Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Seven: A Little bit of variety

Even before my YouTube discovery yesterday I had already come to the conclusion that I wouldn't get to watch all of The Hollywood Revue of 1929. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the second academy awards, the first of two ceremonies to be held in 1930. This is probably the oddest film on the list as it is simply a variety show featuring a ton of performers under contract for MGM in 1929. As this was a variety show a lot of the segments from it were up on YouTube even though the film as a whole is nowhere to be found on the internet. The most famous stars involved would have to be Joan Crawford, Buster Keaton, Nomra Shearer, Laurel and Hardy and Jack Benny who acted as compere. In terms of being nominated for an Oscar I'm a little bemused by the whole thing if truth be told. Apparently at that ceremony no official nominees had been announced so it seems The Hollywood Revue may've just got lucky. Even for a variety show its very patchy, I think the lack of an audience didn't help matters if there'd been somewhere there to laugh at Jack Benny's gags or Laurel and Hardy's magician routine then I may've enjoyed it more but as it is only a couple of the musical numbers made me smirk.

At the same time this film is of some historical value. For one thing it was the first itme a lot of these stars had been heard on screen, many of them were stars of the silent era. It was the first time that Stan and Ollie's voices were heard on screen and it seemed to add an extra element to their performance. Similarly a musical Romeo and Juliet segment (which I wasn't able to find) featured Norma Shearer (she would later feature in the 1936 film version) and Jack Gilbert. Gilbert had been a swashbuckling star of the silent era but after hearing his pleasant singing voice he lost a lot of the charm that he'd portrayed in those silent films. The film is also the first time we ever hear Singin' in the Rain on celluloid this is done mid-way through the performance and also as the finale appearing in two strip-technicolour again something that seems ancient know but very modern at the time. So although as a film it makes no sense, The Hollywood Revue of 1929 deserves a place a hisotrical film but not an Oscar film.