Street Girl

Hungarian blonde Betty Compson (as Frederika "Freddie" Joyzelle) gets fired from her job as a New York waitress, for breaking a dish over her boss' head. Although the film is suggestively titled "Street Girl", Ms. Compson avoids dabbling in the world's oldest profession. Instead, Compson hooks up with attractive John Harron (as Mike Fall), who is so taken with briefly homeless Compson, he asks her to move in with his jazzy musical group.

As "The Four Seasons", Mr. Harron's "Mike Fall" is teamed with Jack Oakie (as Joe Spring), Ned Sparks (as Happy Winter), and Guy Buccola (as Pete Summer). Compson, conveniently a violinist, joins "The Four Seasons" both at home and on stage. The group is lively and likable; especially, the smiling Mr. Oakie, in his spring. The "Seasons" become successful, and romance blooms for Compson and Harron; but, a visiting Prince threatens the duo's happiness...

Compson, who was at an artistic peak around the time silent films found their voice, tends to be a little too theatrical in "Street Girl", her starring vehicle; she certainly proves her versatility on the screen, however. Leading man Harron gives director/co-producer Wesley Ruggles the film's best acting performance; he (perhaps unfairly) certainly makes you wonder what heights deceased brother Bobby Harron might have reached in the "talkies".

The early Oscar Levant music (with lyrics by Sidney Clare) is very good. Gus Arnheim "and His Coconut Grove Ambassadors" skillfully dubbed their instrumentals; apparently, this is before future star Fred MacMurray joined the group. The frequently heard "Loveable and Sweet" is considered a jazz classic, in the cover version expertly recorded by Annette Hanshaw with the Dorsey Brothers. Although the early "RKO Radio Picture" production is more than a little rough around the edges, the musical/comedy genre storyline is solid.

******* Street Girl (1929) Wesley Ruggles ~ Betty Compson, John Harron, Jack Oakie

This bit of fun shows that silent film director Wesley Ruggles was one of the handful of directors who had no problem whatsoever adapting to sound. For 1929 this is remarkably well made - it's hardly one of the greats but considering its age, it's more enjoyable than you'd expect.

This, the first official RKO Radio Picture, stared their silent superstar Betty Compson who despite making nine pictures that year, unlike director Ruggles never quite made a successful transition to talkies. This particular role however is perfect for her because she's doing a made-up foreign accent. That's a marvellous get out of jail card for an actress who can't deliver her lines with any conviction using her own voice. Pretending not to be able to speak English properly makes her sound sweet and naïve.

1929 looked such a happy place - there are so few decently made talkies around from the pre-Depression era that this gives you a rare opportunity to savour the authentic flavour of the roaring twenties jazz age in a sound film. But this IS NOT just a historical artefact, it still works as a piece of entertainment. The reason it still entertains is not because of the story (that's pretty inane although you've got to admit it's quite amusing), it's the production quality and direction.

Although it fizzled out before its contemporaries, RKO was one of the biggest film factories in the world so they had massive budgets to play with. What really stands out here however is Wesley Ruggles directorial skill. The close-ups, the framing, the very fluid camerawork and the imaginative imagery is not something you see in many 1929 productions. You forget that you're watching someone's first go at making a talkie.

I'll say quite a few good things about "Street Girl." The overall plot is serviceable, the songs by Oscar Levant and Sidney Clare are nice period pieces (Levant spent much of his life trying to play on the pop-songwriting turf of his good friend George Gershwin, and he wrote one truly great song — "Blame It on My Youth" — but Gershwin he wasn't), the big musical finale "Broken-Up Tune" is suitably spectacular (I suspect this number was originally in two-strip Technicolor even though it only survives in black-and-white, and in the print just shown on TCM there's one shot in the final sequence that is photographically quite inferior to the rest, suggesting that the film as it stands was pieced back together from partial prints), and above all Wesley Ruggles' direction, though hardly at the imaginative level of Mamoulian's, Capra's, Wyler's, Milestone's or Vidor's in their first talkies, is quite fluid. The camera moves around quite a lot, the editing is fast-paced and the actors speak relatively naturally without the seemingly endless pauses between lines (sometimes between words!) that make a lot of early talkies virtually unwatchable today.

That's the good news. The bad news is the writer's dorky decision to change the origin of Betty Compson's character from a real country, Austria, to a fictitious one, "Aregon" (presumably not to be confused with the real Spanish province of Aragon); the awful accent Compson affects to sound suitably "Aregonese"; the casting of Jack Oakie without giving him any laughs (and he's utterly unable at any point to convince us he can actually play the clarinet); and a pretty sluggish pace despite all the camera movement and quick cutting. Also there's the obvious cheapness of using the same pre-recording of the song "Lovable and Sweet" all three times it's performed (you can tell because of the Beiderbecke-esquire "smear" John Harron's trumpet double performs in his solo each time). It ends up an O.K. movie but you get the impression it could have been better made a few years later — indeed it WAS made better on two separate occasions; "The Girl from Paris" isn't that great a movie either (though at least Lily Pons' accent is her real one!) but it's a damned sight better than this.

Street Girl (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

After finding herself homeless and hungry, Frederika (Betty Compson) is giving a place to stay by Mike Fall (John Harron), a band member who lives with his three other players. Frederika believes that the group could demand much more money because of their playing skills and soon she's working as their manager and the five start to rise in popularity but when a Prince starts to woo Frederika, this doesn't sit well with Mike.

STREET GIRL was the first film ever produced by RKO, although it turned out to be the second that they'd actually release. For the most part this is a pretty good early talkie that manages to follow a pretty basic formula but thankfully the cast is so good that it makes up for the family story, which even by 1929 standards was pretty predictable. Of course, the majority of the credit has to go to Compson who easily steals the picture of the lovable blonde.

Compson has the misfortune of having to speak with a silly accent that goes in and out throughout the picture but outside of this she's certainly a delight to watch. She manages to be incredibly lovable from the first moment we meet her and you just can't help but fall in love with her just like the four roommates do. Another good performance comes from Harron who manages to pull off that jealousy role quite well and we also get Jack Oakie in a supporting part. Ned Sparks is quite funny as "Happy," the person constantly thinking someone is cheating him.

The story itself is quite predictable but the technical side of things are actually quite good for 1929. A lot of times these early talkies pretty much have the camera sitting still but that's not the case here as there's a little style on display here. There are some musical numbers throughout and all of them are quite good and it's worth noting that the violin playing is done by Compson herself. STREET GIRL certainly has its flaws but fans of the actress will certainly enjoy her work here and fans of early talkies should be impressed on a technical level.

This 1929 original musical was a big hit (grossing more than $1M) for Betty Compson. She plays a "street girl," a homeless immigrant alone in a big American city. One rainy night she is saved from a lecher by a young man (John Harron) and invited upstairs for hot coffee. Harron is a musician and shares an apartment with three other musicians. They play for a local club.

Compson asks them to play for her and they do a swingy version of "Lovable and Sweet" (which was written by Oscar Levant and Sidney Clare). She tells them it's a nice tune but they need a violin. They produce a violin and she plays a soft and beautiful version of "My Dream Memory" (the talented Compson was also a concert violinist). It's a terrific moment.

She takes charge of the guys and gets them a gig for big bucks at a swanky restaurant where they become local stars. A dethroned prince from her home country drops by and almost steals her away but she has fallen for Harron. The film ends with a rousing dance number, "Broken Up Tune" as played by the group.

Despite the iffy accent, Compson is once again just wonderful. She has just the right touch of "old world" gentleness about her as she runs around managing the group) in a very aggressive American manner). Harron is also very good. He was the younger brother of DW Griffith star, Robert Harron, who died at age 27 from a mysterious gunshot accident in 1920. Kinetic Jack Oakie sings and dances (and fakes some clarinet playing). Acerbic Ned Sparks plays a few instruments as well and grouches at people. Guy Buccola is the fourth band member. Joseph Cawthorn (an expert at accents) is the club owner. Ivan Lebedeff is the prince. Among the big-band musicians is Russ Columbo, a major singing star of the 30s. Eddie Kane and June Clyde have small roles.

What this film is not, is a frenzied backstage musical, which was the rage for a time after the success of THE Broadway MELODY. After an initial craze, the public quickly tired of backstage musicals and all-star revues. STREET GIRL went in another direction, tying together a love story with music.

This film is worth watching for the great music and unjustly forgotten Betty Compson.