Sunnyside Up

This is the first sound picture for the popular silent romantic team Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell and the result is a split decision. Gaynor is no Ruth Etting but she does have a sweet appeal that allows her to triumph with Betty Boop cutesy and a pedestrian falsetto. Farrell? Well they do make a good looking couple.

Molly (Gaynor) and Bea (Marjorie White) live a meager but merry existence above a market in congested lower Manhattan. Out on the far reaches of Long Island in the Hamptons poor little rich boy Jack Cromwell broods over his flirtatious intended. At a party for well heeled swells he gets drunk and goes slumming and crashes his car in Molly's neighborhood. To get his fiancé jealous he moves Molly and her pals into a mansion next door. Secretly in love Jack, Molly reluctantly goes along with the ruse.

For an early sound work Sunnyside Up does a fine job of capturing large as well as small action with decent clarity. There's an excellently tracked and recorded scene establishing the lower east side melting pot and Gaynor's warbling of "I'm a Dreamer" live is an early highlight of the technology.

While Gaynor has a passable voice Farrell is reduced to being arm candy leaving the funny moments to Elf Brendel and Marjorie White's ball of energy Bea. The plot is improbable like most musicals but it's worth putting up with to hear a rendition or two of Sunnyside Up and If I Had a Talking Picture of You.

SUNNYSIDE UP (Fox, 1929), directed by David Butler, the fourth screen teaming of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, ranks one of their most enjoyable outings. Following their success of SEVENTH HEAVEN (1927), STREET ANGEL (1928) and LUCKY STAR (1929), produced during the tail end of the silent film era, SUNNYSIDE UP introduced them to the new cycle of "talking pictures" in which they not only talk but sing as well, with Gaynor's voice resembling that of a child. Although she sings adequately, Farrell does not. With so many musicals produced during the dawn of sound, SUNNYSIDE UP, subtitled "an original musical comedy," promises just that. No backstage story in "The Broadway Melody" tradition nor reworking of old Broadway shows as "Rio Rita" for example, but a contemporary love story set in the summer where two unlikely dreamers of different backgrounds meet and make sweet music together.

Chapter One: "New York, July 4th, with 4 Million" The story opens with a view of residents from the lower East Side of Manhattan going about their every day lives prior to the upcoming block party. Living in the community are Eric Swenson (El Brendel), a grocery store owner; the youthful Molly Carr (Janet Gaynor) sharing her tenement apartment with her best friend, Bee Nichols (Marjorie White), whose boyfriend, Eddie Rafferty (Frank Richardson), is a songwriter. Molly is a dreamer who reads society columns about her dream man, millionaire Jack Cromwell. Chapter Two: "Southampton, Long Island, .July 4th with the "400" Jack Cromwell (Charles Farrell), the youthful son of society snobs, is hopelessly in love with the upper crust Jane Worth (Sharon Lynne), who refuses to marry in favor of remaining in circulation with the fun crowd. After seeing her walking off with another man, Jack drives off his estate in anger. Later that night Jack ends up on the lower East side where he loses control of his car to avoid hitting a child. In a bewildered state, Swenson offers the young man his apartment to rest for a while. As fate would have it, Jack turns up in Molly's apartment instead. After getting acquainted and watching her perform at the block party, Jack invites her and her friends to act as entertainers for their charity carnival. Chapter Three: Feeling she would be out of place, Mary agrees to appear as Jack's guests, posing as a society girl with Eric as butler, Bee the maid and Eddie as her chauffeur. All goes well until vicious rumors circulate about Molly, whose dreams are soon shattered by Jack's proposed decision.

With a bright score by Buddy DeSylva, Ray Henderson and Lew Brown (credited with their surnames only), the motion picture soundtrack is as follows: "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?" (Sung by Janet Gaynor directly to the camera); "You'll Find the Time and I'll Find the Place" (sung by Sharon Lynn); "Pickin' Petals Off Daisies" (sung by Frank Richardson and Marjorie White); "Sunny Side Up" (Gaynor/ reprized by Richardson and White); "Turn on the Heat" (Sung by Sharon Lynn /Frank Richardson/ danced by chorus); "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" (sung by Farrell, Gaynor and children); "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" (sung by Gaynor); "Anytime You're Necht of a Broad Moonlight" (sung by Marjorie White) and "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" (sung by Farrell and Gaynor).

Had SUNNYSIDE UP been a silent, there would be no doubt that "I'm a Dreamer" would have become its theme score. "Sunnyside Up" is a lively tune where Gaynor sings, shuffles and concludes with her jumping over a hat during the 4th of July festival. Being one of the hit tunes of the day, it was later vocalized for its closing to the 1973 comedy PAPER MOON (Paramount) starring Ryan and Tatum O'Neal. "Turn on the Heat" gets the production number treatment at the society party consisting of risqué lyrics and energetic dancing. As for the "Talking Picture" song, it's quite timely, considering its introduction during the advent of "talking pictures." With a considerable amount of movie extras filling out the crowd scenes, look for future child star Jackie Cooper as Jerry Maginnis as the little boy reciting a poem at the block party. The actor playing Joe Vitto, undertaker and master of ceremonies, is enacted by Joe Brown, whose name can sometimes be linked or confused with famed comedian Joe E. Brown. Marjorie White and Frank Richardson are agreeable as the secondary couple supplying fine comedy relief.

While many references label SUNNY SIDE UP with the running time of 81 minutes, it's surprising to find it's actually 122 minutes. In spite of its length, the movie moves briskly and surprisingly doesn't have that primitive appearance as most first talkies have prior to 1930.

Formerly available on video cassette in 1998 by Critic's Choice Video Masterpiece Collection, television revivals for SUNNY SIDE UP have been extremely rare. Aside from limited broadcasts at some local public broadcasting channels in the early 1990s, it became part of cable TV's American Movie Classic's annual film preservation festival that took place appropriately enough in July 1996, and finally Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: December 21, 2010). Regardless of its age and "corny" situations, SUNNYSIDE UP is still an entertaining antique. This, along with DELICIOUS (1931), another musical featuring Gaynor, Farrell and Brendel, should be an appropriate companion piece if ever considered as part of a double feature presentation on DVD. (***)

Sunnyside Up lays claim to the fact that it is the first original musical for the screen. It might very well be and if so deserves no small credit to the score that the Broadway team of DeSylva,Brown&Henderson wrote for it.

It also was the talking debut of the Fox screen team of Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor. They do sound a bit arch for today's taste, but at this time nearly everyone on the screen sounded that way. There singing voices are pleasant, but nothing else. But the screen chemistry is unmistakable.

The plot is typical for a stage musical at the time involving a poor girl falling for a rich boy. Farrell is the society kid who almost runs down a kid in Gaynor's neighborhood in the city. She takes him and he gets the bright idea to bring her out to Southampton to make his prospective fiancé Sharon Lynn jealous. But it all works too well as Gaynor goes for Farrell big time.

The thin plot is just an excuse to hang several musical numbers at the society party in the Hamptons and at a block party in the city which was the case for stage films. As Sunnyside Up was written directly for the screen, they didn't have to rewrite it to disguise any stage origins. Although Gaynor and to a lesser degree Farrell do their numbers most of the singing and dancing is taken up by Sharon Lynn and friends of Gaynor, Marjorie White and Frank Richardson.

The two best known songs I'm A Dreamer Aren't We All and If I Had A Talking Picture Of You were a couple early records that Bing Crosby did with the Paul Whiteman band. They are probably the best known recordings from this score.

Sunnyside Up still retains a lot of the charm it had even if its overacted for today's audience taste.

During a hot New York City Fourth of July, poor but bubbly Janet Gaynor (as Molly Carr) plots to meet wavy-haired millionaire Charles Farrell (as Jack Cromwell), then accompanies him to high-browed Southampton. Though recorded primitively, Ms. Gaynor and Mr. Farrell made beautiful box office music together in their first all-talking, part-singing motion picture. Several of the songs crowded themselves into Hit Parades, by several recording acts; "If I Had a Talking Picture of You" (#5), "Aren't We All" (#6), "Turn on the Heat" (#7), and "Sunny Side Up" (#9) led the pack.

Note, the film squeaks and creaks. Everyone seems to have been the victim of some high-pitched sound recording, though the studio may have wanted their stars to sound like juvenile tenors. Perhaps modern technology will some day restore everyone to some deeper tones. While sometimes tedious, this was all very new and original in 1929. The opening street sequence is excellent and a few of the songs are cute. Watch for Jackie Cooper as the boy who has to go to the bathroom. Gaynor and Farrell were a charming and popular pair, and even more so after "Sunnyside Up" was released.

****** Sunnyside Up (10/3/29) David Butler ~ Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Marjorie White, Ed Brendel

This is a unique film in the history of musicals. Neither of the leads can sing; most of the dancing, whether by the stars or chorus girls, is rudimentary at best; the story is a familiar litany of 1920's stage cliches, and was dated almost immediately. Yet, it is utterly charming and effective. Part of this has to do with the appealing cast (particularly Janet Gaynor), but most of the credit goes to songwriter/producers DeSylva Brown & Henderson, and director David Butler. The music is integrated into the story in a dramatically sophisticated and cinematically daring way. The production number "Turn On the Heat" is, conceptually, a model for what Busby Berkeley would do in the 1930's.

If your only exposure to early musicals is that award-winning dud "The Broadway Melody", check out "Sunny Side Up" (or, for that matter, "The Love Parade"). You'll be pleasantly surprised.