Broadway Gondolier

I thought this would be just another formulaic assembly line WB musicals but I was wrong. This is much better than I expected. It feels more like one of those sumptuous Fred Astaire or Jessie Matthews musicals than those bland grey carbon copies Warners seemed to be making at this time.

It's clearly inspired by TOP HAT inasmuch that we're again transported off to a lovely stylised art deco Venice. As with that film, here we have that same silly feel-good blend of romance, confusion and songs. (Apparently the Venice scenes were filmed during a really bad cold snap in Hollywood so all the men were wearing thermal underwear but poor Joan Blondell, in just a sheer silk dress was reportedly freezing.)

The story is cheesy - it's about a cheese company looking for a singer to represent them on their sponsored radio show. It's a longer film than some but it doesn't ever get dull and you'll love every minute of it. It's well written with a surprisingly witty script for this type of thing with comments like "You are so cheesy" being offered as a compliment at one point! It's all very tongue in cheek stuff and its 1935 humour is actually still quite funny.

It's not quite up to TOP HAT standard but it's close. Maybe because he's quite self effacing in this but Dick Powell comes across as much more likeable and normal in this than in some films. Possibly that's because he's got Joan Blondell rather than Ruby Keeler as his romantic interest which would be a plus for any red-blooded man, and indeed a year later he was married to her.

Although not one of her more famous films, I don't think she's ever been funnier than in this one. She seems a little more cynical and dry but still with that lovely warmth which was so much part of her own personality. That tinge of world weariness maybe reflects her life at that stage. This was her first film after her maternity leave and her marriage nosediving towards the rocks. Her husband was definitely not the nice man she thought he was and unfortunately he was the cinematographer on this picture - that did not make for a comfortable set! George Barnes ("Mr Blondell") does however photograph his prize possession amazingly although since he, not her or the director now decided how provocative or suggestive his wife could be, there's certainly none of those old Joan in her undies scenes anymore! Nevertheless, she is possibly the most beautiful she ever was in this film and as I've said, the funniest too. Anyone who doesn't know who Joan Blondell was should watch this.

Another surprise is that even Adolphe Menjou is amusing and that's real rarity. I usually can't stand that guy but he honestly made me laugh in this. The more I think about this, the more I wonder why this isn't more well known. It's not a fantastic film but it's so much better than you would expect.

This little known Dick Powell-Joan Blondell romance musical, with a good turn by Louise Fazenda, is a charmer. What I like most is its erudition. Those must have been the days. At the beginning, occasionally in the middle, and near the end, everyone on the street seems to know the turns and lyrics to arias from Rigoletto."

"What's THAT?!" most movie audiences would ask today.

It opens with two music critics debating how one aria goes, then their cab driver -- who turns into the title character when he masquerades, per his vocal coach Adolph Menjou, as an Italian to get on the radio here -- joins in and a beat cop also does.

The rest of the music is very nice, too; but not quite Verdi.

Dick Powell stars with Adolphe Menjou, Joan Blondell, and the Mills Brothers in "Broadway Gondolier" from 1935.

Powell plays Dick Purcell, a cab driver with an impressive singing voice. So good in fact that the producer in the cab, E.V. Richards (Grant Mitchell) in the cab tells him to come to his office. He gets an audition but shows up too late.

Meanwhile, Purcell is interested in the secretary there, Alice (Blondell). When Purcell sees Alice, Richards, and the sponsor of a radio show, Mrs. Flaggenheim (Louise Fazenda) board a boat for Italy, he jumps on and pays his way by washing dishes.

Once there, he becomes a gondolier and impresses Mrs. Flaggenheim, who hires him for her show. He is given the name Ricardo Purcelli and marketed as an Italian. For this, he grows a mustache and acquires an accent. His voice teacher, Eduardo DaVinci (Menjou) plays along.

I think this film contains Dick Powell's best singing, since he fools around with opera and we are able to experience more of his range. His voice was so smooth, and he was very musical. His number with the Mills Brothers, "Lulu's Back in Town" was spectacular.

Powell and Blondell are adorable in this film. They married a couple of years later. What I love about Blondell is that although she often played the wise-cracking role, she was never the same character. Here she is flirty with a soft spot; other times she's tough, or serious, or snappy.

Adolphe Menjou is hilarious as da Vinci, and Grant Mitchell plays flustered well as Richards. Louise Fazenda is also a riot as the cheese company owner.

Interestingly, the next year, Kraft Cheese hired Bing Crosby for their radio show.

I have one bone to pick. At the beginning of the movie, Lyons is discussing "Rigoletto" with another man, and we hear the last line of the opera, sung by Rigoletto, "la maledizione" as they leave. They're talking about how good the tenor is. He sounds like a tenor, too. One small problem - the role of Rigoletto is for a dramatic baritone.

Other than that, I loved it.

I saw this film in 1959 on late night Television at age 14. It left a very favorable and lasting impression with me. I only discovered today day via the Internet, the actual title was "BROADWAY GONDOLIER". I can remember seeing Dick Powell as a gondolier, singing pleasant music and what did I know of the movies at the age of 14 years? Virtually zero at that age! I remember my laughing a lot through this film, if you folks reading this posting have recently seen this very enjoyable Musical Comedy entertainment count yourselves very lucky indeed. As far as I am concerned, I indeed envy your good fortune. It is currently Un-Available on DVD, I suspect it has never been released to Home-Video. We are lucky that the Warner Brothers made such a generally enjoyable entertainment for us at the time of the "Mid-Point of the Great Depression" in 1935. I am sure audiences were wanting to escape their financial woes during the time of this film's release, and that Movie Stars in general would have been living the "High-Life" in comparison to the average person in the street. Irrespective whether Dick Powell was pleading for stronger movie roles, only passing time and film Historians have revealed these facts to us... I have been wanting to get a copy of this film, and I am hoping the Warner Archive will release it on DVD before much longer. I disagree with all the "Negative" reviews posted here on IMDb about this film and many other films. Going to the Movies is like taking a ride in a car, you either want to be on the journey or you do not. A lot of present day audiences are prejudiced against seeing "Black-and-White" movies and many have told me so. Dear reader, if you get the opportunity to view this Black-and-White Film, you need to realize one finer point of movie production in the 1930's and through to the 1950's... And that is that Black-and-White films were made on Nitrate Film Stock using Fine-Grain Silver-Salts to produce real intense Blacks and many Shades of Grey through to Zero-Silver-Salts giving Dazzling White Light from the Carbon-Arc Projector-Lamp-Houses on the Cinema Screens of that time. And unless you are seeing an original 35mm Black-and-White "Original" Nitrate Print struck from the original Camera Negative being projected from a Carbon-Arc Lamp-House, you will usually be seeing the Movie from an Old-16mm-Print (from a Television Station ) using Low-Contrast copies, and you are not seeing the film that audiences were viewing at the time of the Original Release, even during the Great Depression. Later in my life, I was employed as Cinema Projectionist ( for over 30 years ) and I recall my mentor revealing to me that in his youth, he was employed as a junior to soak the Nitrate 35mm Movie prints in a bath tub, and his job was to recover the SILVER-SALTS from the Film-Stock, and the Film Exchanges recovered the actual SILVER from the prints, bringing in a great deal of money as a consequence. This was revealed to me by a Chief Projectionist who had worked in Cinemas and Overseas in the Armed Services as Projectionist during World War 2. Dear reader, I hope you are now, a little better informed, that you are not seeing "Black-and-White" films these days ( in the year 2017 ) as they were Originally presented to audiences during the Golden Years of Cinema in the 1930's and the 1940's, but you are seeing a mere facsimile of what was Originally presented during those Golden years. And back then, and in my time in Cinemas, we took care and were proud of the way we presented each and every motion picture to the Cinema-going public, I am proud to claim to you dear reader I was a "Show-Man"...Please to all fellow reviewers, please no more nasty comments... and to you dear reader, Thank You...

This film has as silly a storyline as any of the Dick Powell musicals (maybe intentionally so), but its entertaining enough to watch, with some tuneful songs (including one minor standard: Lulu's Back in Town). It's all the more so, owing to the presence of Joan Blondell. She was especially gorgeous in this movie. When speaking of her, most people comment on her sassiness, and rapid-fire patter. But in addition to her fine acting, she was also a beautiful, sexy woman, with huge eyes. She employs here an understated, deadpan delivery she used sometimes to heighten the comic effect of her lines. It shows how deft her ability was with comedy. The movie doesn't have Busby Berkeley's production numbers, so I suppose that's why it isn't so well remembered as other ones. But it does put more focus on Dick Powell's voice. While is it isn't up to the operatic standards required by the role, it's certainly a great voice. It gets overlooked in discussions of him, taken for granted, even, I would say. It may be the nature of his roles, and his later transformation distract people's attention.