Sally (1929 film)

Sally is a 1929 American Pre-Code film. It is the fourth all-sound, all-color feature film made, and it was photographed in the Technicolor process. It was the sixth feature film to contain color that had been released by Warner Bros.; the first five were The Desert Song (1929), On with the Show! (1929), Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929), Paris (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 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 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 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 Florenz Ziegfeld, 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, the film earned $1,219,000 domestically and $979,000 foreign.

Preservation
Although never technically a lost film, 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. 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$1/2$-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.