Two Girls on Broadway

Lana Turner gets to show off her dance skills with George Murphy and Joan Blondell in 1940's "Two Girls on Broadway." Mostly lighthearted fun as George Murphy plays dancer Eddie Kerns, who resorts to trickery to catch his big break in New York and smoothtalks his producers into bringing over his fiance (Joan Blondell) and her kid sister (Turner), who are also dancers. Turner plays the fresh faced ingenue who attracts attention for her looks and talent while Blondell has to face the harsh realities of show business when you are past your prime. Murphy plays the aw shucks hoofer torn between Blondell and Turner (guess who he wants the most? Gee I wonder?) Blondell gets a chance to play more than the usual wise-cracking sidekick. Turner shows she wasn't just a pretty face back then and has some real talent. Look for a cute scene where she comes home drunk late at night and tries to keep her sister from waking up. The movie runs a tight 73 minutes, so enjoy as much as you can before it's over.

I never realized what a fabulous dancer Lana Turner was until I saw this movie. She was only 19 years old and gorgeous. What a pleasure to watch her dance with George Murphy. The story line was typical for its day but the dancing was really special. I never tire of watching Fred and Ginger but Lana Turner in this movie was just as terrific. I always thought of Lana as a so-so actress who tended to over act. She should have done more dancing and less of the Maddam X and Peyton Place roles. I had a new appreciation for her after seeing this movie and her wonderful dancing. Too bad the "Academy" doesn't give an "Oscar" for dancing.

I'll be honest, the main reason to watch this film is the gorgeous Lana Turner, who was just 19 years old when she starred in it. It's not her first film, but it was made just as her career was about to take off. Her acting is a little clumsy in places (as is George Murphy's), but it's a delight to see her dancing, and each of her close-ups. The story is a little thin, and has Joan Blondell and Turner as sisters, who come to New York to try to get jobs on stage with Blondell's slick-talking but affable fiancé, Murphy. Unfortunately, between the two of them, it's only Turner they want, and Blondell is relegated to selling cigarettes. Murphy tries to look out for Turner and shield her from a lecherous playboy (Kent Taylor), but then things get worse for Blondell when Murphy starts falling for Turner himself. There are some nice scenes of Blondell sacrificing herself with a brave face; she does the best she can with the material, and her character is a model of class. Unfortunately, there's also an extended scene with a Japanese butler that has some ugly racism on full display. The film wants to be a comedy, a romance, and a musical, and is pretty average at all three. It's concise at 73 minutes, and I liked seeing Turner and Blondell, but if those two aren't of interest, you should probably skip this one.

The revelation here is Lana Turner's dancing ability. Though she was known privately to be an excellent nightclub and ballroom dancer, Miss Turner rarely got the opportunity to demonstrate this ability on film.

So, viewers take notice! Here, MGM were clearly still trying to determine in what direction they would develop the still young starlet, and were, therefore, consigning her to everything from Andy Hardy to Doctor Kildaire.

In "Two Girls on Broadway," however, she is given an excellent opportunity to display her native rhythm and ability to shift tempo in the lavish production number, "My Wonderful One, Let's Dance." This number, is conceived and filmed, as a sort of hybrid between a Busby Berkely style extravaganza and the sort of routines Hermes Pan was designing for Astaire and Rogers at RKO.

Thus, the number opens with George Murphy and Miss Turner depicted as bar patrons (with full chorus) before a curtain of black lame wherein Mr. Murphy croons the number to Miss Turner. Then the camera, (on a boom) pulls backward in a remarkable crane shot to reveal an enormous stage, and a rotating set equipped with steps, columns, enclosures and sliding walls.

From this point on, Murphy and Turner execute a fast stepping variety of moods and attitudes, including lifts, spins, soft shoe, and ending with an electrifying series of conjoined pirouettes that concludes with Murphy both lifting and rotating Turner with thrilling speed to a racing orchestra.

All told a dizzying feat that proves Miss Turner was fully capable of more than holding her own as a dancer, though I daresay most of her admirers would balk at relinquishing her from her throne as the queen of melodrama.

TWO GIRLS ON BROADWAY (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1940), directed by S. Sylvan Simon, is a lightweight, updated partial remake to the ever popular Academy Award winner of THE BROADWAY MELODY (MGM, 1929). While the update could have been titled BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940, this latest edition as TWO GIRLS ON BROADWAY, based on the original story by Edmund Goulding, is more of a second feature (74 minutes) and showcase for young Lana Turner. Supported by such screen veterans as Joan Blondell and George Murphy, it also displays Turner's rare ability as a singer and dancer, but soon proving her future success in the movies would be in dramatic roles instead.

The story begins in Rome City, Nebraska, where Trooper One, Molly Mahoney (Joan Blondell), runs a dancing school for children along with Trooper Two, her kid sister, Pat (Lana Turner), Dismissing their class to listen to the radio program, "Oddities of the Air," as hosted by Mr. Boyle (Don Wilson), by which Trooper Three, Eddie Kearns (George Murphy), Molly's fiance, happens to be auditioning one of his composed songs with a song and dance. Eddie wins audience approval and a spot in Buddy Bartell's (Richard Lane) upcoming musical show. Telephoning the good news to Molly, he invites the girls to take the next bus out to join him for a possible audition. Upon their arrival, Molly and Pat do a song and dance for Bartell, whose main interest is more on Pat. To keep Pat under his employ, he offers Molly a night club job working as a cigarette girl. Regardless of this humiliation and wanting Pat to succeed in show business, Molly accepts the job. As Pat finds herself becoming more interested in Eddie during dress rehearsals, she decides to spend more time with her sponsor, Chat Chatsworth (Kent Taylor), so not to come between Molly and Eddie's plans for marriage. Problems arise when Molly discovers from Jed Marlowe (Wallace Ford), a reporter friend of hers, that Chatsworth is a womanizer with five ex-wives with intentions on having Pat as wife number six. Others in the cast include Otto Hahn (Ito); Lloyd Corrigan (Judge Hennessey); and Edward Gargan (The Policeman),

The distinction between TWO GIRLS ON BROADWAY and THE BROADWAY MELODY are its acting and production numbers. Though the original 1929 had its merits of success, its over-the-top acting among the leading actresses (Bessie Love and Anita Page) along with brief production numbers consisting of cart-wheels and back flips by ensembles, both weaken the original for contemporary viewers. Blondell, in her role originated by Bessie Love, gives a more natural performance as does Lana Turner's carnation to Anita Page's kid sister performance. For being Turner's movie, it is Blondell who proves herself more of a real trooper than the others.

The production numbers, well choreographed by Bobby Connolly, consisting of "My Wonder One, Let's Dance" (sung by George Murphy); "Broadway's Still Broadway" (dance rehearsal dance with Lana Turner) and reprise of "My Wonderful One, Let's Dance" (performed by Murphy and Turner) are entertaining enough, but not as memorable in scoring as the 1929 original that produced such classic tunes as "You Were Meant for Me." George Murphy, like Charles King, displays good showmanship in the entertainment department, yet it was Murphy who lasted a lot longer as a movie actor than the heavily New York accented Charles King, whose movie career ended in 1930.

As much as TWO GIRLS ON BROADWA Y is not a scene by scene remake to THE BROADWAY MELODY, it does lead to a similar structure to the original. Never distributed on video cassette but available on DVD, both TWO GIRLS ON BROADWAY and THE BROADWAY MELODY can be seen and compared whenever shown on Turner Classic Movies cable television. (**1/2)