In New York City, Mary is a telephone operator who lives alone and is lonely. Jim is a factory worker who also lives alone and feels disconnected from the world. During the Independence Day weekend, both Mary and Jim decide to visit Coney Island alone after finishing their Saturday half-day work shifts. The two board the same bus, mutually catching the other's attention, and again encounter each other once they arrive at the beach.

After the two spend some time together on the beach, Mary realizes she has lost the wedding ring she wears. Jim helps her locate it, but is disheartened, believing she is married. Mary reassures him after they find the ring that it is only her mother's wedding band. As night falls, Mary laments the fact that their day together is over, but Jim assures her it is not, and they continue to spend time together at the amusement park, visiting a fortune teller and riding amusement park rides. The two ride the Cyclone rollercoaster, but after one of the cars crashes, a melee ensues among the parkgoers, during which Mary and Jim are separated.

Only knowing each other's first name, and having only a small photo of each other, Jim and Mary are desperate to find each other. Jim attempts to locate Mary in the park, but a rainstorm causes further complications, sending the hundreds of park visitors scattering. A defeated Jim leaves Coney Island by train, as does Mary. Mary retreats to her apartment, where she begins to cry and beat her hands against the walls in despair. The noise catches the attention of Jim, who can hear it through the other wall—unbeknownst to either of them, the two are neighbors in their apartment building, but had never crossed paths prior. Jim opens the door to Mary's apartment and sees her standing before her bed. Shocked, but elated, the two embrace.

The film featured a theme song entitled "Lonesome" with music by Joseph Cherniavsky and words by Dave Dreyer and Herman Ruby.

Lonesome, with a three-page outline, was originally intended, by the studio, to be a short, Fejös adapted the outline to feature length.^[4]

Lonesome has few intertitles.^[5]

The studio forced, and Fejos did not direct, three^[6] dialogue sequences, with primitive dialogue, and stationary camera, into the film for commercial attraction.^[5] Sound design features the repeated use of Irving Berlin's Always.^[7]

Lonesome was widely released in the sound version. The silent version was mainly seen in theatres that had not yet converted to sound (e.g., theatres in rural areas that could not afford the expense of converting to sound).^[5] Some scenes in existing original prints of the film are colored with stencils^[8] (purple^[6]). By the time it was ready for general release, Lonesome has been equipped with a synchronized soundtrack, with music, sound effects, and three^[6] dialogue scenes.^[9] The studio promoted the film as a sound film.

Cinematography includes: superimposition effects,^[4][6] experimental editing,^[6] roller-coasting camera,^[10] roving camera,^[6] fast motion,^[4] split screens,^[4] model work,^[4] matte paintings,^[4] hand-held shots^[6] and dolly shots.^[6]

Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote: "...Paul Fejos’s exquisite, poetic 1928 masterpiece about love and estrangement in the big city, deserves to be ranked with The Crowd as well as Sunrise, though it’s not nearly as well-known as either".^[11]

In October 1928, Mordaunt Hall wrote that the film "...suggests an O Henry story without that author's keen insight into human nature. It is agreeable and interesting, a relief in many respects from the cut and dried picture formula so frequently set forth as a narrative. But there are a number of episodes where Dr. Fejos's imagination seems stunted".^[12]

Pat Kewley of PopMatters wrote: "...director Paul Fejös' rarely-seen 1928 film Lonesome, an audacious and visually spectacular urban love story from dawn of the talkie era, comes as close to the real deal as you're likely to find these days".^[4]

Cullen Gallagher of Not Coming to a Theater Near You wrote: "Lonesome is a working-class lullaby. In finding its plot in the day-to-day activities of everyday life, Lonesome reminds of a narrative version of Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, and also anticipates the docu-drama prototype People on Sunday that borrows significantly from Fejos' story".^[5]

"The original nitrate print was repatriated to the US (George Eastman House) in a trade that James Card made with Henri Langlois at the Cinémathèque Française".^[7][4]

In 2012, The Criterion Collection released Lonesome on DVD and Blu-ray, with Fejos' 1929 films Broadway and The Last Performance as extra features.^[13][6]

• List of early sound feature films (1926–1929)

• Lonesome is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive

Essays

• Lonesome 1928 an essay by Raquel Stecher at National Film Registry index
• Lonesome: Great City, Great Solitude an essay by Phillip Lopate at Criterion Collection
• Yumibe, Joshua (2013). "Chapter 11. The Illuminated Fairytale: The Colors of Paul Fejos's Lonesome (1928).". In Brown, Simon; Street, Sarah; Watkins, Liz (eds.). Color and the moving image : history, theory, aesthetics, archive. New York : Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-89263-6. Stanford Libraries catalog
• Lonesome essay by Daniel Eagan In America's Film Legacy, 2009-2010: A Viewer's Guide To The 50 Landmark Movies Added To The National Film Registry In 2009–10, Bloomsbury Publishing Usa, 2011, ISBN 1441120025 Pages 31–34
• Lonesome (1928): Greatest Film Scenes and Moments at filmsite.org

Media

• Still at The Hollywood Revue
• Stills at silentsaregolden.com

Data

• https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/10354
• https://prod-www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/81737/lonesome
• [1]
• Lonesome at AllMovie
• Lonesome at IMDb  
• Lonesome at tvtropes.org