Sunny Side Up (1929), dir. David Butler

When Charles Farrell serenades Janet Gaynor in Sunny Side Up (1929), their first talkie, has the glamor king inhaled a tin whistle?

Charles Farrell personified masculine glamor in silent movies, especially when he romanced Janet Gaynor.  After 7th Heaven (1927), they starred together in two more silent films. Farrell and Gaynor eventually co-starred in nine talkies, too.

For both Farrell and Gaynor, torture by Vitaphone mattered little. Their chirping in Sunny Side Up enchanted audiences. Re-recorded by jazz bands, torch singers, and crooners,  “If I Had a Talking Picture of You” became a hymn to “talking” movies.