Fri 10 Aug 2018
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: BROADWAY BILL (1934).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[3] Comments
BROADWAY BILL. Columbia Pictures, 1934. Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Walter Connolly, Helen Vinson, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Walburn, Lynne Overman, Clarence Muse, Margaret Hamilton, Frankie Darro. Director: Frank Capra. Shown at Cinevent 22, Columbus OH, May 1990.
What a wonderful cast. A racetrack comedy/drama, not a genre I am particularly fond of, but easy to take here. The climax astonished us and broke our hearts. Even the upbeat ending didn’t do much to improve the mood of the audience that quietly filed out.
[PLOT WARNING.] I don’t want to tease you, so I am going to reveal the climax. The film is about a race horse that is trained by Baxter to win the big race against all odds. The horse, running valiantly wins, and then drops dead; its generous heart, weakened by an earlier bout with a virus, burst.
August 10th, 2018 at 9:15 pm
Walter, I didn’t care much for the film, but certainly liked some of the payers, principally Myrna Loy and Walter Connolly. The project was prepared by Capra with Clark Gable in mind, especially after the success both had in It Happened One Night.
It is often stated Gable was unavailable, and that is probably so, but not the only reason. The lead character is way too flawed for him, but in addition to being a great actor, Gable loved animals, and they reciprocated. When his star proved unwilling or unavailable for whatever reason, Capra found Baxter, an actor who resembled Clark down to his moustache. You don’t test someone like Warner Baxter, but you do interview him. Capra asked how he liked horses, and Baxter was enthused. Love them, he said. What he meant, was at the track. turned out Warner was afraid of animals, and if you look for that, it shows. Fifteen years later, Bing Crosby, not at all afraid of horses, starred in Riding High, the remake with many of the same cast members. A modest success.
August 11th, 2018 at 8:12 pm
One of those films that is almost as good as it should be. Fairly typical of Capra, but not his best by a long shot, but still, anything with Loy.
Since Baxter won his Oscar playing the Cisco Kid and also played Murietta and the Kid again it was a well hidden fact he feared animals.
December 26th, 2018 at 6:00 am
The reason Gable wasn’t available was because he worked for MGM, and had only been loaned out for It Happened One Night. Its unexpected success certainly meant that Louis B. Mayer wasn’t about to have egg on his face again!