Broadway Bad

The title, that it stars Joan Blondell and Ginger Rogers and the opening scene with scantily clad showgirls sharing bunks suggests this must be some undiscovered Warner Brothers 1930s musical. Wrong! This is actually a serious drama. Not a good serious drama that doesn't feel horribly dated but not too bad either.

It's intriguing as to why Jack Warner allowed three of his big stars to appear in a film made by his rival, Fox Films. Fox films were virtually bankrupt at this time and would be taken over very soon by Jack Warner's own head of production, Daryl Zanuck. Something very odd going on there? Sounds like part of a plot to a Wall Street conspiracy movie doesn't it?

The movie however is less interesting; the acting is very credible, the direction and look of the film is interesting but the story somehow just doesn't have enough focus on what it's trying to be. Joan Blondell does however show she can play a different role to her usual down-on-her-luck fluzy character and actually does it really well, managing to create a believable character you want things to work out for.