Lights of New York (1928 film)

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.

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.

When bootleggers Jake Jackson (Walter Percival) and Dan Dickson (Jere Delaney), who have been hiding out in a small upstate New York town, learn that they finally can return to New York City, they try to convince a young kid named Eddie Morgan (Cullen Landis) and his friend, a local barber named Gene (Eugene Palette) to come with them.

Frustrated and yearning for a return to the quiet life, Gene and Eddie vow to go home as soon as they earn enough to pay back Mrs. Morgan.

Although Hawk's longtime mistress, Molly Thompson (Gladys Brockwell), warns him not to pursue Kitty, he coldly dismisses her, saying that their relationship is over.

Fearing that they will be blamed, Eddie and Gene put Hawk's body in a barber chair and cover his face with shaving cream just as Crosby arrives at the shop.

After Eddie leaves, a nervous Gene pretends to shave Hawk, but the body slides from the chair, revealing its identity to Crosby.

However, with studio heads Harry and Jack Warner out of the country to oversee the European premiere of The Jazz Singer, the crew gradually elaborated the plot as the seven-day shooting schedule progressed.

A New York Times review, while acknowledging the film's place as "the alpha of what may develop as the new language of the screen", called the plot "crude in the extreme" and the direction wooden, only singling out the musical interludes for praise.

A preview engagement in Pasadena, California resulted in lines around the block, and the first week's gross at New York City's Mark Strand Theater amounted to $47,000.

The full film
Harry Downing performing At Dawnin'