Manhattan Parade

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Manhattan Parade
Directed byLloyd Bacon
Written byHouston Branch
Robert Lord
based on the play by Samuel Shipman
StarringWinnie Lightner
Charles Butterworth
Joe Smith
Charles Dale
CinematographyDevereaux Jennings (Technicolor)
Edited byWilliam Holmes
Music byHarold Arlen
Harry Ruby
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • December 24, 1931 (1931-12-24)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Manhattan Parade is a 1931 American pre-Code musical comedy film photographed entirely in Technicolor.[1] It was originally intended to be released, in the United States, early in 1931, but was shelved due to public apathy towards musicals. Despite waiting a number of months, the public proved obstinate and the Warner Bros. reluctantly released the film in December 1931 after removing all the music. Since there was no such reaction to musicals outside the United States, the film was released there as a full musical comedy in 1931.

The film pokes fun at Al Jolson, who had suffered a downturn in his career due to the public aversion to musical pictures. He had been released from his contract to Warner Bros. late in 1930.

Plot[edit]

Cast[edit]

Cast notes[edit]

  • This was the first of two films which the comedy team of Smith and Dale starred in for Warner Bros., the second being The Heart of New York. The team failed to be the success which Warner Bros. had hoped for and their contract was not renewed.

Production[edit]

The film was the first Warner Bros. film to be filmed in the improved Technicolor process which removed grain and improved both the color and clarity of the film. This improved process had first been used on The Runaround (1931) and resulted in an attempt at a color revival by the studios late in 1931.[2] Variety praised the color work in this film, stating that "the coloring is easy on the eye and never harsh or confusing as the early color pictures were."[3]

Music[edit]

Three songs were written for the film by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler:

  • "I Love a Parade" (Production Number sung by Chorus)
  • "Temporarily Blue" (Sung by Winnie Lightner)
  • "I'm Happy When You're Jealous" (Sung by Winnie Lightner). It was later recorded by Isham Jones and his Orchestra for Brunswick Records (Record Number 6204).[4]

Preservation[edit]

Only a black and white copy of the cut print released in 1931 in the United States seems to have survived. A print is deposited at the Library of Congress.[5] The complete film was released intact in countries outside the United States where a backlash against musicals never occurred. It is unknown whether a copy of this full version still exists. According to the George Eastman Museum 2015 book The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915-1935 a 16mm safety color print (ca. 3200 ft) is held at UCLA.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Variety; Film Reviews; December 29, 1931
  2. ^ Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1931, Page C9; The Washington Post, September 11, 1931, Page 12; Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1931, Page A9
  3. ^ Variety; Film Reviews; December 29, 1931
  4. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 3, 2006. Retrieved April 15, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, (<-book title) p.111 c.1978 by the American Film Institute

External links[edit]

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