Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, also known as Movietone Follies of 1929 and The William Fox Movietone Follies of 1929, is an American sound (All-Talking) Pre-Code musical film released by Fox Film Corporation. This lavishly produced film featured color sequences in the Multicolor process in some of the revue scenes.
Contents
Plot
George Shelby, a boy from the Southern United States, comes to the city to dissuade Lila, his sweetheart, from embarking on a stage career and finally buys out the controlling interest in the revue so that he can fire her. On the opening night, however, she goes onstage when the prima donna of the show becomes temperamental, and she proves to be a big hit. At this development, George is able to sell the show back to the producer, who had previously lacked confidence in his investment and planned to take advantage of the youth's inexperience.
Cast
John Breeden as George Shelby
Lola Lane as Lila Beaumont
DeWitt Jennings as Jay Darrell
Sharon Lynn as Ann Foster
Arthur Stone as Al Leaton
Stepin Fetchit as Swifty
Warren Hymer as Martin
Archie Gottler as Stage Manager
Arthur Kay as Orchestra Leader
Mario Dominici as Le Maire
Bobby Burns as unspecified performer (in "Song and Dance Numbers")
Sue Carol as unspecified performer (in "Song and Dance Numbers")
Dixie Lee as unspecified performer (in "Song and Dance Numbers")
Carolynne Snowden as unspecified performer (in "Song and Dance Numbers")
The Four Covans (uncredited)
Cee Pee Johnson (uncredited)
Soundtrack
All songs were written by Con Conrad, Archie Gottler and Sidney D. Mitchell.
"Walking With Susie"
"Why Can't I Be Like You?"
"Legs"
"Breakaway"
"That's You, Baby"
"Look What You've Done To Me"
"Big City Blues"
"Pearl of Old Japan"
Production
Filming locations for Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 included Havana, New York City, and Palm Beach, Florida.
Preservation status
The film had Multicolor sequences in its original release, as well as being filmed in the experimental Grandeur wide-screen process. It is now considered a lost film, as all film prints known to exist were destroyed in fires at the Fox storage facility in New Jersey in 1937. The sequel, New Movietone Follies of 1930, also has Multicolor sequences and exists in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
About 2025, some fragments of the film have been found and posted online, and audio elements of the 1929 film still survive. Specifically, "Movietone Sound-on-Disc" audio for reels 6 and 7 still survive, offering the only record of dialogue and music taken directly from the movie. Most of this portion of the soundtrack consists of the "Pearl of Old Japan" number.