Golden Dawn

Talkie Era musicals were usually all-star revues or tales of backstage heartache and triumph. Golden Dawn -- based on a 184-performance, 1927 operetta co-created by Oscar Hammerstein II -- ambitiously breaks free of those musical confines to expand the genre's cinematic reach. Set in World War I-era Africa, it tells the tale of Dawn, a tribal woman in love with a British soldier but chosen to be the sacrificial bride of a god. Stage sensation Vivienne Segal (perhaps best known for starring opposite Gene Kelly in 1940 Broadway's Pal Joey) portrays Dawn. The film was originally shot and released entirely in color (another example of the production team's ambitiousness), but color prints have unfortunately long been lost.