Lights Of New York 1928 Crime/Drama ★★★ (CC) First All-Talkie Feature Film [00:59:12]

Lights of New York  is a 1928 American  crime drama  film starring  Helene Costello ,  Cullen Landis ,  Wheeler Oakman  and  Eugene Pallette , and directed by  Bryan Foy . Filmed in the  Vitaphone   sound-on-disc  sound system, it is the first  all-talking  full-length feature film. It was released by  Warner Bros. , who had introduced the first feature-length film with synchronized sound,  Don Juan , in 1926; and the first with spoken dialogue,  The Jazz Singer , in 1927. The film cost $23,000 to produce (a  "B" picture ), and grossed over $1 million. The enthusiasm with which audiences greeted the talkies was so great that by the end of 1929, Hollywood was producing  sound films exclusively . Eddie (Cullen Landis) a kid from Upstate New York, is conned into fronting for a speakeasy on Broadway. Throughout the con there is an inevitable chorus-girl with a heart of gold (Helene Costello), a cop-killing gangster boss (Wheeler Oakman) and his downtrodden ex-girlfriend (Eugene Brockwell).  Plot: This brisk crime story tells “a story that might have been torn out of last night’s newspaper,” an approach that would shortly become Warner Bros. studio’s signature style. Small-town yokels Eddie (Cullen Landis) and Gene (Eugene Pallette) get suckered by a pair of bootleggers into buying a Manhattan barbershop that is really a speakeasy. While Eddie reconnects with his hometown honey turned chorus girl, Kitty (Helene Costello), the boys get framed by a gangster for the murder of a cop. Who also has the hots for Kitty.