“The Hollywood Revue of 1929” on TCM
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 is going to air on Turner Classic Movies on Friday, January 3rd at 6:00am PST.
/HollywoodRevue10.jpg)
I swear I am going to take a break from blogging at some point! In the meantime, TCM continues to make me work by airing another early MGM flick with an appearance by an uncredited Ann Dvorak. Unlike yesterday’s film, Our Blushing Brides, where Ann is onscreen for seconds, she is present throughout most of Hollywood Revue as a member of the chorus. She even gets to utter two words and slap Jack Benny in the face. I wrote a bit more extensively about the film a few years back, which you can take a look at here.
The above photo is actually a fairly new purchase. Unfortunately, because it’s from the Lon Chaney number in the film (which he does not actually appear), I ended up paying way more on eBay than I would have liked, but so is the life of the crazed collector. Ann is on the far left.
Mercifully, for the first time in 367 days I shall not be blogging tomorrow (unless someplace like the New York Times reviews my book). Cheers!
What a curio.
Spent most of the time during the production numbers trying to spot AD.
Agree with your review that “Lon Chaney’s Gonna Get You If You Don’t Watch Out” was one of the highlights.
Not that I’m complaining, but the girl who emerged from what looked like a giant shell in “The Adagio Dance” number was, ahem, rather scantily clad. To say the least.
The Romeo and Juliet sequence with an exceptionally pretty Norma Shearer and surprisingly lively John Gilbert, with the ‘updated’ Shakespearean dialog, was not bad either.
And speaking of ‘lively’ and ‘surprising’, they might describe the Marion Davies number in this. More evidence, perhaps, that she was nothing like the talentless Susan Alexander Kane that she was caricatured as being a dozen years later by Orson Welles in “Citizen Kane”
those “Revue” films are usually quite a slog to get through. i recorded this one because its pre-code and i must see it but still…ugh. from the looks of it there is some nice Deco settings so that might help 😀 congrats on all the praise showered on your book, my copy will be here shortly, thank you amazon gift card 😀
For me, Hollywood Revue is watchable for the “Where’s Ann Dvorak?” scenes of which there are many. It has its bright spots, as Scott mentioned, but I also find myself hitting fast forward.
Can’t wait to hear what you think of the book!