The Royal Family of Broadway

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Louisa E So bored. There was almost no plot to this movie. I felt it was a self-indulgent glorification of acting and acting families. The acting was OK. My favourite was Ina Claire in this movie. The sound quality was terrible. The highlight of the film was the fantastic dresses. Yawn. Fredric March is a great actor, but he's not in this movie much, and I've seen better performances from him. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/08/23 Full Review Audience Member A satire of the Barrymore family, Fredric March is great as a satire of John Barrymore. March's role though is a supporting one. The film is a close study of the hopes and angst of three generations of the Cavendish clan as they try to find a balance between the homes they want to have and the profession they love. It really is more of a drama examining the theatrical life from a woman's point of view than anything else. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review jordan m I had a feeling going into this, my first movie from the year 1930 and one where it's never been remastered or even released on DVD, that I would have trouble catching all of the dialogue. The movie seems to be from the brief period where talkies were too new to have been perfected but had been out just long enough for the filmmakers to not exercise due care with the sound quality here. It's obviously forgivable that there were some scratchy sounds in the background of the movie and it's probably half my fault for not owning an expensive sound system that separates the audio channels, but it spelled doom for my enjoyment of this super dialogue-heavy movie as it just was not possible to catch everything they said and it left me an outsider to some of the jokes. Less forgivable was the shockingly still cinematography as there'd been plenty of technical innovations in the silent era that weren't used here; my copy of the movie even cut some of the actors' heads out of the frame a few times and the camera wobbled in a way that didn't seem intentional in a few scenes. I did enjoy what I perceived to be the gist of the movie though, which is that it essentially served as a star vehicle for Fredric in his caricature of John Barrymore. The nitrate of this is preserved by UCLA & is thus ripe for a remastering! Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review steve d It is still fun because of its actors. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The best comedy movie ever made! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Royal Family of Broadway

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