Broadway

"Broadway" is a semi-biopic/gangster movie in which the stars align and everything works. It has all the elements of a hit movie; good idea, good script, good cast, good music, good pacing. It is listed as a musical but the musical is almost incidental; the movie takes place backstage at a theater (which is also a speakeasy) and it contains a couple of old songs for the chorus girls to perform. George Raft tells the story in flashback, as he visits New York and reminisces about the old days, particularly about his gangster involvement.

I don't care for George Raft. He was a wooden actor and had an unattractive persona and appearance. But here I feel he did his best work, even creating a little sympathy for his character as well as showing his dancing feet - remember, he is a middle-aged guy playing a young guy. He was better here than in "Souls At Sea". The picture gets a big lift from Broderick Crawford as the heavy, and his acting here rivals his AA performance in "All The King's Men". Pat O'Brien plays a 'flatfoot'(no surprise) and comic relief comes in the form of SZ Sakall and Edward Brophy. Janet Blair and Anne Gwynne were very pretty in slight roles; too bad their careers weren't more prolific.

The picture moves at a good pace, and I really can't think of a drawback or a valid complaint. Thoroughly entertaining from start to finish, a quick 90 minutes. It was shown at Cinevent, Columbus,O. 5/12.

George Raft -- playing George Raft on loan to Universal -- wanders the streets of Broadway, and into a bowling alley under construction. He tells watchman Arthur Shields about when it was a night club during Prohibition, his dancing partner Janey Blair, and bootlegger Broderick Crawford feeding her a line.

This remake of 1929's movie of the same name doesn't have the spectacular visual qualities of the original, but it does have a lot of fine character actors in small and medium parts: S. Z. Sakall, Pat O'Brien as the cop, Eddie Brophy, Marie Wilson, Ralf Harald, Iris Adrian, Marjorie Rambeau, Jimmy Conlin, Tom Kennedy, Charles Lane, and many others. It's a feast for fans of these players who often seem more important in their small turns than the stars who headline the show.

Raft is pretty good too, as he offers some of his nifty dancing, and some coin flips. Director William Seiter offers a movie that seems nostalgic for the day without resorting to the Runyonesque fantasy that it's all good laughs and mangled grammar, and the assortment of songs popular two decades before this movie, many of them still known, lends a lot of bright detail to the production.

"Broadway" is a little-known semi-musical that grips the audience despite being handicapped with two pointless gimmicks. The first gimmick is that George Raft plays himself, and the movie supposedly recounts an episode early in his career. The second gimmick is that the story is told in flashback. Neither gimmick helps the film at all, and "Broadway" would have been better without them.

Once the flashback starts, the story unfolds quickly and blends a gangster story with a back-stage musical drama. Many films have tried this mixture. A few, like "Party Girl" succeed but most, like "The Cotton Club" fail. "Broadway" succeeds, and does not glamorise life back-stage. It shows the tackiness of show business in a small club which is small and shabby. No new songs were written for the film and familiar old songs like "Dinah" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry" are performed.

Apart from the gimmicks, the film has two other problems. Many of the characters are clichés, both as written and as acted. For example both S. J. Sakall and Pat O'Brien give the same performance they gave in several other movies, and S. J Sakall, in particular, is completely wrong for this movie. By contrast, Broderick Crawford gives an interesting performance as the main gangster and avoids cliché acting. The second weakness is that the screenplay does not bring out clearly what motivates the characters. For example, the Janet Blair character is attracted to the gangster and closes her eyes to what he really is. At a celebration party she is propositioned by an unwelcome admirer and the gangster intervenes. The man backs down and there is no violence. Nevertheless, the girl now sees the gangster for what he is and is no longer attracted to him. This would have made more sense if there had been a fight in which the gangster displayed sadism and brutality.

Although George Raft and Janet Blair were reasonable dancers, they were nothing special and "Broadway" succeeds more as a melodrama than as a musical. (If Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth had been cast, and more prominence given to the dancing, "Broadway" might have been a great musical.)

With only a brushing acquaintance with the truth, "Broadway" offers a glimpse of the early speakeasy life of George Raft. Raft plays himself, a good idea as later attempts would prove no one else could ever portray him. It is a bowdlerized version of his time as a dancer employed in the nightclub of Texas Guinan - here renamed Lil. This George Raft is all about work, pines for only one woman, and never met a gangster he liked - so far from reality it has to provoke a smile. But its heart, and his, is in the right place.

The movie is completely worth seeking out for the all too brief George Raft style of dance. Too rare were the films that allowed him to exhibit that "fastest dancer in New York" technique. Raft was past 45 when he shot this and was recreating moves from his 20s, and that alone is impressive. The boy could still move! Raft's poker pal Pat O'Brien gets to play a wise cop again, and bombastic Broderick Crawford is a real scene-stealer as the bootlegging gang leader with a penchant for murder.

A major problem with the film is its complete neglect of setting. There is no attempt to create the styles of the late 1920s, which would have added so much atmosphere (and truth). It could have used a lot more grit as well.

Film star George Raft on a trip to New York takes a nostalgic visit to a nightclub where back in those wonderful days of Prohibition he was a hoofer in the same nightclub. On one night he almost got pinched for a murder.

In fact there were two murders that night. Gangster Broderick Crawford who supplied the booze to the club that was owned by S.Z. Sakall and Marjorie Rambeau bumps off a rival in the club. Crawford was also putting moves on Janet Blair who is Raft's dancing partner. So when homicide cop Pat O'Brien starts nosing around, Raft gets nicely set up for a fall guy.

Well we know it didn't stick because this film is all in flashback with Raft telling the tale to Arthur Shields. But justice is done all around in this film.

With three leads like George Raft, Pat O'Brien and Broderick Crawford, that in itself is reason enough to watch Broadway. But a whole host of familiar character players who really make Broadway something to highly recommend. Besides those mentioned when you have Marie Wilson, Iris Adrian, Anne Gwynne, Edward Brophy, Abner Biberman, Nestor Paiva, etc. etc. you know you are in for a treat.

It was nice to see Raft doing some dancing. He started out that way and his debut was in a New York based film Queen Of The Nightclubs where he was a featured player in a movie showcasing the fabulous Texas Guinan. Marjorie Rambeau's character is based on Guinan in fact. You can see Raft dance in such films as Bolero, Rumba and a very few others. Raft hanging around the nightclub scene and growing up in poverty in New York's Hells Kitchen he started rubbing shoulders with some really prominent criminals. So much so it saturated the man's whole screen image. But in this urban milieu there was no one who could touch Raft, including Warner Brothers gangster stable of stars. He really lived on the periphery of this life.

Broadway is a semi-autobiographical tale of George Raft's early days in show business. Highly recommended for his fans.