Sonny Boy (1929 film)

Sonny Boy is a 1929 sound part-talkie film released by Warner Bros., directed by Archie Mayo. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film stars Davey Lee, Edward Everett Horton, and Betty Bronson.

The film was named after the 1928 hit song "Sonny Boy", which was previously featured in the film The Singing Fool (1928), starring Al Jolson. Davey Lee also played the role of Sonny Boy in The Singing Fool.

Plot
Sonny Boy's parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the boy's mother talks her sister into kidnapping him because she is terrified that her husband will take the boy out of the country after the divorce. The nervy sister takes the lad to the apartment of her sister's husband's lawyer who believes that she has gone away for a time. A merry mix-up ensues when he returns to the apartment with his parents in tow. To maintain appearances, the sister must pose as the lawyer's wife. Eventually she decides to take the boy and flee, but then she realizes that Sonny Boy has vanished. It seems he saw an interesting theater marquee, climbed down the fire escape, and went to the movies. The adults arrive just in time to hear a rousing rendition of the hit song "Sonny Boy".

Cast

 * Davey Lee as Sonny Boy
 * Betty Bronson as Aunt Winigred Canfield
 * Edward Everett Horton as Crandall Thorpe
 * Gertrude Olmstead as Mary
 * John T. Murray as Hamilton
 * Tom Dugan as Mulcahy
 * Lucy Beaumont as Mother Thorpe
 * Edmund Breese as Thorpe
 * Jed Prouty as Phil
 * Richard Talmadge

Reception
According to Warner Bros records the film earned $838,000 domestically and $234,000 foreign.

Preservation status
According to silentera.com, a print of Sonny Boy exists.