Gordon Douglas rates highly in my film viewing. He could shine in any genre, from the always watchable ' Young at Heart ' to the ( perhaps ) best Science Fiction horror film ever made ' Them '. He was not responsible for the often rotten material that Hollywood gave him, and even then some of these films were better directed than Hollywood deserved. This film almost rates as highly as the above mentioned films if it were not for the mediocre songs - no spoilers but that failure as a musical is a key plot element at the end. Douglas was a clever man, fast paced in his filming and hardly ever losing the pace. I have no idea if the BFI have had a retrospective of his work, but if they have not it is never too late. He is even responsible for giving Jacqueline Bisset one of her first and very good roles in the Frank Sinatra homosexually themed ' The Detective ' when the subject was a hot potato for studios. But returning to ' She's Back on Broadway ' it is unique in my opinion by opening with a dark almost Noir scene of Virginia Mayo on the verge of breakdown. In another musical of 1953 this could have been a killer, but it works and in this scene alone Virginia Mayo shows how exceptionally good she was as an actor. Basically she has been left high and dry by Hollywood and is suicidally depressed at not being able to act. To get out of the depression she accepts a Broadway role in a musical that is not first rate. The machinations of ' show business ' are both hard edged and amusing, and the many good actors in the film are on top form. Gene Nelson's role could have been fleshed out better, but he shows how equal he was to Astaire and to Gene Kelly. Patrice Wymore, a sadly unused and good actor is a foil to Mayo and their scenes together are sharp and brilliantly acted. And there is Steve Cochran, one of the best actors Hollywood had and only when Antonioni came along and gave him the lead in ' Il Grido' ( the Cry ) did he get the very major film he deserved. Edgy and nervous he shows raw feelings and his good looks could shift from brutality to gentleness in a second. Along with Mayo he turns this musical into something way beyond the batch of them that were produced at the time. A difficult film to find it is well worth the search, easier perhaps to track down in America than in the UK. But this review is to encourage more interest in Gordon Douglas, and if you want to find a film that is really hard boiled find ' The Fiend Who Walked The West ' torn to pieces by critics when it came out but audacious in re-creating the 1940's Fim Noir ' Kiss of Death ' as a Western. To be found in France on DVD in English and perhaps better respected there. So why not a 10 ? The mediocre songs and the Mardi Gras scenes fail ( as I said cleverly on purpose ) but the core drama of the film does not fail due to expert direction and exceptionally good acting.
