Broadway Rhythm (1944)

Director:

Roy Del Ruth

Writers:

Harry Clork (screenplay)
Oscar Hammerstein II (play)

Release Date:

19 January 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Music

Plot:

Broadway producer Johnny Demming courts big-name talent for his upcoming musical show, oblivious to the talent all around him...

Plot Keywords:

Actress | Dance | Barn | Fantasy Sequence | Graduation

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

George Murphy	...	Johnny Demming
Ginny Simms	...	Helen Hoyt
Charles Winninger	...	Sam Demming
Gloria DeHaven	...	Patsy Demming (as Gloria de Haven)
Nancy Walker	...	Trixie Simpson
Ben Blue	...	Felix Gross
Lena Horne	...	Fernway de la Fer
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson	...	Eddie
Hazel Scott	...	Herself
Kenny Bowers	...	Ray Kent
Aggie Ross	...	Dance Specialty (as The Ross Sisters)
Elmira Ross	...	Dance Specialty (as The Ross Sisters)
Maggie Ross	...	Dance Specialty (as The Ross Sisters)
Dean Murphy	...	Hired man on Farm
Louis Mason	...	Farmer

Also Known As:

The Broadway Melody of 1944 (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

MGM bought the rights to the Broadway musical "Very Warm For May", music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, as the starting point for the film. In typical Hollywood manner, by the time they were done all the original songs except "All the Things You Are" had been dropped, replaced by material from other writers. Three of the original songs were sung, fragmentarily, by George Murphy sitting at a piano waiting for Ginny Simms to come out. The name of the original play is also mentioned in passing in one of the scenes.

Quotes:

Johnny Demming: Here we are - three weeks before the opening and we haven't got a leading lady.

Movie Connections:

References Uncle Tom's Cabin (1927)

Soundtrack:

Waltz in D Flat Major (Minute Waltz)

Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

Hey Gang let's put on a musical! We can use that barn down the road and I know a Hollywood star who's just dying for a launching pad to Broadway. She's read the script and she's sure that it's a winner, much better than that new one that Uncle Johnny wrote. Boy we'll show him won't we?

There's the story of Broadway Rhythm in a nutshell. With a great cast it might have made a passable time waster. But then great casts usually steer clear of lame scripts. So this movie got a pretty uneven cast. When Tommy Dorsey is a standout in the acting department you know you have to worry. Apparently Gene Kelly and Eleanor Powell were originally slated for this movie, fortunately they took different paths in their careers. The movie would have been much much better, but it might have sandbagged their careers.

Unfortunately the leads went to George Murphy and Ginny Simms. Simms wears more make-up than a Macdonald's clown and always has a fake TV commercial smile plastered on her kisser. The effect is eerie. She gets to sing one of the finest songs of that era, "All the Things You Are" and it is almost a complete waste. It's her best moment but it certainly isn't the song's.

Murphy's idea of wooing Ms Simms appears remarkably similar to dickering for a used car. According to the plot he's supposed to be a much better dancer than the youngster he won't give a break to even though he's the son of his father's former partner. To prove that he's such a great dancer, he doesn't dance.

There is some dancing and singing that is worth watching. Most of it comes from Gloria deHaven, who looks gorgeous and natural next to Simms. She may just have inspired the term hot pants with her outfit in one of the scenes from their little musical. Nancy Walker, the comedy relief in "MacMillan and Wife" appears as a wannabe performer and she is a standout especially in her musical number. In an unrelated sighting (to the plot that is) we also see Lena Horne, who is given the number "Brazilian Boogie Woogie". For some that alone will be worth watching. The strangest bit has to be a trio who pop out of nowhere as the kids are negotiating for the barn. They sing like the Andrew Sisters and dance like Chinese acrobats.

Was it a measure of the times that everybody seems to be under the impression that Spanish is the language of Brazil? Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!