The Man and the Moment

1929 film

  • July 7, 1929 (1929-07-07)
Running time
75 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguagesSound (Part-Talkie)
English Intertitles

The Man and the Moment is a formerly lost[1] 1929 sound part-talkie romantic comedy film directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Billie Dove. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film survives in a copy of the International Sound Version. The sound of the domestic part-talkie version was synchronized to the surviving print of the international sound version. Because of this, many scenes feature intertitles shown immediately after the spoken dialogue conveying the same words. The talking sequences on the international sound version were muted with music and intertitles were inserted to convey the dialogue replaced in the appropriate foreign language. Therefore, intertitles were left in the talking sequences during the restoration to maintain synchronization with the Vitaphone soundtrack. The story is from a 1914 novel by Elinor Glyn, the famous novelist. The film was produced by Richard A. Rowland and released by First National Pictures. A British silent film had been film of the same story in 1918.[2][3]

Plot

Two young people get married for the wrong reasons, and after being chased for a day, they decide they belong together.

Cast

  • Billie Dove as Joan
  • Rod La Rocque as Michel
  • Gwen Lee as Viola
  • Robert Schable as Skippy
  • Charles Sellon as Joan's Guardian
  • George Bunny as Butler

Music

The film features a theme song entitled "Just A Lucky Moment" which was written by Ray Perkins.

Preservation

A restored and complete version of the film was screened July 4, 2015 at the Il cinema ritrovato festival in Bologna, Italy.[4] The film was released on DVD by Warner Home Video in 2016.

The film wasn’t included to the Associated Artists Productions' packages, as Warner Bros. is currently hold the distribution rights.[5]

See also

  • The Man and the Moment (1918)
  • Mad Hour (1928)
  • List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

References

  1. ^ The Man and the Moment at Lost Film Files: First National - 1929
  2. ^ Progressive Silent Film List: The Man and the Moment at silentera.com
  3. ^ The AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Man and the Moment
  4. ^ The Man and the Moment in the festival program
  5. ^ DVD - The Man And The Moment (1929)
  • The Man and the Moment at IMDb
  • Synopsis at AllMovie
  • DVD review of the recently restored The Man and the Moment
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Films directed by George Fitzmaurice
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