Weary River (1929)

Directed by

Frank Lloyd

Genre

drama film, romance film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 26m

Rated

NR

Rating

5.8 of 10 from 13 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A gangster goes to prison and discovers a talent for music. After he's released, he struggles to avoid his old life, but finds help from the love of a woman and the warden who became his friend.

melodramaticpoignanthopefulrestrainedearnestsinceresentimentalsteady

What happens

Weary River is a 1929 American sound part-talkie romantic drama film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring Richard Barthelmess, Betty Compson, and William Holden (no relation to William Holden, star of such films as Sunset Boulevard). The film was produced and distributed by First National Pictures. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. Based on a story by Courtney Riley Cooper, the film is about a gangster who goes to prison and finds salvation through music while serving his time. After he is released and falls back into a life of temptation, he is saved by the love of a woman and the warden who befriended him. The film received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Director in 1930. Weary River was preserved at the Library of Congress and restored by the LoC, UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Warner Bros. Pictures. It is available on DVD directly from the Warner Archive Collection. While Barthelmess's character sings and plays the piano throughout the film, Barthelmess did not sing or play the piano. Frank Churchill played the piano, and Johnny Murray sang into a microphone far away from Barthelmess while he lip-synced and played a piano that had strings deadened with felt. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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