The Broadway Melody 1929

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The staging is wooden, the story insipid, and the dialogue sequences mostly painful, but the film's integration of song, dance, and story was a clear narrative advance over the music pictures being released by Warner Brothers and Fox. Read more

Irene Thirer, New York Daily News: Zowie! What a picture! Humor, drama, romance, action, thrill! And how! Read more

Mordaunt Hall, New York Times: 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. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Broadway Melody has not stood the test of time in ways that many of its more artistic contemporaries have. Read more

TIME Magazine: A tedious musical comedy embedded in a routine story like a fly in celluloid. Read more

Sid Silverman, Variety: 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. Read more