Fifty Roads to Town

Don Ameche and Ann Sothern star in "Fifty Roads to Town" from 1937.

Until Tyrone Power attained stardom at 20th Century Fox, Ameche was their go-to leading man. After Power's rise to fame, Ameche still played leads, except when Power was in the film.

In this story, Peter Nostrand (Ameche) is on the lam, but at first, we don't know why. Millicent Kendall (Sothern) is on the lam, too, but again, we don't know why. We only know they are whizzing down roads at 90 miles an hour trying to avoid each other and the police. They both wind up at a hotel that is about to close for the winter. They both escape, Millicent still in her nightgown.

Later, they wind up in a cabin. It's there they learn that Millicent is an heiress (it is, after all, after It Happened One Night) running away from her father so she can marry her boyfriend. We also then learn that Peter is running away from a divorce case in which he is asked to testify. Since both parties are his friends, he wants no part of it.

Delightful film with Millicent at one point hiding in Peter's trunk - he spots her and gives her a bumpy ride. The shootout at the end is hilarious. The two sing a song together, Never in a Million Years, and we get to hear what great voices they both had. Both had many Broadway musical credits.

I love these lighthearted comedies.

Don Ameche (Peter) goes on the run but we are not sure why. He gets tipped off that someone is coming after him so he packs a gun and speeds away. He also takes his alcohol with him! Cue a tedious high speed car chase that goes on for too long between Ameche, Ann Sothern (Millicent) and a traffic cop. It turns out that Sothern is also running away. They head to a guest house and then meet up in an empty mountain cabin, where the majority of the film takes place and the audience loses the will to live. About three quarters of the way through, out of nowhere, it turns into a musical and they sing a duet! What was that about!?

This film also contains Stepin Fetchit (Percy) as the guest house porter and he is awful. It is at the point of his arrival in the film, where he speaks incoherently and is given far too much screen time, that you realize this film is really going to suck. And suck it does. It is incredibly boring.

"Fifty Roads to Town" is an excellent movie and much of it has to do with the writing and very original story.

Peter (Don Ameche) is on the run. No, he's done nothing wrong but he is avoiding process servers because he has no desire to be brought into the middle of a divorce case, as the husband and wife are his friends. So, he's hiding out in the middle of no where in the mountains during the off season. To the deserted motel arrives Millicent (Ann Sothern) and Peter assumes, incorrectly, that she is trying to serve him with a summons to court. At the same time, she comes to believe that he's a gangster!! Can it get crazier...yup. Soon a real gangster arrives in the area...a desperate character who has escaped from prison! How can these three all work together to make a nice rom-com? See the film.

Ameche and Sothern are wonderful here. The writing is spot on as well. The only negative is having Stepin Fetchit in the movie. He is only a bit player but seeing and hearing his awful racial routine is enough to give many an apoplexy. My advice...try to look past this awful product of the times and appreciate the other 95% of the film...it's worth your time.