Life — June 14, 1929 — page 29: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page reviews early 1920s sound films ("talkies"). The main illustration depicts a night club scene, accompanying a satirical dialogue between Carl Laemmle (Universal Pictures president) and his son Carl Jr., who purchased film rights to the Broadway stage hit "Broadway." The humor mocks the movie industry's transition to talking pictures. The conversation reveals the father's ignorance—he doesn't understand basic details about the stage production he's funding, asking absurdly literal questions about "girls" and "night club" scenes. The review criticizes the resulting film adaptation as a "gaudy spectacle" that squanders the original play's quality. The cartoonist satirizes both the elder Laemmle's cluelessness and the industry's tendency to destroy theatrical works through oversized, expensive film production.