Lights Of New York Crime Drama First All Talkie Feature Film

Lights of New York is a 1928 American crime drama film starring Helene Costello, Cullen Landis, Wheeler Oakman and Eugene Pallette, and directed by Bryan Foy. Filmed in the Vitaphone sound-on-disc sound system, it is the first all-talking full-length feature film. It was released by Warner Bros., who had introduced the first feature-length film with synchronized sound, Don Juan, in 1926; and the first with spoken dialogue, The Jazz Singer, in 1927. The film cost $23,000 to produce (a "B" picture), and grossed over $1 million. The enthusiasm with which audiences greeted the talkies was so great that by the end of 1929, Hollywood was producing sound films exclusively. Eddie (Cullen Landis) a kid from Upstate New York, is conned into fronting for a speakeasy on Broadway. Throughout the con there is an inevitable chorus-girl with a heart of gold (Helene Costello), a cop-killing gangster boss (Wheeler Oakman) and his downtrodden ex-girlfriend (Eugene Brockwell). Plot: This brisk crime story tells “a story that might have been torn out of last night’s newspaper,” an approach that would shortly become Warner Bros. studio’s signature style. Small-town yokels Eddie (Cullen Landis) and Gene (Eugene Pallette) get suckered by a pair of bootleggers into buying a Manhattan barbershop that is really a speakeasy. While Eddie reconnects with his hometown honey turned chorus girl, Kitty (Helene Costello), the boys get framed by a gangster for the murder of a cop. Who also has the hots for Kitty.

Director

Bryan Foy