Broadway Babies

Terrific little musical that stars Alice White as a chorus girl who gets the big break and becomes a Broadway star. Not much on plot but White is a dynamo with three big song and dance numbers (and she's really good): "Jig Jig Jigaloo," "Wishing and Waiting for Love," and "Broadway Babies." The songs are snappy and memorable. There's also a big finale. There's a terrific scene of the guys playing cards in a hotel room and looking out across the alley into the rehearsal hall where White and company are dancing.

Sally Eilers and Marion Byron are the girl friends. Charles Delaney is the boy friend. Fred Kohler is the big shot. Tom Dugan is the stuttering sidekick. Maurice Black and Louis Natheaux are the sharpies. Bodil Rosing, Jocelyn Lee, and Aggie Herring co-star.

White was a major star during the early talkie period, and it's easy to see why from this film and Show Girl in Hollywood. She was wide-eyed and bright. She wasn't a great actress or singer but she's got a snappy personality, and she carried the flapper into talkies.

Broadway Babies was Alice White's first all-talking picture. Seeing this movie convinced me that she is nowhere near as bad an actress as I've heard. It's thanks to her that I enjoyed this movie. The story, typical of it's time, tells the story of 3 "broadway musketeers" trying to break into showbusiness. Alice is more interested in the showbusiness part while her 2 friends, played by Miriam (Marion) Byron and Sally Eilers, would rather nab rich boyfriends. Alice gets her break and a wealthy potential lover (Fred Kohler, in a rare non-heavy role). But Charles Delaney is her real sweetheart. Alice admits her love for him to Fred and he releases her, clearing the way for a happy ending. If you are a fan of early talkie musicals, this one is sure to please you. Alice White is adorable and gets to sing and dance (Jig-Jig-Jigaloo!). A treat!

Alice White's first sound film is tremendous fun and she's absolutely adorable in it. She's also an absolutely terrible actress but nobody cared - that's the character audiences fell in love with and she plays that role brilliantly.

She knew as well as everyone that she could neither act or sing or dance but those minor setbacks were no handicap to the ambitious Alice so for just a couple of years at the dawn of the talkies she became one of Hollywood's biggest and brightest stars. As a character in this film answers when she asks about why the public want her: you are life, you are youth and you are...the sound jumped at that point but it sounded like .... you are bosoms .... which sounds a plausible reason to me. Alice White films, at least the early ones were made to make you smile, nothing more.

Mervyn LeRoy had already made a few films with Alice White so by the time he made this you might wonder why he still hadn't managed to make her even slightly believable. His male actors, although still doing 'silent film acting' seem much more authentic but Alice and her two pals are essentially cartoon characters. This must be deliberate. There were serious pictures being made in 1929 but the talkies were also a novelty so novelty pictures like this were popular. Alice White was a personality rather than an actress so this picture should be viewed in that context - it was simply an excuse to put the lovely Miss White on the big screen.

As a motion picture, something which envelopes you into a story and makes the unbelievable believable, this doesn't even try. As a piece of frivolous fun however this is great.

It's definitely not her best picture, SHOWGIRL IN HOLLYWOOD and PLAYING AROUND are much better - in those she sort of acts but nevertheless this is still thoroughly entertaining. It's got a reasonably interesting plot: showgirl ditches loyal boyfriend for flashy gangster.....ok, that's the exact same plot as PLAYING AROUND but who cares! To quote Dick Powell in DAMES: it's not the story, it's not the acting, it's not the songs - what people want to see is beautiful dames! To use the expression of the era, you'd never find a more beautiful dame than Alice White. She is impossibly pretty and so mesmerising that you can overlook the fact that even with the excuse that this was made in 1929, this is a pretty rubbish film.

Spanking new Broadway star Alice White loves stage manager Charles Delaney, but she thinks he's sweet on Sally Eilers, so she marries bootlegger Fred Kohler.

It may have originally been shot as a silent, but it looks like an early talkie all the way through, especially with the dance numbers performed on a big stage with the proscenium arch in plain view, looking like all the early First National talkies. In fact, that's in no small part it's problem. While Miss White's sexuality is on plain display, and no one did it better, her voice was weak and her dancing was not top notch. Much as people enjoy her, her stardom was one of those sports thrown up in the early stages of a new art form. One hit was looked on as a trend, and they worked it to death within a couple of years, along with the early movie musical. It would take some real innovation, again by Mervyn Leroy, to help revive the musical in 1933.

Still, within the context of 1929 musicals, this is as good as they get. Everyone gives their work as much oomph as can be hoped for. The poor sound on the copy I looked at was a bit of a surprise, given the superior recording ability of Vitaphone in this period. Clearly a cleaner print, and a better soundtrack would help.

Let's cut to the chase. Dee loves Billy and vice-versa but it takes them the entire film to not only figure this out but act upon it!

Chorus girl Dee is in love with Billy, who is producing the Broadway show. He wants to make her a star BUT some evil gamblers want to ruin Billy and offer to make Dee a star in their show. So, they deliberately try to drive a wedge between the two sweethearts and it takes the two a long time to get their heads straight and do what's best. It all culminates with someone getting shot as well as the audience having to watch some dated musical numbers.

This is a time-passer--not a bad film at all but one that is easy to skip as well. Because it's an early talkie, the sound is a bit rough but otherwise it holds up pretty well today and Alice White is adorable in the lead, though Charles Dulaney (as Billy) is hardly the Hollywood type and it makes you realize how times have changed.