Broadway Bill (1934)

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Mark Hellinger (story)
Robert Riskin (writer)

Release Date:

30 November 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

The comedy successor to "It Happened One Night"

Plot:

A runaway heiress and her sister's husband join forces to race the latter's fast horse, Broadway Bill.

Plot Keywords:

Heiress | Family Abandonment | Sister In Law | Colonel | Family Business

Cast

Warner Baxter	...	Dan Brooks
Myrna Loy	...	Alice Higgins
Walter Connolly	...	J.L. Higgins
Helen Vinson	...	Margaret
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Eddie Morgan
Raymond Walburn	...	Col. Pettigrew
Lynne Overman	...	Happy McGuire
Clarence Muse	...	Whitey
Margaret Hamilton	...	Edna
Frankie Darro	...	Ted Williams
George Cooper	...	Joe
George Meeker	...	Henry Early
Jason Robards Sr.	...	Arthur Winslow (as Jason Robards)
Ed Tucker	...	Jimmy Baker
Edmund Breese	...	Presiding Judge

Also Known As:

Strictly Confidential (UK)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Filming Locations:

Tanforan Race Track, San Bruno, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Quotes:

Dan Brooks: Doesn't anything ever change in this mausoleum?
Alice Higgins: Yes. Bedspreads and underwear.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Riding High (1950)

Horse With A Heart

In his memoirs Frank Capra gave very short shrift to Broadway Bill. In fact he only mentions it when he starts to talk about the remake of this film Riding High. The remake was in 1950 and Broadway Bill was done immediately after It Happened One Night.

In just a couple of paragraphs he mentions that he did a film called Broadway Bill sandwiched between It Happened One Night and Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. He was dissatisfied with it because the leading man, Warner Baxter, was afraid of horses and it showed. Capra then said he resolved to do the film over again with an actor who loved horses. Of course he got Bing Crosby and second to golf Crosby did love horses and horse racing. It was a perfect fit.

I didn't notice anything to terribly wrong with Baxter's performance away from the horse playing the title role. Baxter's a footloose sort of guy who's married to the daughter of millionaire Walter Connolly, Helen Vinson. Baxter's heart is at the racetrack, he loves the life and the people there. Vinson's younger sister Myrna Loy understands him though and it does take Baxter a while to figure out he married the wrong sister.

Frank Capra filled out his cast with many of the regulars who appeared in his more well known classics and they all look like they were born and bred at the racetrack. In this and in Riding High, my favorite is Raymond Walburn, the larcenous and lovable old 'Colonel' Pettigrew ready to make the ultimate sacrifice and marry 'Vinegar Puss' Margaret Hamilton.

Broadway Bill is not up there with Capra's more populistic films nor is it as good as Riding High, but it still is a wonderful heartwarming story of a horse who showed us in the higher species, the meaning of courage and heart.