Two Girls on Broadway (1940)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

S. Sylvan Simon

Writers:

Jerome Chodorov (writer)
Joseph Fields (writer)

Release Date:

19 April 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Musical | Romance

Plot:

Eddie sells his song to a Broadway producer and also lands a job dancing in the musical. He sends for...

Plot Keywords:

Sister | Engagement | Dance School | Broadway New York City | Audition

Cast

Lana Turner	...	Patricia 'Pat' Mahoney
Joan Blondell	...	Molly Mahoney
George Murphy	...	Eddie Kerns
Kent Taylor	...	'Chat' Chatsworth
Richard Lane	...	Buddy Bartell
Wallace Ford	...	Jed Marlowe
Otto Hahn	...	Ito, Chatworth's Servant
Lloyd Corrigan	...	Judge Hennessey
Don Wilson	...	Mr. Boyle, Radio Announcer
Charles Wagenheim	...	Harry, Bartell's Assistant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jessie Arnold	...	Secretary (scenes deleted)
Chester Clute	...	Salesman (scenes deleted)
George Meader	...	McChesney (scenes deleted)

Also Known As:

Choose Your Partner (UK)

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #6124) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Loew's

Movie Connections:

Remake of The Broadway Melody (1929)

Soundtrack:

My Wonderful One Let's Dance

Lana Turner as the queen of Terpsichore.

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.