Introductory Speech by Will H. Hays (1926) User Reviews

"The man never met a hand gesture he didn't like!"...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 10 December 2020]

... or so says a youtube poster on the subject. This short film of Mr. Will Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America at the time this film was made, is simply a speech introducing Don Juan (1926) and a series of short subjects shown as an intro to that film, all using Warner Brothers' Vitaphone sound on disc system.

Mr. Hays makes it clear that Warner Brothers originally saw Vitaphone as a way to bring musical accompaniment and musical acts to small theaters and really had no intention of making "talking" pictures. There is, in fact, very little speech in "The Jazz Singer" made over a year after this short introductory speech.

This short does show one rather ponderous effect of early sound in film - the halting speech and wide gestures that people, often very accustomed to speaking in public, would be given to. Maybe it was like in "Singin In the Rain", maybe it was the diction coaches. But it was a widespread and persistent problem until about 1930.

I'm giving this an 8/10 for its importance in film history. If you want to see it, the short is widely available on youtube and other online video services.

History and a Great Man

[Sifihorse · 8/10 · 9 March 2008]

I have to totally disagree with Mr Fry's comment. Will H Hays was the Democratic Party Chairman, presidential campaign manager and Postmaster General before becoming the First President of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Associationtaking what later was called the "Hays Commission". The nation wanted to regulate films, and asked him to do it. He walked and talked with the great of Hollywood from the 20s to the 50s. Some call what he did censorship and others call it regulation. Either way he did what was asked of him in service to his country.

Could you have done better, or sounded any better introducing the first sound recording of a movie? I think not! Will Hays is a great figure in the history of movies. I have talked to people who knew and respected him in our small Indiana town. To judge his life on this short piece of film is unthinkable. I think he did magnificently! People, watch this snip of history and learn about the man in it!

While he wasn't the most charismatic of people, this is a super important film!

[planktonrules · 9 December 2016]

This film is super important in the history of film, though I must admit that it's not the sort of film you could either rate nor recommend to most of your friends...unless your friends are film historians or history teachers. But I am very glad that Turner Classic Movies decided to show it because it was the first sound film shown to a general audience. In fact, it's the first released film by the Vitaphone unit of Warner Brothers...and for that reason alone I am thrilled it has been preserved.

The film features the head of the Production Code office, Will Hays. Hays' job was at that time mostly ceremonial and the studios pretty much made whatever they wanted (up until the new, strengthened Production Code was put into effect in July, 1934). So, since he was the face of the studios and he seemed to be doing very little in this capacity, he was asked to speak...and that's all that the film consists of...Hays speaking to the audience with a rather long- winded speech.