drama, not a fairy tale.\u201d When coaching an African-American actor, he wonders aloud, \u201cIs this the way a darkie talks?\u201d And when his script writer envisions an elaborate death for the leading lady, Ginsburg frowns and insists, \u201cWe\u2019ll have her shot \u2013 it\u2019s cheaper!\u201d But Ginsburg has no problem admiring the shapely legs of his shiksa chorus girls \u2013 and one tries to audition but stammers terribly, he quickly assures here that he will \u201cwrite her a dancing part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to Ginsburg\u2019s first talking picture is the French performer Adore Renee (a riff on MGM\u2019s French star Renee Adoree). This Gallic import doesn\u2019t arrive on the set until three in the afternoon, but her flirtatious behavior with Ginsburg makes him forgive her tardiness and the expenses created by her behavior. Mlle. Renee is played by one Fay Marbe, who is identified in the opening titles as an \u201cinternational star\u201d but whose movie career ended with this work. Her lack of cinematic longevity is a shame, because she had a gift for light comedy and was more than adequate in the song-and-dance department.<\/p>\n

Ginsburg\u2019s production gets completed, thanks to a last-minute loan from his prospective son-in-law, but the screening for prospective distributors is nearly ruined by a drunk Irish projectionist who mixes up the film reels and the sound discs, thus creating a mess where the wrong voices and sound effects are matched against the visuals. Ginsburg tries to stop the showing, but a belligerent Irish security guard does not recognize him and physically prevents him from entering the projection booth. Ginsburg is resigned to ruin, except for a single distributor who mistakes the work for a comedy and agrees to finance more Ginsburg talkies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Talk of Hollywood\u201d suffers from the staginess that was prevalent in the early sound film productions, and the musical numbers proceed in a clunky (though charming) manner. Carr\u2019s irascible and often rude Ginsburg is a wonderful anti-hero, though a late scene when he pours his soul to his late wife\u2019s ghost goes too heavy into pathos and becomes uncomfortable. And, yes, the politically incorrect humor is a shock in today\u2019s too-touchy world, but the film plays equal-opportunity-offender and everyone gets smacked. (Oh, I almost forgot \u2013 there is also a temperamental Italian tenor.)<\/p>\n

This film is an early work by Mark Sandrich, a director whose name is often forgotten today but who was responsible for helming five of the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical features including the sublime \u201cTop Hat\u201d plus the Bing Crosby classic \u201cHoliday Inn.\u201d Considering the low budget and primitive technology he had to work with, Sandrich did a fine job with this film.<\/p>\n

For many years, \u201cThe Talk of Hollywood\u201d was only available in not-pristine copies generated from a depository print in the Library of Congress. A genuine hero in saving this work from obscurity is film historian John K. Carpenter, who purchased a deteriorating print in 1978 for $20 and, in his words, \u201cwent through financial and personal hell to save this film.\u201d Carpenter\u2019s print is available for home entertainment viewing from Alpha Video<\/a> on DVD and it is visually superior to the crummy dupes that are floating around the Internet and on collector-to-collector sites. If anyone wants to experience this rare and fascinating gem, the Alpha Video release is the only way to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the release of \u201cThe Jazz Singer,\u201d which forever changed the way audiences see and hear films. Today, it is difficult to imagine the chaos that sound recording brought to the film industry, but back in the day the introduction of the microphone and the sound engineer resulted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":24356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369],"tags":[219,1587,700,1589,1588,1586],"class_list":["post-24355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retro-cinema","tag-comedy","tag-mark-sandrich","tag-musical","tag-politically-incorrect","tag-pre-code","tag-the-talk-of-hollywood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24355"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24359,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24355\/revisions\/24359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}