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This one is primarily interesting to those who like to study the early American sound films. Others may find themselves nodding off.<br /><br />Since I am a follower of this period of film I stayed with it. As a very early example of sound film (1929)it has a lot in common with other films shot at the time: dreadful script, wooden acting, and no background music. The rule for speaking at the time must have been "speak slowly and with great emphasis". The result is an unnatural, stiff and sometimes hilarious delivery.<br /><br />Most of the films shot around this time were shot with multiple cameras covering a variety of angles, but all running at the same time so that the scene could be played without stopping. Interestingly, this seems to have been one of the early attempts at using one camera shooting an angle at a time and then using editing to make the scene move. This is course the technique that would become standard in later years. So I give the producers credit for taking the time to assemble the film in a more cinematic and less theatrical style.<br /><br />One side note. This film was shot using the RCA Photophone sound process, where the sound is recorded on a separate strip of film optically. During the editing process they apparently had not yet developed a way to make the splices on the sound-track noiseless. So every time a cut is made you can hear a little pop on the sound. This would be corrected fairly quickly, but this one may have been made to satisfy the public's insatiable appetite for sound films and rushed to market.<br /><br />Slow, creaky, and of it's time, but interesting to me anyway. |