Guest Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 LIGHTS OF NEW YORK was the first "all-taking" feature film, coming in at a brisk 57 minutes and directed by Bryan Foy (of the famous vaudeville family). The story has two dopey barbers (Cullen Landis, Eugene Palette) yearning for a chance at "big city life" and getting involved with gangsters and bootleg booze. One of the guys gets framed for the murder of a cop but is saved at the last minute by a gun moll (Gladys Brockwell). Much of the story takes place in a night club called The Night Hawk, which is run by a crook named Hawk (Wheeler Oakman) who has his eye on a pretty chorine (Helene Costello) who is the girl friend of Landis. Costello gets to do a brief dance, and we hear Harry Downing (made up to resemble Ted Lewis) sing "At Dawning) in his best Al Jolson style. The acting ranges from good (Palette and Brockwell) to awful (Oakman). A couple of the actors **** their lines but then keep right on with the scene. As noted elsewhere this was intended to be a short 2-reeler and was made on a shoestring budget of under $25,000. Yet the sound quality is surprisingly good, the voices all register clearly, and there is a neat cinematic touch in the silhouette death. There is a priceless moment when Landis and Pallette hide a "stiff" by propping him up in a barber chair and pretend to shave him. The film was a box-office smash even though it was shown as a silent film where theaters were not wired for the new sound technology. No one expected this little film to gross an amazing $1.3 million. LIGHTS OF NEW YORK helped to cement the popularity of talkies. It also briefly made stars of Helene Costello (sister of Dolores Costello) and Cullen Landis and certainly launched Eugene Pallette on his long career as a star character actor. Co-stars include Mary Carr as the mother, Robert Elliott as the detective, Eddie Kane as the street cop, and Tom Dugan as a thug. IMDb also lists Edward Everett Horton as an extra---seems doubtful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkadin Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 Nice review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metropolisforever Posted January 13, 2008 Share Posted January 13, 2008 WRONG. The first all-talking feature film was Photo-Drama of Creation (1914). It ran for 8 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 never heard of it..... LIGHTS OF NEW YORK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scsu1975 Posted January 14, 2008 Share Posted January 14, 2008 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162536/trivia Not sure if this would be considered a feature-film or a talkie ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
precoder Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Ed that isn't till August ... You make it sound like I'll be perilously sliding the down the river of death like Gish in "Way Down East" ... Meantime, I'd love a copy of the FIRST ALL TALKING FULL-LENGTH FEATURE EVER MADE ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 oh I had no idea when you were planning it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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