TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

This moment, which occurred in 1927-28 in the United States and between one and eight years later in other countries, was an unpleasant shock for many critics accustomed to praising silent films. Audiences, for their part, were immediately enthused by 100 % talking films.^[2] Two principal systems were competing against one another. Although the earliest widely-distributed sound and talking films used a sound on disc system (the Warner Bros. Vitaphone, 1926-31), the optical sound system quickly took hold (in large movie theatres in large cities in the United States). In September 1927 (a month before the release by Warner Bros. of Alan Crosland’s film The Jazz Singer, with synchronized discs), Fox released Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s Sunrise, a sound film with an optical soundtrack (the Movietone system). This film had a music track from beginning to end, along with sound effects and cries. Fox had equipped all its movie theatres for Movietone by late September 1927, making it possible for audiences to hear (and see) Fox newsreels at the beginning of the program, even if the next film was silent. Fox very quickly produced numerous reportages with sound and dialogue, along with comic or musical short films (competing with Warner Bros. and its Vitaphone Shorts on disc, featuring music or song). The Roxy, a movie theatre which had opened in New York in March 1927, offered its audience of 6,000 spectators synchronized films using sound on disc and optical sound systems. Silent films were re-released with synchronous sound on an optical track.