See The Broadway Melody. Your informant has a sneaking idea that it will mark some sort of an epoch in picture making. Its very delving into the musical comedy field and the success of its effort make such a supposition reasonable.

| May 14, 2024

Though derided by some as a hopelessly outdated relic, the first musical Oscar winner for Best Picture remains a surprisingly gritty and daring romantic triangle story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2023

[It's] filled with those stupendous sets which the movies produce from time to time just to show Ziegfeld that he is still in the amateur class but the dialogue, story, and music all sound very, very familiar. Broadway Melody is off-key most of the time.

| Oct 30, 2023

A creaky pre-Code feature that nevertheless set the template for many of the musicals that followed over the course of the next couple of decades.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 10, 2023

Melody is a bloated, silly vaudevillian act that is hard to believe was anything more than song and dance entertainment at a time where talkies were still new and exciting.

| Jun 27, 2023

Skillfully splashed with dance, songs, and some comedy, which makes this film one of the most important that the house of Metro Goldwyn-Mayer has offered the public in a long time. [Full review in Spanish]

| Sep 1, 2022

The Broadway Melody is going to be considered quaint by most audiences nowadays. And you know what? It totally is. But it’s still charming and fun.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Mar 22, 2022

Little more than an exercise in pointing the camera at large groups and making sure it was lit to expose everything.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Sep 7, 2020

There's a very plain story at work, ultimately designed to string together singing and dancing performances.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 25, 2020

If all the songs and ballets were taken out of The Broadway Melody it would still remain an absorbing spoken drama. On the other hand, If the dramatic element were taken away, the film would still be appealing as a spectacular revue.

| Feb 5, 2020

Bessie Love has the opportunity of her life-time -- and she makes the most of it.

| Feb 5, 2020

Zowie! What a picture! Humor, drama, romance, action, thrill! And how!

| Feb 17, 2015

It should perhaps be remembered that many musicals contain darkness, deep cynicism, and even high tragedy.

| Mar 24, 2014

Although the audible devices worked exceedingly well in most instances, it is questionable whether it would not have been wiser to leave some of the voices to the imagination.

| Jan 6, 2014

A tedious musical comedy embedded in a routine story like a fly in celluloid.

| Feb 17, 2009

The first musical and sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture creaks from old age.

| Original Score: C+ | Mar 11, 2008

Excellent bits of sound workmanship are that of camera and mike following Page and the heavy along the dance floor to pick up their conversation as they glide.

| Mar 1, 2007

First musical to win Academy Award reeks of mothballs, but is undeniably the basis of perhaps a hundred others.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 12, 2006

Mediocre performances and poorly-constructed musical numbers are the low points in this modestly interesting all-talking, all-singing production.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 5, 2006

...cinematic evolution long ago froze The Broadway Melody in Precambrian amber. But while the movie is hopelessly dated now, it was the bee's knees in its day.

| Apr 7, 2006