Sunnyside Up (1929)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Early Fox talkie has Janet Gaynor playing Molly, a poor girl who lives with her friends in a poor neighborhood but at least she's happy. Jack (Charles Farrell), on the other hand, is rich and lives in a mansion but extremely unhappy because his fiancé won't leave other men alone. Soon Jack and Molly meet and the two decide to make the fiancé jealous but you know what happens. SUNNYSIDE UP was the first full musical to be made for the screen and over the past decade or so it has gathered more and more fans. It's easy to see why the film has gathered some publicity over the years even though it still suffers from many of the problems countless early talkies had. I'll start off with the negative and one is the running time. Clocking in at over two hours the storyline was pretty familiar with 1929 so don't expect any surprises. For the majority of the running time you sit there guessing what's going to happen next and it always does happen. I certainly don't mind the film being unoriginal but it would have helped to at least threw us a few twists along the way. Another problem and one that will probably get me jumped is the fact that Gaynor and Farrell weren't very good singers. I was really shocked to learn that this film was a hit because when I first heard Gaynor's voice I really thought there was something wrong with the soundtrack. It's extremely high-pitched and I couldn't believe that it went over so well with crowds back in the day while other actors with better voices were tosses to the side. Outside of that both Gaylor and Farrell are very good in their fourth of twelve films together. I thought their chemistry was right on the mark and you can't help but be charmed by their silly flirting. Gaynor really is happy-go-lucky and that charm comes flying off the screen. Mary Forbes, Marjorie White, El Brendel and Peter Gawthorne play the supports. The musical numbers are quite large and you can tell that some of them probably had an influence on Busby Berkeley. The songs are rather hit and miss but "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" is certainly one of the highlights of the film. The main highlight is a brilliant opening sequence where the camera appears to film the entire sequence in one shot. We start off with kids playing on the street and then the camera spins around to capture a lot of other action. It goes into stores before rising to view in on people inside their apartments. The camera will then go in and out of rooms as we get to see the life of the poor and this entire sequence is without question the greatest thing I've seen from any of these early talkies. The cinematography was downright breathtaking and even more impressive is how they use the soundtrack during all of this. Considering how poor most of these films always sound it's just shocking to see the technology used here. Originally there were a couple Technicolor scenes but sadly they've been lost to time. SUNNYSIDE UP suffers from familiar territory as well as a long running time but there's enough here to make it worth viewing.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Early Fox talkie has Janet Gaynor playing Molly, a poor girl who lives with her friends in a poor neighborhood but at least she's happy. Jack (Charles Farrell), on the other hand, is rich and lives in a mansion but extremely unhappy because his fiancé won't leave other men alone. Soon Jack and Molly meet and the two decide to make the fiancé jealous but you know what happens. SUNNYSIDE UP was the first full musical to be made for the screen and over the past decade or so it has gathered more and more fans. It's easy to see why the film has gathered some publicity over the years even though it still suffers from many of the problems countless early talkies had. I'll start off with the negative and one is the running time. Clocking in at over two hours the storyline was pretty familiar with 1929 so don't expect any surprises. For the majority of the running time you sit there guessing what's going to happen next and it always does happen. I certainly don't mind the film being unoriginal but it would have helped to at least threw us a few twists along the way. Another problem and one that will probably get me jumped is the fact that Gaynor and Farrell weren't very good singers. I was really shocked to learn that this film was a hit because when I first heard Gaynor's voice I really thought there was something wrong with the soundtrack. It's extremely high-pitched and I couldn't believe that it went over so well with crowds back in the day while other actors with better voices were tosses to the side. Outside of that both Gaylor and Farrell are very good in their fourth of twelve films together. I thought their chemistry was right on the mark and you can't help but be charmed by their silly flirting. Gaynor really is happy-go-lucky and that charm comes flying off the screen. Mary Forbes, Marjorie White, El Brendel and Peter Gawthorne play the supports. The musical numbers are quite large and you can tell that some of them probably had an influence on Busby Berkeley. The songs are rather hit and miss but "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" is certainly one of the highlights of the film. The main highlight is a brilliant opening sequence where the camera appears to film the entire sequence in one shot. We start off with kids playing on the street and then the camera spins around to capture a lot of other action. It goes into stores before rising to view in on people inside their apartments. The camera will then go in and out of rooms as we get to see the life of the poor and this entire sequence is without question the greatest thing I've seen from any of these early talkies. The cinematography was downright breathtaking and even more impressive is how they use the soundtrack during all of this. Considering how poor most of these films always sound it's just shocking to see the technology used here. Originally there were a couple Technicolor scenes but sadly they've been lost to time. SUNNYSIDE UP suffers from familiar territory as well as a long running time but there's enough here to make it worth viewing.