New York lights

I've briefly mentioned Lights of New York on several occasions. It's a film that has a place in movie history largely as the first feature-length all talking film. Movies like The Jazz Singer, which is often referred to as the first talking picture, had some sound scenes, in that case mostly for the musical numbers, together with silent scenes and intertitles. Lights of New York was the first feature to dispense with the silent scenes, although it only runs about 56 minutes and there were short films that were all-talking anyway. But the movie was produced at Warner Bros. which adopted sound before the other studios; I'd presume it's because of the movie's place in history that TCM included it in the centenary tribute to Warner Bros. And with that in mind, I was able to record it so that I could finally do a review on it here.

In some town in "upstate" New York, probably not that far from the city and accessible by train without having to change trains, although Hollywood always made upstate look like a land filled with small-town bumpkins, Eddie Morgan (Cullen Landis) and his friend Gene (Eugene Pallette) run the barbershop at the hotel that Eddie's mom owns. The two dream of making it big in the big city down the Hudson, Eddie especially because his girlfriend Kitty (Helene Costello) has already gone to New York to try to make it big herself.

Meanwhile, a pair of gangsters hiding out in town to get away from the heat they'd be facing down in New York overhear Eddie and Gene talking about barbershops. These gangsters have just the business opportunity for Eddie and Gene. We, of course, know that it's a bogus opportunity, as the barbershop would be a front for the big gangster, Hawk (Wheeler Oakman). Still, Eddie and Gene aren't bright enough to figure this out until it's too late, and Eddie is probably thinking with his little head anyway. So they borrow a stake from Eddie's mom, and head off to New York.

Needless to say, they quickly learn that the roads in New York City are not paved with gold, and that the situation is going to be a lot more complicated and difficult to get out of. Hawk has structured the deal so that it'll be hard for Eddie and Gene to pay back the money they borrowed from Hawk. Hawk is also trying to put the moves on Kitty, who is working in the stage act at Hawk's club. Hawk also has an old girlfriend in Molly (Gladys Brockwell) who tries to warn all the small-town newcomers about life here.

And then one of Hawk's underlings goes and kills a cop. It is Prohibition, after all, and Hawk's gang are heavily into dealing booze. Hawk realizes he's got a perfect way out in Eddie and Gene, using their barbershop as a way to dispose of the hooch and put the finger on Eddie while he's at it. Molly is aghast when she learns about this....

Lights of New York clearly amazed audiences when it was released in the summer of 1928, as it must have been a great novelty. And, I don't think there had really been that many gangster movies before, as it's one of the genres that's a bit more difficult to do in silent film, The Racket aside. The movie's popularly couldn't possibly be because of the movie's high quality because, well, if one tried to watch it objectively, one would have to admit that it's got a whole host of flaws, from a banal and rushed plot to bad dialogue and the technical limitations of sound in 1928 forcing people to stand around too much.

Watched, however, as a piece of Hollywood history, it's easy to see why the movie was so popular. The actors have energy even delivering bad dialogue, and talking pictures were so new that it would take both audiences and filmmakers a couple of years to figure out how to make things not be so static. (And to be fair, there were still movies in 1929 and 1930 that were more static than Lights of New York and had more stilted and worse-delivered dialogue.) And it really is fun even if a huge mess.

So if you get the chance, give Lights of New York a try. Even if you don't like it, it's only an hour of your time lost.