The Golden Age Of Hollywood

The Talkie Revolution



The first animated sound film


The success of The Jazz Singer (1927) signalled the beginning of an incredible revolution. Studios changed overnight. In the silent days films had been made on stages which were often side by side. For obvious reasons this was no longer possible in the sound era. Sound-proofing was a major problem and so was the whirring of the camera. To prevent the microphone picking this up, camera and operator were placed in a booth like a telephone kiosk. Another major problem in the early years of sound was the necessity to cling to the microphone so the primitive device would pick up the words. The strategic location of the microphone in a vase of flowers restricted the movement of the actors resulting in a static look to most early talkies.


A great film in its own right Singin' In The Rain (1952) provided an effective parody of the dangers of the planted mike. Not surprisingly films slowed down and the static theatrical style of the first decade of the 20th century temporarily returned. The essence of movies is that they move and the novelty of sound soon wore off.

Fortunately some imaginative directors injected fluidity back into the image. Armenian born stage director Rouben Mamoulian put the camera on rollers when he helmed his first film Applause (1929). Directors William Wellman and Dorothy Arzner both claimed they had the idea of taping the microphone to a pole or boom. The truth is the idea probably originated in various studios at more or less the same time.

The full creative possibilities of sound were demonstrated by a mouse. Walt Disney used sound effectively in the first talking animated film Steamboat Willie (1928). Disney himself contributed Mickey Mouse's instantly recognisable high-pitched voice which reflected his heroic and adventurous spirit. Walt was to be an influential innovator with another technology in the early Thirties : Technicolor.

The first important sound film in Britain was Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929) which began as a silent film starring a Czech actress called Amy Ondra. Her heavy accent couldn't be exposed to the microphone so she was dubbed by an English actress. Blackmail's most innovative sequence was a thought soundtrack in which the word "knife" was emphasised in an overheard conversation.

    

Blackmail (1929) One of Hitch's earliest recognisable cameos

In the USA Rouben Mamoulian's City Streets (1931) went one stage further with a thought narration, a device which came into its own in the dark detective movies of the Forties and Fifties. 

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Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
Steamboat Willie image from

http://www.musicman.com/

Blackmail image from

http://www.tcf.ua.edu/Classes/