Sunny Side Up (film)

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Sunny Side Up
File:Poster of the movie Sunny Side Up.jpg
Directed by David Butler
Produced by William Fox
Written by B. G. DeSylva
Lew Brown
Ray Henderson
Starring Janet Gaynor
Charles Farrell
Music by B. G. DeSylva
Lew Brown
Ray Henderson
Cinematography Ernest Palmer
John Schmitz
Edited by Irene Morra
Distributed by Fox Film Corporation
Release dates
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  • October 3, 1929 (1929-10-03)
Running time
 121 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $3.3 million[1][2]

Sunny Side Up is a 1929 American Pre-Code Fox Movietone musical film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, with original songs, story, and dialogue by B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. The romantic comedy/musical premiered on October 3, 1929 at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City.[3] The film was directed by David Butler, had (now-lost) Multicolor sequences, and a running time of 121 minutes.

Plot

Janet Gaynor

The film centres around a Will-they won't-they romance. Wealthy Jack Cromwell from Long Island runs off to New York City on account of his fiancee's relentless flirting. He attends an Independence Day block party where Molly Carr, from Yorkville, Manhattan, falls in love with him. Comic relief is provided by grocer Eric Swenson (El Brendel), above whose shop Molly and her flatmate, Bea Nichols (Marjorie White), live.[3][4] Gaynor performs a charming singing and dancing version of the song "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" for a crowd of her neighbors, complete with top hat and cane. Later in the film, a lavish pre-Code dance sequence for the song "Turn on the Heat," including scantily clad and gyrating island women enticing bananas on trees to abruptly grow and stiffen, with the graphic metaphor lost on no one, occurs without Gaynor's participation.

Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), and Lucky Star (1929). Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for the first two and F. W. Murnau's Sunrise.

Cast

Gaynor and Farrell made almost a dozen films together, including Frank Borzage's classics Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), and Lucky Star (1929). Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for the first two and F. W. Murnau's Sunrise (1927).

Reception

The Times and The New York Times both express the opinion that the film, and the singing voices of Gaynor and Farrell, are all tolerable if not exactly worthy of praise. Despite the sugary sentimentality, the film is engaging, while the cinematography and special effects are impressive.[3][4]

Footage from Sunny Side Up was included in the comedy film It Came from Hollywood, which parodied B movies.[5]

Music

I'm A Dreamer, Aren't We All?

Several times throughout the film Gaynor sings the tune "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All?" and, on one occasion, sings it impressively, according to the New York Times.[3] The credits are: words, De Sylva & Brown; music, Ray Henderson.

The song was punned by the Marx Brothers in the film Animal Crackers (1930). Groucho asks his brother to play a song about Montreal, to which Chico starts up with "I'm a dreamer, Montreal." The pun has been much-recycled [6] not least in Stewart Parker's award-winning play I’m a Dreamer, Montreal.

The tune was recorded by John Coltrane in 1958 [7] and included on his album Bahia (1964).

Turn on the Heat

Another song in the film. This one would be used in the Pooch the Pup cartoon Hot and Cold (1933).[8]

(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up

Another song in the film that would later be used as the theme song to the 1988 British sitcom Clarence.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Quigley Publishing Company "The All Time Best Sellers", International Motion Picture Almanac 1937-38 (1938) p 942 accessed April 19, 2014
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 NY Times October 4, 1929 Movie Review
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Times, December 30, 1929, New Gallery Cinema "Sunny Side Up"
  5. ↑ "Collage of 10 worst films now a movie of its own", Lodi News-Sentinel, November 25, 1982. (p.8).
  6. ↑ Glenn Mitchell, The Marx Brothers encyclopedia (Reynolds & Hearn, 2003) ISBN 1-903111-49-8
  7. ↑ The Complete Prestige Recordings
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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