The Talk of Hollywood 1929

[coolcatdaddy]

I did a search back through the posts on the board and didn't see anyone mentioning this. I ran into it accidentally on YouTube - released by Sono-Art and produced by Prudence Pictures, it's a real curiosity.

Directed by Mark Sandrich, the film is comedy about the transition to talkies with a movie producer sinking all his money into his first sound picture. The climax centers on a drunk projectionist breaking the Vitaphone disc for the first reel and mixing up the soundtrack for the whole movie.

It's not particularly "laugh out loud" funny and the stereotypes get to be tiring after awhile, but it is curious.

Anyone else seen this one? There's a dvd available on Amazon - what's the quality like?

I don't recall any other features of the period making fun of the transition to sound like this one.

[entredeuxguerres]

Never heard of it, but projection-room mishaps with those disks seems a not at all far-fetched plot-contrivance. Cast provided by Prudence falls a bit short of stellar, but Sandrich sure had what it takes to turn out some great films later on.

[earlytalkiebuffRob]

I read about THE TALK OF HOLLYWOOD a few months ago - possibly in Barrios's book. Despite its dreadful reputation, I looked it up only to find it at a fairly horrid price (in England, at any rate). Then it turned up on YT - and free-classic-movies.com a few weeks later. It's on the 'to watch' pile so have no intention of avoiding it. Remarkable how so many of these small movies are cropping up compared with those which probably had many more prints struck, though in a some ways the latter were more vulnerable.

[aldiboronti]

Yes, I have it, very likely the same copy as the YT one. The sound system used is RCA Photophone and I recall wondering when I saw it whether it was a competitor making fun of the Vitaphone system. It's an enjoyable film and reminded me a little of Once In A Lifetime, 1932, another comedy spoofing the transition to sound, although that's a much better movie.

Definitely worth a watch.

[entredeuxguerres]

...Definitely worth a watch.

Just followed it on YT up to the point at which the Producer tells the cast Pansy, "this is no fairy story," so it bears further watching, if I can subdue my distaste of continuing to do so on a laptop. Still haven't seen that "International Star," Fay Marbe, however.