Weary River (1929)

Nominated for 1 Academy Award:

Best Directing

Frank Lloyd

It won 0 Oscars out of a total of 1 nomination in 1928-29.


Weary River begins when Jerry Larrabee and his gang shoot an innocent bystander.  Even though the boys decide that it would be in their best interest to lay low for a while, Larrabee is pinched and the Court mandates that he serve from one to ten years in prison.  Insistent on not taking the rap, he becomes an uncontrollable prisoner until he gets wise and finally finds the outlet his soul desires:  musicianship.  But can a convict really become The Master of Melody?

Frank Lloyd lost the Academy Award for directing this film to himself for directing another film in the same year;  The Divine Lady (1929).

This film was produced partially as a silent film with title cards and partially as a sound film with audible dialogue, as production occurred during the industry's transition to talkies,  The existing print is preserved with the Library of Congress and was a joint restoration project of the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Warner Bros. / Turner Entertainment Company.

Richard Barthelmess does not provide vocals for the film's title track, "Weary River," that is performed throughout the film.  Instead, his singing was dubbed by that of lesser-known actor, Johnny Murray, who had planned on loaning his voice to Richard Barthelmess again in the future, had Barthelmess ever decided to star in another musical.


Editorial:

Backtracking.  This hard-to-find film has now been reviewed after being put on hold.

This film suffers from a massive identity crisis in terms of medium.  Producing a film in which silent scenes are inter-cut with sound scenes could possibly make for an interesting way to experience a film, but the purposelessness of how this movie does it feels borderline schizophrenic.

On top of this, the story seems to scratch the poignant surface of a social issue in which a culture is unwilling to recognize convicted criminals as reformed citizens, but  wastes the opportunity and instead nosedives into the melodramatic.  It really could have been something more than it actually was.

Score  |  03/10  |  This motion picture may be worth trying.