Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

De Leon Anthony (titles)
Avery Hopwood (play)

Release Date:

30 August 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot Keywords:

Two Strip Technicolor | Backstage | Partially Lost Film | Remake | Based On Play

Cast

Nancy Welford	...	Jerry
Conway Tearle	...	Stephen Lee
Winnie Lightner	...	Mabel
Ann Pennington	...	Ann Collins
Lilyan Tashman	...	Eleanor
William Bakewell	...	Wally
Nick Lucas	...	Nick
Helen Foster	...	Violet
Albert Gran	...	Blake
Julia Swayne Gordon	...	Cissy Gray
Lee Moran	...	Dance Director
Armand Kaliz	...	Barney Barnett
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louise Beavers	...	Sadie the Maid
Neely Edwards	...	Stage Manager
Gertrude Short	...	Topsy
Judith Wood		(as Helen Johnson)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Only small fragments of the movie (last reel except the final minute) and parts of the soundtracks on disks are known to exist. Please check your attic. (May 1999 update: reel 1 and a further one were recently found.)

Quotes:

[last lines]
Mabel: I... I am... I... Oh, damn it, I forgot my second line!

Movie Connections:

Followed by Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936)

Soundtrack:

Go To Bed

a 10 out of 10 because of its value

this film is lost! well... partially lost, it is. so how do I know Gold Diggers of Broadway? thanks to the wonderful invention of the DVD (in this case the Busby Berkeley Collection Volume 2). It had the song 'Tip Toe through the Tulips' and the song of the climax of the movie.

the last weeks, I've been repeating the song 'Tip Toe through the Tulips' in my head. why? because I saw the fantastic trailer of Jack Smith's 'Flaming Creatures' on the music of the song mentioned before. however, that song is not in the movie (Flaming Creatures) itself. so I returned home very sad and I searched the net on the song (many times I found the version of the song sung by Tiny Tim - a revelation in fact).

but now I bought vol2 of Busby Berkeley and on the DVD of Gold Diggers of 1937 it was one of the extra's. what a beautiful extra this is! probably the best performed version of the song. wasn't Berkeley one of the crew members? it does have some of the known Berkeley factors, like the opening roses with dancers/singers in.

it's really a shame this movie is lost and I certainly hope one day somebody will find a secret place with all lost films ever made. in the hidden vault of Jack Warner perhaps (just joking)?