Film Forum

U.S., 1925
Directed by Monta Bell
Produced by William Randolph Hearst
Starring Marion Davies,  Conrad Nagel,  George K. Arthur, Karl Dane
35mm.  Restored by the Library of Congress, with original hand-colored (Handschiegl process) and Technicolor sequences. Approx. 70 min.

Marion Davies as rich and poor twins separated as children, in a delightful period piece set in lavishly-recreated 19th century New York, when Union Square was the center of town. 

“Harkening back to the early days of electric light in New York, the climactic scene of THE LIGHTS OF OLD BROADWAY was a glorious lamp-lighting sequence in two-strip Technicolor, a relatively new technology that thrilled audiences. Other colorization processes such as hand-tinting and the Handschiegel process appear in the film as well, adding to its appeal. In the film, Marion plays twins separated at birth, one adopted by a poor Irish immigrant family and the other by aristocratic old money New Yorkers. In one scene where the twins appear together, Marion plays one twin, and stand-in Vera Burnett plays the other. Their physical similarity is evident, so much that if one were not aware of the trick, it would seem to be a split screen.” — excerpted from Captain of Her Soul: The Life of Marion Davies by Lara Gabrielle.