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The Broken Melody (1938)

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clip 'Optimism wears out with your boots'

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Clip description

John Ainsworth (Lloyd Hughes) has been out of work for months when he runs into two old university acquaintances. They take a drink at a city bar, where a man selling shoelaces approaches. Joe Larkin (Alec Kellaway) is actually an expert pickpocket who recognises that Ainsworth needs help.

Curator’s notes

by Paul Byrnes

By 1938, Ken Hall was well acquainted with the Depression-era dramas and comedies of Frank Capra, a director he much admired. There’s a strong sense of that admiration in The Broken Melody, notably in its attempt to use rapid-fire dialogue and a rags-to-riches plot. All Cinesound films were influenced by the Depression but this is the only one that’s directly about its effects on people. Hall rarely explored psychology in any depth, but there are obvious attempts to do so in the way John reacts to his former pals making jokes at his expense, or criticising another man because he’s down-and-out. Most of Cinesound’s films from 1938 on are city-based stories, rather than bush comedies. The Broken Melody, at least in this scene, has a kind of hard-boiled urban quality that was relatively uncommon in Ken Hall’s films.

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