Tom McGuire Collins as Collins. Eddie Kane Cop as Cop uncredited. Bob Perry Bob as Bob uncredited. Bryan Foy. More like this. Storyline Edit. Throughout the con there is an inevitable chorus-girl with a heart of gold Costello , a cop-killing gangster boss Oakman and his downtrodden ex-girlfriend Brockwell. It's Hear! Crime Drama Music Romance. Add content advisory. Did you know Edit.
Trivia The first feature film with all synchronous dialogue. Goofs In Central Park, one of Kitty's lines is repeated. Quotes Hawk Miller : I want you guys to make him disappear. Connections Edited into Okay for Sound User reviews 21 Review. Top review. Take him for a ride. Fascinating and amusingly bad, Lights of New York is the first all talkie feature and one that almost never saw the light of day.
Two naive barbers Eddie and Gene from out of town get involved with bootleggers and end up fronting a speak. When a cop is shot by one of the bootleggers the police start to close in, and the Hawk who shot the officer decides to pin the murder on Eddie instructing his henchman to "take him for a ride".
But it's the Hawk himself who takes the bullet in a twist that will surprise few. When Warner discovered this he ordered Foy to cut it back to the original short. Seen now this is an extremely hokey piece, with acting that ranges from the passable Eugene Pallette to trance like Eddie's Granny in a particularly risible scene and much of the playing is at the level of vaudeville.
Since it's an early talkie 4 part-talkies preceded it that's about all the characters do, and very slowly at that. The script feels improvised, visual style is non existent apart from the shooting scene done in silhouette and scenes grind on interminably. Title cards are intercut which redundantly announce characters and locales. Despite all this "Lights" is a compelling experience, as we watch actors and crew struggling with the alien technology, and changing cinema for ever.
Catch it if you can. Details Edit. Release date July 18, United States. United States. Svetla Njujorka. Warner Bros. During production, this recording method had the effect of anchoring the filmmakers in one place for long, dry stretches, filming and recording an entire scene in one uninterrupted take.
Actors who flubbed their lines were obliged to recover as best they could and simply keep going. On the other hand, Vitaphone also allowed the filmmakers some flexibility: they could film with multiple cameras—covering the scene simultaneously from a variety of angles, all synchronized to the master recording. Sets for all three locales were constructed side by side on the sound stage, and microphones were strategically placed in each set—sometimes hidden inside telephones or other props.
Cameras, too, were placed for maximum effect. In constructing the final cut, the editor had the choice of switching between long shots, closeups, and alternate angles, breaking up the effect of long, static takes.
In some cases the visuals were further varied with silent inserts—a hand holding a gun, assorted reaction shots—cut into the continuity without breaking the synchronization of the dialogue scenes. As if all this were not intriguing enough, Lights of New York in hindsight is a harbinger of things to come.
The story functions as both a rudimentary gangster film and an even more rudimentary musical—two genres that Warner Bros. As for the cast, Helene Costello and Cullen Landis as the leads may be instantly forgettable, but sixth-billed Robert Elliott and seventh-billed Eugene Pallette capture the attention with previews of their future careers. In Elliott already had a history in silent films, but his police detective in this film—his threatening toughness barely concealed by unhurried movement and a slow, soft-spoken drawl—is a blueprint for the characters he would play in numerous talkies from this time on.
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