Made on Broadway

The fact that I cannot even remember the name of this picture which I watched yesterday is indicative of the impact this has. At 68 minutes it's just too shallow and superficial to engage with you. Watchable - yes, well made - yes but entertaining - not really.

This is a typical B-feature. It's something made just to fill the cinema screen whilst the audience were settling into their seats preparing for the main feature. Being MGM, it's got high quality production values but no great effort has gone into this to make it stand out. Maybe if it had been made by Warner Brothers, who specialised in short, high impact pictures, it might have had more punch - you can imagine James Cagney relishing a role like this.

As has already been commented, the story is similar to CHICAGO/ROXIE HART. That's true but because Sally Eilers' suicidal protagonist is so unpleasant, she's much more like Mae Busch in Laurel and Hardy's COME CLEAN (the one with the chocolate ice cream!) COME CLEAN is however a comedy - this isn't but neither is it a serious drama. You don't feel like you know the characters. You're told what they're doing but we don't really know why and how. Depth and evocative thought were not high on the tick list for most MGM supporting features, they were just an hour of attractive people playing out a simple story.

A cheerfully amoral pre-Code in which we don't actually see the shooting the plot turns on so we never really know to what extent justice has been served or perverted.

But it's fun to see the cynical hero's ex-wife (Madge Evans) function as the glamorous other woman.

A lot of the ground and issues that were covered two decades later in Sweet Smell Of Success are covered also in this before The Code era film. Made On Broadway goes J.J. Hunsecker one better. Instead of just having a permanent table at the swankiest club in midtown Manhattan, Robert Montgomery as Jeff Bidwell owns his own club where New York's elite drink, gamble, and pay through the nose for the privilege. Montgomery has his eyes and ears everywhere as Broadway's number one press agent and has a genius for manipulating public opinion for a very steep price.

He's got a roving eye and wife Madge Evans left him for it. But one night on the ferry to New Jersey Montgomery jumps in the river and saves the life of a would be suicide Sally Eilers. At this point the film takes a Pygmalion like direction.

Eilers is one interesting character herself and the master manipulator gets himself used in some interesting ways. There's a key scene in the film when Eilers gets herself in a nice jackpot she let's down her hair with lawyer Joseph Cawthorn where you get a view of the real character. Takes Montgomery a bit longer to catch on.

If chronology did not label this a pre-Code film the plot would. There are a few things that Mr. Breen's book of rules would not have permitted after 1934.

Eugene Palette as Montgomery's valet is always good, but he's strangely subdued here. I always like to see more of Palette as he appears in My Man Godfrey.

Made On Broadway is a strangely forgotten film and should be better remembered. It definitely could be remade today.

This 1933 MGM comedy is a rarity. It was filmed before the Hays Code arrival, as Harry Beaumont, its director, shows a freedom that would be rare in movies about the same theme that were done after. "Made on Broadway" is a delicious comedy that as another comment points out, its heroine seems to have been a precursor for Roxie Hart, the heroine of the film of the same name that later served as the basis for "Chicago".

The strength of this film is Robert Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery was one of the best comedy actors working in the films of that era. He brought a lot to the role and runs away with the picture. As Jeff Biidwell, the actor makes a tremendous impression as the man about town whose wife can't put up with him. Jeff is dazzled by Mona, the girl he had rescued from a sure death when she jumps from the ferry that is bringing them to Manhattan.

Sally Eilers' Mona is a calculating woman who realizes the effect she has on men. Jeff enlists his ex-wife Claire, to guide Mona through the ropes in becoming a sophisticated woman who will make Jeff proud. Sally doesn't count with the effect she has on Ramon Salinas, her dance instructor, who wants more from her. The ensuing trial will give Sally an even higher status as she becomes front page news of all the newspapers.

Among the supporting cast we see the excellent Eugene Palette who plays Jeff's valet. The beautiful Madge Evans is perfect as Claire. Ivan Lebedeff plays Ramon Salinas, the dance instructor.

At 65 minutes running time, "Made on Broadway", packs a lot of action, something that would have required another hour if it had been done for today's audiences. Harry Beaumont had everything under control and got wonderful performances all around.

"Made on Broadway" is a somewhat different plot from the many comedy romance films Robert Montgomery was making at MGM during the early to mid-1930s. In most of those, he's the dapper playboy or gentlemen that fits one of his Hollywood labels at the time - the best-dressed actor on the set. He's also usually a self-assured and bemused character. Well, he's all of that and more - or, more accurately, to the maximum in this film.

Montgomery's Jeff Bidwell is the most egotistical, proud, self-centered, in-control character one can imagine. It doesn't quite get to the point of grating on the viewer though, and that's only because of some of the other characters and the humor attached to his presence. There's another side to this story, and that's that he has very little scruples. He's THE master fixer of any problem in the Big Apple. He does it all with publicity. He's a wheeler-dealer who knows the ins and outs and all the right people to pull off a cover-up.

Bidwell has politicians, judges, millionaires, contractors, lawyers, reporters, doctors, professors, women and just about anyone with a scandal, crime or problem indebted to him. And their debts are premium fees.

At one time, Bidwell was married, but he and Claire (Madge Evans) divorced because he couldn't stand anyone who could match him thought-wise. There's still something between them, and they are friends and antagonists on and off. But when a new person comes into his life, things start working out differently. Mona Martine (Sally Eilers) is a different con-artist with a mind of her own.

The film is peppered with some snappy lines and occasional antics. But, its light treatment of a murder, and suggestions about various crimes that Jeff is able to cover-up or fix, is a bit of a problem. The film never rectifies that, and that's the only thing that the enforcement of the Hays Code starting the next year would be concerned with. While it's billed as a comedy and drama, I think it would better be labeled comedy and crime. Especially when one considers that a lot of what Bidwell did might be criminal - things like phony alibis, altering scenes of a crime, removing evidence, covering up details, planting phony stories, etc.

The ending is a little bit of a surprise. The title alludes to Jeff's handling of Mona, when he tells Claire that she was his creation. It could also very well be linked to the fact that Broadway was the centerpiece of acting, and that much of Jeff's work was all about directing clients to act with false stories and alibis, and changing and creating crime scenes.

Here are some of the best lines in the film.

Jeff Bidwell, "But she thought she was just as smart as I am. And there isn't a woman in the world, Mike, who has a right to be that conceited."

Jeff Bidwell, "I don't think a little fresh air'd do me any harm." Elmer, the chauffeur, "Sure. Take a chance."

Jeff Bidwell, "Say, listen, lady. There's one thing you gotta learn right here and now. When it comes to lying, don't try to make a chump out of the old master."

Claire Bidwell, "Why do you love her, anyway? Jeff Bidwell, "I don't know. Yes, yes, maybe I do. You see, when she jumped into that river, she was nothing. I dragged her out and I've made her something. Everything that she is, is me. She's my creation. My doing. Maybe it's just a touch of egotism, but she's mine just as much as if I'd made her out of a mud pie."

Jeff Bidwell, "Anyway, you're good. You're the best female blacksmith in the whole anvil chorus."

Claire Bidwell, "It's too bad someone doesn't invent a gun that shoots backwards."

Police Inspector Burke, "Funny how you gun-shy dames always shoot so straight."

Inspector Burke, "Well, I never heard it done better, even when it was true."

Claire Bidwell, "I've never been jealous of any woman. I don't have to be. I've never seen any woman you had that I've had any reason to be jealous of." Jeff Bidwell, "Oh, perfect, eh?" Claire, "Too good for you. You don't want a woman to be on the level. You want all your women to be phony. You want them to adore you, worship you without question or criticism. And if they're not quite stupid enough for that, you want them to pretend. All which means you can't bear the truth about yourself. And you're a liar and....