Broadway Gondolier (1935)

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Sig Herzig (story) &
E.Y. Harburg (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

27 July 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical | Romance

Tagline:

LOVERS ENRAPTURED -- ...Sweethearts enthralled in the light of venetian moonbeams and music!

Plot Keywords:

Secretary | Music Teacher | Venice Italy | Show Business | Stowaway

Cast

Dick Powell	...	Richard 'Dick' Purcell, aka Ricardo Purcelli
Joan Blondell	...	Alice Hughes
Adolphe Menjou	...	Professor Eduardo de Vinci
Louise Fazenda	...	Mrs. Flaggenheim
William Gargan	...	Cliff Stanley
George Barbier	...	Music Critic Hayward
Grant Mitchell	...	E.V.Richards, Radio Producer
Ted Fio Rito	...	Bandleader Ted Fio Rito (as Ted Fio Rito and His Band)
The Mills Brothers	...	Themselves (as The Four Mills Brothers)
Donald Mills	...	Himself, One of the Mills Brothers (as The Mills Brothers)
Harry Mills	...	Himself, One of the Mills Brothers (as The Mills Brothers)
Herbert Mills	...	Himself, One of the Mills Brothers (as The Mills Brothers)
John Mills	...	Himself, One of the Mills Brothers (as The Mills Brothers)
Hobart Cavanaugh	...	Music Critic Gilmore
Joe Sawyer	...	'Red' (as Joseph Sauers)
Rafael Storm	...	Ramon
Bob Murphy	...	Singing Traffic Cop
James Burke	...	Uncle Andy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Joseph E. Bernard	...	Studio Official (scenes deleted)
Sybil Jason	...	Undetermined Secondary Role (scenes deleted)
Sam Ash	...	Singer (uncredited)
Lloyd Bacon	...	Man Going to Brooklyn (uncredited)
Candy Candido	...	Candy (uncredited)
Anne Canova	...	Hillbilly Specialty (uncredited)
Judy Canova	...	Hillbilly Specialty (uncredited)
Pete Canova	...	HillbillySpecialty (uncredited)
Zeke Canova	...	Hillbilly Specialty (uncredited)
George Chandler	...	Photographer (uncredited)
André Cheron	...	Headwaiter (uncredited)
Gino Corrado	...	Clerk in Italian Store (uncredited)
Henry De Silva	...	Steward (uncredited)
The Debutantes	...	Singers in Ted Fio Rito's Band (uncredited)
Bill Elliott	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Leo F. Forbstein	...	Orchestra Leader in Rehearsal (uncredited)
Eddie Graham	...	Man in Audience (uncredited)
Tom Hanlon	...	Second Radio Announcer (uncredited)
Otto Heimel	...	Man (uncredited)
Selmer Jackson	...	Program Director (uncredited)
William Jeffrey	...	Manager (uncredited)
Milton Kibbee	...	Red's Pal (uncredited)
Muzzy Marcellino	...	Singer in Ted Fio Rito's Band (uncredited)
Tom McGuire	...	Man Leaving Opera and Extra at Accident (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer	...	Man Leaving Opera and Dance Floor Extra (uncredited)
Jack Norton	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Majordomo Directing Taxicabs (uncredited)
Henry Otho	...	Pete, the Guard (uncredited)
Elsa Peterson	...	Woman (uncredited)
Paul Porcasi	...	Señor Fuzzi (uncredited)
Cliff Saum	...	Red's Pal (uncredited)
Rolfe Sedan	...	Mrs. Flaggenheim's Secretary (uncredited)
Harry Seymour	...	First Radio Announcer (uncredited)
June Travis	...	Hat Check Girl (uncredited)
Mary Treen	...	Second Irate Phone Caller (uncredited)
Don Turner	...	Taxi Driver at Accident (uncredited)
Emmett Vogan	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Leo White	...	de Vinci's Friend (uncredited)
Ernest Wood	...	Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)

Directed by
Lloyd Bacon

Writing credits
Sig Herzig		(story) &
E.Y. Harburg		(story) &
Hanns Kräly		(story) (as Hans Kraly)
Warren Duff		(screenplay) (as Warren B. Duff) &
Sig Herzig		(screenplay)
Julius J. Epstein		(contributor to screenplay construction) uncredited
Jerry Wald		(additional dialogue) uncredited
Francesco Maria Piave		(libretto "Rigoletto") uncredited

Produced by
Samuel Bischoff	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Heinz Roemheld		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
George Barnes

Film Editing by
George Amy

Art Direction by
Anton Grot

Costume Design by
Orry-Kelly		(gowns)

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	musical director
Ray Heindorf	....	music arranger (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1935) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #935)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Joseph E. Bernard is listed in the studio records in the role of "Official", but was not seen in the print.

Quotes:

Alice Hughes:People don't marry crooners. They only divorce them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Tiny Toon Adventures: Psychic Fun-omenon Day (#1.33)" (1990)

Soundtrack:

For Lovers Only

You've Got That Something In Your Voice So Right For Selling Cheese

While Dick Powell was at Warner Brothers, he would be hat in hand to Jack Warner pleading for him to occasionally be cast in something serious. Of course Warner heard that wonderful tenor and saw nothing else in Powell. And certainly when he wrapped those vocal cords around songs like what Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote for Broadway Gondolier neither could anyone else.

Life does certainly imitate art. The following year the Kraft Cheese Company was in fact looking for a singer to host a rather daring hour long radio variety show, an hour show on radio was quite an innovation back in the day. Unlike Broadway Gondolier the sponsor didn't go to Italy for a crooner. They and NBC found him doing a show for Woodbury Soap, so Bing Crosby got to do in real life what Powell did in the film, host a show selling cheese, as Bob Hope remarked in The Road to Utopia.

Powell himself was not exactly unknown to radio audiences. He appeared on the Hollywood Hotel program, named after one of his other films in Louella Parsons dished out the latest Hollywood gossip. Of course her Hearst connection and his due to the fact he did two films with Marion Davies made Louella and Dick a natural radio team.

In many ways Broadway Gondolier is a continuation of Goldiggers of 1935 which also starred Powell and had Adolphe Menjou with foreign accent. You could never get away with the performance Menjou gave in Broadway Gondolier with that outrageous Italian accent and characterization. The Italian Anti-Defamation League would be picketing the film. But just like in Goldiggers of 1935, Menjou's hammy performance is enjoyable, especially when he tries to fool radio executive Grant Mitchell and sponsor Louise Fazenda, owner of Flagenheimer's Odorless Cheese, and tries to sing like Powell.

Joan Blondell is Mitchell's girl Friday and Fazenda's keeper in the film who falls big time for the cabdriver, would be crooner Powell. Of course she's got another guy knocking on her romantic door, William Gargan who stars on the network as futuristic space hero Buck Gordon. And Fazenda after Powell pretends to be Italian starts getting designs on him. The look in her eye would be grounds enough for a suit for sexual harassment.

Powell recorded for Brunswick records the four songs he sang that Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote for the film, Outside of You, Lonely Gondolier, The Rose in Her Hair and Lulu's Back in Town. The last two enjoyed some enduring popularity and Powell sang Lulu solo and in a nice scat version with the Mills Brothers.

After some hilarious errors when cabdriver Powell and his voice teacher Menjou try to get him a radio audition, they get the idea to go over to Italy where Fazenda is vacationing and have her 'discover' him in Venice. They bill him as the Italian Gondolier and of course they have to keep up the masquerade.

Anyone who's seen a few films like this knows exactly how it will end. Warner Brothers and Hollywood in general did a grand job in packaging a lot of wonderful nonsense like this as grand escapist entertainment from the Depression.

Even after over 70 years Broadway Gondolier is still wonderfully entertaining. Should not be missed the next time TCM runs it.