Two Tickets to Broadway

A run-of-the-mill musical with Tony Martin and Janet Leigh in the lead roles. Eddie Bracken provides semi-comic relief. You can see the hand of producer Howard Hughes in this one, with its profusion of showgirls and, for 1951, a heaping helping of skin(albeit, G-rated by today's standards).

Designed partially as a showcase for RKO owner Howard Hughes girlfriend, Janet Leigh. Hughes could afford to import quite a lot of first rate talent in the effort, mostly from best in the musical business MGM. Current or former MGM talent included Leigh, Ann Miller, Gloria DeHaven, and Tony Martin, along with musical number director Busby Berkeley. Leigh proved herself competent as a singer and dancer, and is certainly pleasant in personality and a pleasure to look at.

In the musical numbers featuring the four "girls", Gloria DeHaven is the standout (sorry Ann Miller fans). DeHaven sings superbly, handles the dancing with aplomb, has just the right mix of charisma, humor, sincerity, and takes a back seat to no one in the beauty department.

I thought the musical numbers well staged and mostly very pleasant (exception the very banal Pellican Falls school song). The comedy of Smith and Dale, I could live without, if you'll excuse the expression. And Eddie Bracken is too frenetic and broad in his comedy for my taste.

Though none of the songs became a standard, a couple are excellent; I especially enjoyed "The Worry Bird", and "The Closer You Are" has a gorgeous melody.

All in all, the film is the equal of many of the lower budget MGM musicals, and that ain't bad at all.

I'm not a big fan of musicals in general, so I tend to like only the really good ones (Guys and Dolls, Anchors Aweigh, Singing in the Rain, American in Paris, etc.). I thought I'd give this a try because I usually love Janet Leigh movies. However, I found this film to be rather mediocre.

First what Iiked. Janet Leigh and the supporting cast did well with their roles. Some of the songs were kinda catchy and I enjoyed several of the performances. Tony Martin really sings well, and Eddie Bracken is his usual dopey self.

Now what I didn't like. Tony Martin can't act. Or at least he couldn't in this movie. Plus I didn't like his character at all. He seemed way too old for this role. He looked old enough to be Janet Leigh's father - and he acted like it too. It was very creepy and I didn't care for it at all.

I didn't like the deli owners, either. I found them to be annoying and I was tempted to fast-forward all of their scenes. The movie plot was rather weak, as is usual in musicals. But this one especially seemed like a disjointed collection of song and dance routines. For me, a good musical is one that can weave songs and dances into the narrative more organically. This didn't do it for me.

I thought Bob Crosby's number making fun of his more famous brother Bing was amusing, but honestly I thought it detracted from the flimsy storyline in the first place. I probably would have left it out of the movie entirely.

And near the end of the film, there's a rather insensitive (if not offensive) routine when the main characters dress up like Native Americans and portray them in a stereotypical manner. I didn't care for this at all, and I'm sure there will be many people who would find it to be offensive. True, this was made in 1951 when such portrayals were not seen negatively, but I still didn't like it. If you are offended by such content, you shouldn't see this movie - or you should at least fast-forward the film through this part.

Overall, I give this a 5/10, though I think it's probably closer to a 4.

Tony Martin was the only singer/actor who I EVER had a crush on, so I totally disagree with the reviewer who said that he's only fit for gangster roles (REAL women don't want a man who looks pretty like a woman)! I graduated HS in 1955, so I was younger than Janet Leigh in 51, but I loved his big hit "I get ideas". As to the film, he did not look as good as I remember in publicity pictures (there was not the extent of distribution back then so I do not remember ever seeing him in film). I agree that his acting was not superb, but not much worse than Gene Kelly, tho' the dancing could be better. In those days the studios tried to make their people as versatile as possible. I think I'll save this one on DVD just for old times sake (of my old crush) because (with that "Big Chief Hole in the Ground" musical number), it will probably not get much exposure in the future. It is not at all PC (it's almost offensive even to me). It is surely offensive to native Americans.

Two Tickets to Broadway was to be Howard Hughes's answer to MGM type musicals and in fact he engaged the two leads from MGM, Tony Martin and Janet Leigh. The usual criticism was voiced with Martin being 15 years older than Leigh, but in this case it works because part of the plot is fresh faced Ms. Leigh avoiding being taken in by older Broadway sharpies.

No memorable songs were written by composers Jule Styne and Leo Robin for this film and that's a pity because if a hit had come out of it, the film would be better remembered. Martin, I'm sure realized no hits were coming out of this and he probably had two of his own songs put in there. He had hit records around this time of the Prologue from Pagliacci and There's No Tomorrow (O Sole Mio). He performs them well.

I would love to know if Janet Leigh was dubbed and by who. I don't believe she ever sang in any other film. For that reason I suspect a dubbing if for no other reason that she wouldn't want to be going up against a singer with as powerful a voice as Tony Martin.

Ironic that two of the players in this Ann Miller and Janet Leigh died this year. Nobody had to worry about dubbing Ann Miller in any department. She performs her big number, Let the Worry Bird Worry for You in classic style.

Bob Crosby who by that time was known as the afternoon Crosby because his radio and later TV show came on in the afternoon unlike his legendary brother. Being the Bing Crosby fan that I am, I have a soft spot in my heart for his Let's Make Comparison where he's comparing himself to brother Bing. Bob led a pretty good jazz band at that time and had a modest career in B films.

Eddie Bracken who was so good in his Paramount films was cloying and annoying in this one. His machinations trying to get his clients on the Bob Crosby show were downright stupid here and not terribly funny.

The ending though was an unintentional hoot. Janet Leigh comes from Pelican Falls, Vermont and early in the film she's given a send off by the high school band performing their alma mater song. I thought the ending with the high school band, interrupting Bob Crosby's broadcast to reprise their high school song was ridiculous. Was that Howard Hughes's idea? Well he didn't do as much damage here as he did on The Outlaw.

The film had a lot of potential and it could have been done better even at RKO, but I suspect Howard Hughes meddled a bit too much here.