Made on Broadway

...which is Jeff Bidwell (Robert Montgomery). He is an agent and PR man extraordinaire, but absolutely nothing about this story has anything to do with Broadway or what is made there. Bidwell is so well known in New York that big shots just hang out in his apartment living room - where free drinks are served - waiting for him to come home and give them advice, which he does for a hefty fee. As he points out, when you look at his fees, he is really not the one paying for all of these drinks. Apparently his apartment doubles as his office. He has a strictly business middle aged secretary, and he also has a valet who for some reason is being played by Eugene Palette. Palette is really wasted here as he really has no opportunity to do much of anything.

One night on the ferry a girl who claims she is at the end of her rope, Mona Martine (Sally Eilers), jumps off of the same ferry that Bidwell is riding. He jumps into the water to save her. She claims to be just another girl down on her Great Depression luck wanting to end it all, but I wonder. The story Bidwell gives her to tell once the press shows up to ask what happened is not the story she tells. She has an alternative tale all made up, one that seems to make her look better than Bidwell's story did. Plus she was looking Jeff's direction when she jumped into the water. Did she plan this whole thing just to meet Bidwell? At that point, Bidwell's ex-wife, who is running a salon, gives Mona a make-over at Bidwell's request. Bidwell tells the ex-wife, that just as a strictly business kind of thing, he'd like to give the girl some elocution and dance lessons and see if she can get into the follies. He says it is a project of his. But through a series of bills shown the viewer, you can see this quickly becomes personal and then romantic and then maybe a bit obsessive. Bidwell takes Mona out, and man after man stops by and wants to dance or take her out afterwards. Jeff looks so disgusted. He wants to possess her just because he doesn't possess her i.e. marry her. He even tells his ex-wife that he KNOWS this is why he wants to marry her, yet she still draws him in.

Well, later that night Mona gives Jeff a frantic call. She has shot a man dead in her apartment, supposedly in self defense due to an attempted rape. Bidwell knows this is not true and later gets the truth out of her, but she convinces him that she loves only him, and so he gets to work trying to make the attempted rape story stick to get her out of a murder rap.

How will all of this work out? Watch and find out. Sally Eilers is great as the blonde Mona - she's a real piece of work and Bidwell has finally found his match in her, a match in profiteering and insincerity that is. The role of Bidwell the fixer is a real fast talking street wise part in contrast to the suave upper crust roles Montgomery usually played during this part of his MGM career, and he plays it well. Madge Evens has an understated role as Bidwell's classy ex-wife, Claire. They are still in love, and Claire seems to be waiting around for Bidwell to take a breath from all of the affairs that have come since, and maybe even before the divorce to figure this out. The question is, will he? I'd strongly recommend this as great Depression fun - Montgomery and Eilers make it so, even though I don't think they ever did another film together.

Robert Montgomery is great in this comedy of manners. It should have been a screwball comedy, and if it had been released eighteen months later, it would have been, but there was no such genre at that time; even a year later, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT was considered a screwball comedy instead of a romantic one.

But at this time, Screwball was BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING, and the Production Code hadn't closed down the sex comedy, which is what made the American screwball comedy. So this movie about how ace press agent Robert Montgomery saves Sally Eilers from committing suicide by jumping off the Staten Island Ferry, makes her the toast of the town and then orchestrates her defense after she shoots someone just misses.

Montgomery is perfect, exuding an air of genial, self-aware corruption, but everyone else seems to be taking matters far too seriously, even the old ladies he hires to pose as Eiler's sniveling aunts in the courtroom.

MGM's Harry Beaumont, their resident expert on making bricks without straw and stars without talent somehow fails... Eilers lacks the subtlety and range for her role, which weights down this work. Madge Evans is present and steady, but the entire movie lacks the sense of madness that infuses screwball. Ah well. Good try.

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.

One thing politicians and public figures always need is a PR guy. They could have a squeaky clean image, but gaffes happen. An average PR guy can fix a gaffe, but it takes a super PR person to fix a genuinely flawed image.

Jeff Bidwell (Robert Montgomery) was a fixer. He charged top dollar to make corrupt politicians look good. One of his biggest challenges wouldn't be a politician at all but a regular woman he saved from drowning.

When Mona Martine (Sally Eilers) attempted suicide by jumping from a boat, Jeff dove in and saved her. Then he really saved her. He made her his own project. He would clean her up, educate and culture her, then release her upon the world.

"Made on Broadway" was a decent movie for a lazy weekend. The characters were just interesting enough as was the plot. The performances weren't powerful nor did the story have me at the edge of my seat. It had enough of my positive attention and that's a plus.

Free on Odnoklassniki.

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.