The MGM Project

  IN GAY MADRID Release Date May 17, 1930 History Ramon Novarro previously starred in the musical  Devil-May-Care, which was filmed in September and released in December of 1929; as discussed in that post, it was a challenge to see if audiences would be convinced he could carry the weight of doing his first comedy, musical, and talking picture. Before he was given a chance to see if the film would be a success, he was thrown into filming  In Gay Madrid , which began production in November 1929, a month before Devil-May-Care  would even be released!  In Gay Madrid  wouldn't released for another five months after filming had wrapped. While Devil-May-Care was a box office success, In Gay Madrid  was not. It received a lukewarm review from the New York Times, which complimented its characters, but criticized the sound technology and the way that characters were shouting their lines-- this would have been more forgiven had the film been released a little ea...

  CHILDREN OF PLEASURE Release Date April 26, 1930 History Penned by Richard Schrayer, who also wrote MGM musicals Hallelujah  and Devil-May-Care,  and directed by Harry Beaumont, director of  Broadway Melody , this week's film was Children of Pleasure, a 1930 film loosely based on Irving Berlin's courting of his wife, New York heiress Ellin McKay. The film runs only 70 minutes in length but features six numbers, several elaborately staged and filmed in Technicolor. Unfortunately, when the film was put into general release months after its premiere, the numbers were reprinted in black and white. I can't say if these elements are lost or simply weren't restored for the Turner Classic Movies print, but the print used on TCM has the numbers in black and white, although one of the numbers, "Dust" did reappear in Technicolor in the short film  Roast-Beef and Movies  four years later. Lawrence Gray, who previously appeared in  Marianne  and It's a Great...