She's Back on Broadway

SHE'S BACK ON Broadway (1953), the sixth and final film to pair actors Virginia Mayo and Steve Cochran, is the first in which their romance takes center stage and the first in which Cochran is something of a good guy. For the record, the others are: WONDER MAN, THE KID FROM BROOKLYN, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, A SONG IS BORN and WHITE HEAT and they were romantically involved in all but the first two. This one doesn't quite have the lusty passion of their perilous, ill-fated fling in WHITE HEAT, but the outcome is much more pleasant for both of them (although not nearly as dramatically compelling). It's a different kind of character for Cochran, with a greater degree of emotional vulnerability than we're used to seeing in the tough guy actor. His lingering resentment of Mayo for leaving him six years earlier leads to some pretty obnoxious behavior on his part and I can't say I felt much sympathy for him. Get over it, dude, and get on with the show. In any event, Cochran just doesn't seem suited for the role of a celebrated director of Broadway musicals. He's much too rough-hewn for this rarefied setting. It's a safe bet his character wasn't modeled on George Abbott or Jerome Robbins.

The musical numbers tend to dominate the film, which doesn't leave much room for character development—on either of their parts. The numbers are generally lavish and well-staged and we get to see the two female leads, Mayo and Patrice Wymore, dance a lot, always a treat in my book. And we also get to see Gene Nelson perform in several numbers. However, we never get any sense of what the show they're rehearsing, "Breakfast in Bed," is about or how the numbers connect to each other. Each song seems like it came from a completely different show. There's a number about a New York working girl dreaming of getting rich and in the next one she's a dancer in New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration. Contrast this with Vincente Minnelli's THE BANDWAGON, also 1953, in which the conception of the musical-within-the-movie is made very clear to us as are the reasons for its flopping, followed by a completely revamped show and a full explanation of why all the numbers are so different from each other. It all made sense there. This film has its pleasures, but it's no BANDWAGON. I must confess, though, that I did like the montage of singing and dancing auditions. It was clearly meant to be funny and the unrealistic, almost surreal quality of it was, I believe, intentional. I enjoyed the kid who keeps returning to audition in each category before they give him a job as a "gopher" to keep him from returning to the auditions. With his skinny frame, gray checked suit and bow tie, he reminded me of Pee Wee Herman and made me wonder if Herman had seen this film as a child. (I'm not sure I heard the character's name, but I'm guessing he's Mickey Zealand, played by Ray Kyle.) Also, the varied songs in the audition sequence, mostly taken from the Warner Bros. song library, look forward to the use of songs in Chuck Jones' classic 1956 cartoon, "One Froggy Evening," another Warner Bros. production.

Mayo is gorgeous in this and always an exciting, scintillating presence, but I was especially taken with Wymore, who was a little more demure and more clearly devoted to Cochran. I was kind of rooting for her and hoping he'd come to his senses. I was more than a little annoyed that Cochran was the third-billed of the male actors even though he has a bigger and more central part than either Nelson, who's billed right after Mayo, and Frank Lovejoy, who plays the producer. I mean, he IS the male lead and has as much screen time as Mayo. I'm posting this on May 25, 2017, which marks the centennial of Cochran's birth.

Catherine Terris (Virginia Mayo) is fading from the Hollywood spotlight. She is willing to take bit parts, but her manager Mitchell Parks insists that she gets leads or nothing. Instead, he suggests going back to Broadway and director Rick Sommers (Steve Cochran) who got her a big break. Rick however still holds a grudge after she left him for Hollywood.

This tries to be a look behind the curtain on Broadway. Some of it is reasonable. Some of it is almost insightful. I can do with less song and dance. The actual musical is of no importance. It is the relationship and my personal taste is for them to go their separate ways. This ending is not my preference, but I'm not going to destroy it.

Virginia Mayo is kaput in Hollywood. Agent and would-be husband Larry Keating persuades her to regain her magic by returning to the Great White Way. Unknown to her, he arranges the financing. But the director is the man who made her a star, and former lover Steve Cochran.

It's a putting-on-a-show musical with a great supporting cast, and choreography by Leroy Prinz. It's certainly engaging, and the songs are good, if not great. One of the problems is Miss Mayo's line readings; she's dull in the emotional speeches, although her legs certainly make up a lot for that. The highlight is the big set number near the end, "Behind the Mask", with Gene Nelson showing off his athleticism. With Frank Lovejoy and Patrice Wymore.

"She's Back on Broadway" stars Virginia Mayo, Steve Cochran, Frank Lovejoy, Gene Nelson, and Patrice Wymore.

Mayo is movie star Catherine Terris in a bad career slump, when her agent (Larry Keating) receives an offer for her to star in a Broadway show. Unfortunately, the director of the show is her ex-beau, Gordon Evans (Steve Cochran) - he's bitter and angry with her and makes her life a living hell in the show. She quits in anger, but agrees to go back.

Where to begin with this...well, there was some wonderful dancing by Gene Nelson and by Patrice Wymore. Mayo is lovely, with a beautiful figure, and as an actress, she was fine. Her singing is dubbed by Bonnie Williams. Cochran was so handsome, but as someone pointed out, he had the personality of a tough character actor and the looks of a lead, so he never received the recognition he deserved. Plus he died at 48 years old.

Whenever you know something about a profession and see it portrayed in a movie, there will always be complaints. For the dance auditions, people wore regular clothes and each person came forward and danced whatever routine they wanted to whatever music.

No one ever chose a dance chorus like that - first of all, there's a certain look they're going for; and secondly, everyone wears dance outfits; third, you divide the dancers into groups and give each group the same specific choreography, then weed people out.

Also, you don't hand an unknown a lead on the basis of eight bars and half a script page.

The show itself was awful.

So she's back on Broadway - for her own good, she should have stayed in Hollywood.

This is more than a review of the 1952 feel-good comedy loaded with as many hardships and frowns as smiles, taking place mostly indoors without much sunshine: Except for the opening scene as a poolside Virginia Mayo, playing a has-been actress, is taking business with her faithful but weary agent, trying to find her a leading role and suggesting she go back on... Refer to the title...

In the first two of three films, Virginia Mayo was snatched from Cult Film Freak's two all-time favorite actors by tall, dark and viciously handsome b-actor Steve Cochran: First in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, finishing Dana Andrews (not so happy) marriage so the perky dame can enjoy the nightlife...

And her most famous role as a reluctant gun-moll for ultra-violent James Cagney... He can only trust his tough old mom since his temperamental, discontented moll-wife is, once again, cheating with handsomely swarthy Cochran - and now it's his turn to sweat and stress over the pretty gal as bitter stage director Rick Sommers.,,

While looking more like a famous director's chain-smoking, cool and smooth, womanizing, multi-faceted and downright lethal bodyguard, it's the heated chemistry... or perhaps, in this case, the bitter and hardened anti-chemistry... between Cochran and Mayo that makes SHE'S BACK ON BROADWAY a better picture than an idyllic and breezy title begging for second placement on a marquee...

Despite the boatload of music, it's not a musical since most of the film is the actual musical's cast and crew getting prepared for a show called 'Breakfast In Bed' that Mayo is nervous about initially but then Cochran... in scenes where she's a natural with one of the greatest all-time dancers, Gene Nelson... he's the only person with second thoughts, basically playing a coldhearted jerk, seeming like an inspiration for Michael Douglas in A CHORUS LINE and best yet, Alan Rachins in SHOWGIRLS...

Some of the most humorous scenes take place during a prolonged audition showing the rejected bad and chosen great dancers, leaving little time for a few more rehearsals as a somewhat uninspired melodrama's unveiled as Cochran and Mayo bicker in front of everyone...

And then, alone, the pair becomes more interesting since they'd shared a past together, and only she benefited from it... He was her first stage director before she shot to stardom, and she took Hollywood's big picture bait, leaving the show that went bust because of it, and so he remained grounded because...

Well that's part of the dialogue as involving as the songs are semi-catchy, and it's fun to watch the musical being ignited by the talents of Mayo and Nelson, followed by Frank Lovejoy as the stressful producer...Which makes Cochran fourth in the credits, rather misleading since the movie's really about his refusal to let our pretty star shine bright...

Big Steve with his wild dame from the greatest post-war and gangster-prison flick make an edgy couple, yet there's little urgency from Mayo, and for a little while it's tough to buy that Cochran is anything but a tough, swarthy actor meant to cut in on other guy's women. But it's a nice, smooth nightcap, and Virginia looks better than ever wearing less than usual. Many bravos.