‘Sunny Side Up’
Another Multicolor musical sequence now lost might just be the wackiest, most uninhibited musical number of the early talkies. It’s the famous/infamous “Turn On the Heat” number from Sunny Side Up (1929). This sequence has nothing to do with the main storyline, but is instead an excuse to get a bunch of gyrating chorines to writhe around, making banana-sprouting palm trees pop up from the ground. Yes, Freud would approve.
The black and white print is a bit murky, so to grasp the full effect of “Turn On the Heat,” imagine all of this in garish shades of red and blue.
