Lights of New York

(Bryan Foy, US 1928, 57 min., 16mm)

Vitaphone at 90. Lights of New York started as a two-reel short subject. Director Bryan Foy secretly increased the length to seven reels to make it the first all-talking picture. The plot revolves around two Upstate New York barbers who are convinced by bootleggers to come to the city and open a shop there. They soon learn that their shop is just a front for a speakeasy. Many of the clichés associated with the gangster film were born in Lights of New York, including classic line “take him for a ride.” Produced on a budget of only $23,000 it grossed over one million dollars and created the panic in Hollywood for the production of talking pictures.