FINALLY got to see this today

After years of waiting, procrastinating, etc, I ordered mine from Roberts Video a few week back and it came today. Like many of the early talkies I was expecting a mediocre picture, very distorted voices, background noise, etc. Nothing was further from the truth. For an early talkie, the picture and voices were very good, the voices & lips were in synch with the dialogue and I liked the storyline. Obviously there's a good print floating around up there in Canada. The You Tube clip on the other hand is not all that good, very grainy.

Warners made 14 talkies in 1928. I don't know if that includes part-talkies as well but it seems only three have survived so far (The Singing Fool, The Barker & this one) The crash was still well over a year away when Lights of New York was filmed. Good to see the Roaring 20s in its heyday.

Probably the parts that moved me the most were Gladys Brockwell's two large scenes as Molly. She was gone a year after this film's release in a car crash. She made four talkies but this is the only one out there so far (UCLA has a poor print of The Argyle Case, hope it gets restored or is restorable) Almost all the rest of the cast lived to a ripe old age except Helene Costello who died a miserable death at 50 in early 1957.

I will treasure this film for the rest of my life.