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March 6, 2008
Oscar Challenge: The Broadway Melody
Worst. Movie. Ever. Except for Johnny Mnemonic. No, seriously. Remember the other day how I didn't really care for Wings? Yeah, well, forget all about that. Wings was great. Wings had a plot. The characters in Wings developed (or got shot and/or naked).
The Broadway Melody not only had the stupidest, clunkiest plot in any movie I'd ever seen, but there wasn't a SINGLE likable character. Our heroine seemed mostly motivated to prevent her sister (who is secretly in love with the protagonist) from dating this super rich guy. The rich guy did turn out to be a heel, but the hissy fits thrown by "Hank", the older sister, seemed way blown out of proportion. At least Anita Page, who played Queenie, the younger sister, was smokin' hot (but tragically short on brain cells).
And if I never hear the song "Broadway Melody" again, I'll die happy. It's weird that I hated this so much. I usually *love* those backstage musical revue films. I'm excited to watch 1936's offering, The Great Zigfeld. This one, however, was just plain stupid.
Oh, and I almost forgot. On the Special Features menu of the DVD, there was a short (although it wasn't really that short) film called The Dogway Melody. No, I am not making this up. It was a parody of Broadway Melody with DOGS as the actors. It was so horrible that I had to open another bottle of wine.
Comments
Are we just jaded? Perhaps the ensuing 80 years of development in movie making have blinded us to the innocent charm of these earlier films. Or may people in the 20 just had a higher threshold for crap. I'm confident that All Quiet on the Western Front will be better.
Posted by: Nathan at March 6, 2008 11:21 AM
Of course I meant the 1920s, not the 20.
Posted by: Nathan at March 6, 2008 11:22 AM