''Hardboiled Rose'' is a 1929 American

part-talkie A part-talkie is a partly, and most often primarily, silent film which includes one or more synchronous sound sequences with audible dialog or singing. During the silent portions, lines of dialog are presented as "titles"—printed text briefly ...

romantic drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

It starred

Myrna Loy Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...

, William Collier, Jr., and

John Miljan John Miljan (November 9, 1892 – January 24, 1960) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1924 and 1958. Biography Born in 1892, Miljan was the tall, smooth-talking villain in Hollywood films for almost four deca ...

Plot

A Southern belle (Loy) must work in a gambling house to pay off her father's debts, which drove him to suicide. She then meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away from it all.

Cast

as Rose Dunhamel * William Collier, Jr. as Edward Malo *

as Steve Wallace *

Gladys Brockwell Gladys Brockwell (née Lindeman; September 26, 1894 – July 2, 1929) was an American actress whose career began during the silent film era. Early life and career Brockwell was born Gladys Lindeman in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1894. ...

as Julie Malo * Lucy Beaumont as Grandmama Dunhamel * Ralph Emerson as John Trask *

Edward Martindel Edward Martindel (July 8, 1876 – May 4, 1955) was an American stage and film actor who appeared on Broadway and in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1946. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, he was the son of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Martindell. His si ...

as Jefferson Dunhamel *

Otto Hoffman Otto F. Hoffman (May 2, 1879 – June 23, 1944) was an American film actor. He appeared in almost 200 films between 1915 and 1944. He was born in New York City and died in Los Angeles, California, from lung cancer. Hoffman's Broadway credit ...

as Apyton Hale * Floyd Shackelford as Butler

Production

This was Loy's second starring role in a movie, after ''

Turn Back the Hours ''Turn Back the Hours'' is a 1928 American silent drama film directed by Howard Bretherton and starring Myrna Loy, Walter Pidgeon and Sam Hardy. Cast * Myrna Loy as Tiza Torreon * Walter Pidgeon as Philip Drake * Sam Hardy as 'Ace' Kearney ...

'' (1928). ''Hardboiled Rose'' would become Myrna Loy's last part-talkie. After this movie Myrna Loy would make all-talking movies, with some filmed in

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

. Loy's early talkies in Technicolor were ''

The Desert Song ''The Desert Song'' is an operetta with music by Sigmund Romberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel. It was inspired by the 1925 uprising of the Riffs, a group of Moroccan fighters, against French colo ...

'' (1929, Warner Brothers' first movie released in color), ''

The Show of Shows ''The Show of Shows'' is a 1929 American pre-Code musical revue film directed by John G. Adolfi and distributed by Warner Bros. The all-talking Vitaphone production cost $850,000 and was shot almost entirely in Technicolor. ''The Show o ...

'' (1929) and '' Under a Texas Moon'' (1930, the second all color-all talking movie to be filmed outdoors). In 1933, Loy's Warners contract ended and she signed with

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

. In 1934, Myrna Loy made two movies with MGM that would make her a big star for the next 20 years, ''

Manhattan Melodrama ''Manhattan Melodrama'' is a 1934 American pre-Code crime film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. The movie also provided one of Mickey Rooney's earliest film roles. (Rooney ...

'' and ''

The Thin Man ''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of ''Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main cha ...

''.

Sound

According to TV Guide.com's review of ''Hardboiled Rose'', the talking sequences were added to the movie later in production. All studios were converting to sound, so major studio releases had to be at least a part-talkie.

Film preservation

The film elements for ''Hardboiled Rose'' still survive, but the soundtrack which was recorded on

Vitaphone Vitaphone was a sound film system used for feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects made by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1931. Vitaphone was the last major analog sound-on-disc system and the only one ...

discs, is lost except the fourth reel disc.IMDB entry
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References

External links

* * 1929 films 1929 romantic drama films American black-and-white films American romantic drama films Films directed by F. Harmon Weight Films about gambling Transitional sound films Warner Bros. films Films with screenplays by Robert Lord (screenwriter) 1920s American films {{1920s-romantic-drama-film-stub