''Sally'' is a 1929 American sound ( All-Talking)

Pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

film. It is the fourth all-sound, all-color feature film made, and it was photographed in the

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

process. It was the sixth feature film to contain color that had been released by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

; the first five were '' The Desert Song'' (1929), '' On with the Show!'' (1929), '' Gold Diggers of Broadway'' (1929), ''

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

'' (1929) and '' The Show of Shows'' (1929). ('' Song of the West'' was completed by June 1929, but had its release delayed until March 1930). Although exhibited in a few theaters in December 1929, ''Sally'' entered general release on January 12, 1930. The film was based on the Broadway stage hit '' Sally'', produced by

Florenz Ziegfeld Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. (; March 21, 1867 – July 22, 1932) was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the ''Ziegfeld Follies'' (1907–1931), inspired by the '' Folies Bergère'' of Paris. He al ...

and retains three of the stage production's Jerome Kern songs (" Look for the Silver Lining", "Sally" and "Wild Rose"). The film's other music was written by

Al Dubin Alexander Dubin (June 10, 1891 – February 11, 1945) was an American lyricist. He is best known for his collaborations with the composer Harry Warren. Life Al Dubin came from a Russian Jewish family that immigrated to the United States from Sw ...

and Joe Burke. Marilyn Miller, who had played the leading part in the Broadway production, was hired by Warner Bros. for an extravagant sum (reportedly $1,000 per hour for a total of $100,000) to star in the film. The film was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Art Direction by Jack Okey in 1930.

Plot

Sally is an orphan who had been abandoned as a baby. While living in an orphanage, she discovered the joy of dancing. In an attempt to save enough money to become a dancer, Sally began working odd jobs. While she is working as a waitress, a man named Blair comes to see her regularly, and they fall in love. However, Sally does not know that Blair has been forced by his family into an engagement with a socialite named Marcia. Theatrical agent Otis Hemingway Hooper offers Sally a chance to audition for a job, but she loses her current job and the audition opportunity when she accidentally drops food into Hooper's lap. Sally takes a job at the Elm Tree Inn, managed by Pops Stendorff. Blair visits and immediately takes an interest in Sally. He convinces Stendorff to have Sally dance for his customers. Hooper recognizes Sally's talent during her performance at the inn and becomes her agent, convincing Sally to impersonate a famous Russian dancer named Noskerova and perform at a party hosted by Mrs. Ten Brock. When Pops Stendorff discovers that Sally is missing, he crashes the party, intending to take her back to the inn for a performance. Sally is revealed to be an impostor and Mrs. Ten Brock insists that she leave immediately. However, before leaving, Sally hears Mrs. Ten Brock announce of the engagement of Blair and Marcia. Sally is devastated but later learns that she has been discovered by

, a guest at the party. Sally's manager presents her with a contract to star in Ziegfeld's next follies show on Broadway. After a successful opening night, Sally is visited in her dressing room by Pop Stendorff with flowers and a card from Blair, who has ended his engagement with Marcia. She soon discovers that Blair is also there, and he requests her forgiveness. Later, Sally and Blair emerge from a church after being married. Photographers rush them, urging them to kiss.

Cast

* Marilyn Miller as Sally/Noskerova * Alexander Gray as Blair Farrell * Joe E. Brown as Grand Duke Constantine * T. Roy Barnes as Otis Hemingway Hooper * Pert Kelton as Rosie, Otis' girlfriend * Ford Sterling as 'Pops' Stendorff * Maude Turner Gordon as Mrs. Ten Brock * E. J. Ratcliffe as John Farquar * Jack Duffy as The Old Roue * Nora Lane as Marcia

Box office

According to

Warner Bros. records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

, the film earned $1,219,000 domestically and $979,000 foreign.

Preservation

Although never technically a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

, ''Sally'' was unavailable for public viewing for nearly six decades. Warner Bros. sold the rights to its pre-1950 film library to

Associated Artists Productions Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the ' ...

. It was not until around 1990 that the film became available for archival and revival screenings. However, the film survives only in black and white with a 2-minute color segment from the "Wild Rose" musical number, which was discovered in the 1990s. Sepia-toned black-and-white footage has been inserted to replace frames missing in the color fragment. In 2014, archivist Malcolm Billingsley discovered a cache of 35mm Technicolor fragments lasting 45-75 seconds, including a 29-second fragment from the first reel. In 2022, an unofficial reconstructed colorized version was made available online.

References

External links