Golden Dawn is a musical operetta released by Warner Brothers and photographed entirely in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

. The film is based on the semi-hit stage musical of the same name by Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Hammerstein II

Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hammerstein II was an American librettist, theatrical producer, and theatre director of musicals for almost forty years. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and was twice awarded an Academy Award for "Best Original Song". Many of his songs are standard repertoire for...

 and Otto Harbach

Otto Harbach

Otto Abels Harbach, born Otto Abels Hauerbach was an American lyricist and librettist of about 50 musical comedies...

.

Songs

• "Africa Smiles No More" (Sung by Alice Gentle)
• "The Whip" (Sung by Noah Beery twice)
• "My Bwanna" (Sung by Vivienne Segal and chorus; Reprised by Vivienne Segal)
• "We Two" (Sung by Marion Byron and Dick Henderson)
• "Dawn" (Sung by Walter Woolf King; Reprised by a chorus during finale)
• "Mooda's Song" (Sung by Alice Gentle)
• "My Heart's Love Call" (Sung by Walter Woolf King)
• "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (Sung by the British exchange prisoners)
• "In a Jungle Bungalow" (Sung by Lupino Lane and chorus; Danced to by Lupino Lane)
• "A Tiger" (Sung and danced to by Marion Byron and Lee Moran; Reprised by Marion Byron)
• "Mulungu Thabu" (Sung by chorus with spoken interjections by Nigel de Brulier)
• "Dawn" (Reprised by chorus)

Trivia

Noah Beery recorded "The Whip" for Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by E1 Entertainment.-From 1916:Records under the "Brunswick" label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company...

 along with a song from Song of the Flame (1930), another Warner Bros. musical he had recently appeared in.

Whenever the film is mentioned today in film reference books and TV/movie guides, it receives unanimously scathing reviews, most notably for its racism and its unintentionally funny performances. Beery not only plays his role in blackface, but also plays it with the type of Deep South accent one would find in characters such as Mammy in Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind (film)

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...

, despite the fact that he is supposed to be playing an African chieftain. Humorously snide comments of unintended double entendre

Double entendre

A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....

 have also been made over Beery's "The Whip".http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195088115

Preservation

The film survives only in a black-and-white copy made in the 1950s for television.

Cast

• Walter Woolf King
  Walter Woolf King
  Walter Woolf King was an American singer, performer, and film actorBorn in San Francisco, California, King started singing for a living at a young age and sang mostly in churches. He made his Broadway theatre debut in 1919, and developed a reputation as a baritone in musical comedies and other...
  
   as Tom Allen
• Vivienne Segal
  Vivienne Segal
  Vivienne Sonia Segal was an American actress and singer.Segal was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best remembered for creating the role of Vera Simpson in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's Pal Joey and introduced the song "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"...
  
   as Dawn
• Noah Beery as Shep Keyes
• Alice Gentle
  Alice Gentle
  Alice Gentle was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. She began her career in 1908 as a member of the opera chorus in Oscar Hammerstein I's Manhattan Opera Company...
  
   as Mooda
• Dick Henderson as Duke
• Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane
  Lupino Lane was an English actor and theatre manager, and a member of the famous Lupino family. Lane started out as a child performer, known as 'Little Nipper', and went on to appear in a wide range of theatrical, music hall and film performances...
  
   as Mr Pigeon
• Marion Byron
  Marion Byron
  Marion "Peanuts" Byron was a petite, plucky American movie comedienne.She was born in Dayton, Ohio. After following her sister into a short stage career as a singer/dancer, she was given her first movie role as Buster Keaton's leading lady in the film Steamboat Bill Jr. in 1928...
  
   as Joanna
• Edward Martindel
  Edward Martindel
  Edward Martindel was an American stage and film actor. He appeared on Broadway and in 89 films between 1915 and 1946....
  
   as Colonel Judson
• Nina Quartero
  Nina Quartero
  Nina Quartero was a motion picture actress from New York City, whose career spanned the years 1928 - 1943. Often she played supporting roles and sometimes a diversive love interest for the lead male actor....
  
   as Dawn's Maid-In-Waiting
• Sojin
  Sojin
  Sōjin Kamiyama or just Sōjin was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in over 70 films between 1917 and 1954...
  
   as Piper
• Otto Matieson
  Otto Matieson
  Otto Matieson was a Danish actor of the silent era. He appeared in 45 films between 1920 and 1931.He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and died in Safford, Arizona.-Selected filmography:...
  
   as Captain Eric
• Julanne Johnston
  Julanne Johnston
  Julanne Johnston was an American silent film actress born in Indianapolis, Indiana.Johnston is known for being on William Randolph Hearst's yacht The Oneida during the weekend in November 1924 when film director and producer Thomas Ince later died of heart failure...
  
  as Sister Hedwig