Dr. Broadway (1942)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Anthony Mann

Writers:

Borden Chase (novel)
Art Arthur (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 May 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Specialist In Heart Trouble... and Lead Poisoning!

Plot:

New York City physician, Dr. Timothy Kane, knows Broadway, the Great White Way and all of its characters thoroughly...

Plot Keywords:

Great White Way | Prison | New York City | Receptionist | Physician

Cast

Macdonald Carey	...	Dr. Timothy Kane aka Dr. Broadway
Jean Phillips	...	Connie Madigan
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	Vic Telli (as Edward Cianelli)
Richard Lane	...	Police Sgt. Patrick Doyle
J. Carrol Naish	...	Jack Venner
Joan Woodbury	...	Margie Dove
Arthur Loft	...	Capt. Mahoney
Warren Hymer	...	Maxie the Goat
Frank Bruno	...	Marty Weber
Sid Melton	...	Louie La Conga (as Sidney Melton)
Olin Howland	...	Professor (as Olin Howlin)
Gerald Mohr	...	Red
Abe Dinovitch	...	Benny
Thomas W. Ross	...	Magistrate (as Thomas Ross)
Charles C. Wilson	...	Dist. Atty. McNamara

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

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

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Debuting director Anthony Mann elevates Runyonesque crime programmer

This rapid-fire, Runyonesque crime story marks the auspicious directorial debut of Anthony Mann, later to enter movie history for several noirs (especially those made in collaboration with cinematographer John Alton), some superior westerns, and his uncredited work on Spartacus (where he was replaced, according to many to the movie's detriment, by Stanley Kubrick). Even this early, and working from a light-crime formula, Mann shows his innovative style. He cuts the sentiment and slapstick down to the barest minimum, keeps every scene to a point, and favors ellipsis over literalism (photographed by Theodor Sparkuhl, the movie has a rich look, too).

On the ledge of a hotel overhanging Times Square, a `nut sundae' (Jean Phillips, nearing the end of her brief candle of a career) keeps ranting to the crowds and rescue workers gathered below. When physician to the stars and drifters of the Rialto, Dr. Broadway (Macdonald Carey), saves her, it turns out to be a paid publicity stunt on the part of the starving girl, who ends up being Carey's secretary and gal Friday.

The bad news for Carey is that a mobster (Eduardo Ciannelli) he helped put away (by saving his life then informing the police) is looking for him. And finds him, but instead of exacting the expected revenge, asks him to locate his daughter and give her $100-grand. But when Ciannelli is found murdered in Carey's office, suspicion falls on the Doc. And somebody else is after the money....

Mann casts the movie with a big roster of character actors playing police, gangsters and Carey's mob of `colorful' mugs (particularly memorable are Ciannelli and, as his rival, fronting as an affable men's clothier, J. Carrol Naish). It's been suggested that Dr. Broadway may have been the opening salvo of a series of programmers. Since it didn't take off, it may have been owing to the competent but uncharismatic Carey, or to Phillip's too-close-for-comfort impersonation of Ginger Rogers. At any rate, it's a blessing that Mann didn't get bogged down in a string of programmers that wouldn't have allowed him to take the startling turns his career would later take. But it would have been a fun string of programmers.