"Sunny Side Up" was the first full length talkie to feature "America's Favourite Sweerhearts" - Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell - and Fox spared no expense, hiring top song writers Da Sylva, Brown and Henderson. Although Gaynor and Farrell had already appeared in a couple of movies with talking sequences, rumours abounded that their voices were inadequate. Even though in "Sunny Side Up" some critics scoffed that they couldn't tell their singing voices apart, to me that made them all the more charming. Fox also surrounded them with the top supporting players from their roster. Critics raved about 4'10" Marjorie White who was a cute Broadway comedienne and would brighten up many movies until her untimely death in 1935. El Brendel was Fox's resident "Swede" comedienne, who was extremely popular back in the days.
This movie depicts the poor as being energetic and happy with their lot - "I wonder what the poor are doing tonight" ponders Molly, which brings roars of laughter from her friends, who are sitting down to a "feast" of bread and beer. The rich are shown to be gossipy, two faced and mired in convention.
The film opens with a stunning crane shot that pans the camera over different families in the tenement where Molly (Janet Gaynor) and her peppy pal Bee (Marjorie White) live. Molly dreams of one day meeting her Prince Charming and she already has him picked out - he is high society guy, John Cromwell (Charles Farrell). She even sings a song to express her feelings - "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" in a sweet, plaintive and wholly captivating voice, while accompanying herself on the zither. As she looks at the camera she makes you believe. Meanwhile the real Johnny is celebrating with his fiancée, Jane (Sharon Lyn) at Long Island - she sings "You Find the Time, I'll Find the Place". Jane is not going to let her marriage cramp her flirting style and John, despondent, wants to find an old fashioned girl. He drives off in a huff and after almost running down a small child, wanders forlornly into Molly's flat - who thinks all her dreams have come true.
The big event is the block party where the first song is a novelty number, "You've Got Me Pickin' Petals Off Daisies", sung by Bee and her boyfriend (a singer in the Al Jolson tradition, who is sometimes hard to take). Jackie Cooper has a bit part as a tenement kid trying to recite "The Village Blacksmith". Molly is the star attraction with the rousing "Sunny Side Up" - she does a little dance and gets everyone to join in. John thinks she is pretty swell too and wants Molly to come down to Long Island and sing in a charity show.
He passes Molly off as a visitor from Detroit society and initially the ruse works but a chance remark about "paying the rent" and word soon spreads that Molly is John's "kept" woman. The charity show starts off with the fabulous "Turn On the Heat" number. Sharon Lyn, dressed as a cute Eskimo, sings about "heating up poppa or poppa will freeze" and also about being his "little radiator". For 1929 it was really spectacular - the Northern lights flash, cuties come out of igloos, suggestively dancing so the igloos melt, their fur coats disappear, revealing scanty costumes and turning the North Pole into a volcanic island that blazes into fire, forcing the girls to jump into the water. Truly stupendous.
After that the love ballad "If I Had a Talking Picture of You", is a bit anti climatic, but Molly looks beautiful and it is also sung by a group of small children dressed as brides and grooms - one little groom even pepped it up with a boop, boop a doo chorus. The rest of the movie is filled with mistaken feelings as Molly flees back to the East Side after fearing she was made a fool of. This movie is full of magical moments ie when John is gazing at Molly's photo, which then comes to life and tells him that "You've Got Me Pickin' Petals Off Daisies"!!!
Highly, Highly Recommended.
This movie depicts the poor as being energetic and happy with their lot - "I wonder what the poor are doing tonight" ponders Molly, which brings roars of laughter from her friends, who are sitting down to a "feast" of bread and beer. The rich are shown to be gossipy, two faced and mired in convention.
The film opens with a stunning crane shot that pans the camera over different families in the tenement where Molly (Janet Gaynor) and her peppy pal Bee (Marjorie White) live. Molly dreams of one day meeting her Prince Charming and she already has him picked out - he is high society guy, John Cromwell (Charles Farrell). She even sings a song to express her feelings - "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" in a sweet, plaintive and wholly captivating voice, while accompanying herself on the zither. As she looks at the camera she makes you believe. Meanwhile the real Johnny is celebrating with his fiancée, Jane (Sharon Lyn) at Long Island - she sings "You Find the Time, I'll Find the Place". Jane is not going to let her marriage cramp her flirting style and John, despondent, wants to find an old fashioned girl. He drives off in a huff and after almost running down a small child, wanders forlornly into Molly's flat - who thinks all her dreams have come true.
The big event is the block party where the first song is a novelty number, "You've Got Me Pickin' Petals Off Daisies", sung by Bee and her boyfriend (a singer in the Al Jolson tradition, who is sometimes hard to take). Jackie Cooper has a bit part as a tenement kid trying to recite "The Village Blacksmith". Molly is the star attraction with the rousing "Sunny Side Up" - she does a little dance and gets everyone to join in. John thinks she is pretty swell too and wants Molly to come down to Long Island and sing in a charity show.
He passes Molly off as a visitor from Detroit society and initially the ruse works but a chance remark about "paying the rent" and word soon spreads that Molly is John's "kept" woman. The charity show starts off with the fabulous "Turn On the Heat" number. Sharon Lyn, dressed as a cute Eskimo, sings about "heating up poppa or poppa will freeze" and also about being his "little radiator". For 1929 it was really spectacular - the Northern lights flash, cuties come out of igloos, suggestively dancing so the igloos melt, their fur coats disappear, revealing scanty costumes and turning the North Pole into a volcanic island that blazes into fire, forcing the girls to jump into the water. Truly stupendous.
After that the love ballad "If I Had a Talking Picture of You", is a bit anti climatic, but Molly looks beautiful and it is also sung by a group of small children dressed as brides and grooms - one little groom even pepped it up with a boop, boop a doo chorus. The rest of the movie is filled with mistaken feelings as Molly flees back to the East Side after fearing she was made a fool of. This movie is full of magical moments ie when John is gazing at Molly's photo, which then comes to life and tells him that "You've Got Me Pickin' Petals Off Daisies"!!!
Highly, Highly Recommended.