Broadway Limited

Victor McLaglen was at his best in Gunga Din or The Quiet Man, as a boisterous, brawling Scot (in real life, McLagelen had been a military provost in WWI in (if I recall properly) Constaintinople and was well used to using his fists and strength to enforce British military law). Unfortunately, The Broadway Limited was more of a romance than an action movie (except for some very good railroad scenes on the Pennsylvania RR), and McLaglen's acting appears forced and uncomfortable for the big man. On the other hand, J. Farrel McDonald once again demonstrated that he must have been a railroad man prior to becoming a good character actor. Too bad that Wallace Beery wasn't in this movie as well, since Beery had been an engine hostler for the Santa Fe and would have been more at home romancing the love interest.

This movie turned up in one of those cheap 50 movie comedy DVD packs recently and I was surprised to see a number of great character actors of the 40s playing lead parts.

The story itself is pretty simplistic and has been covered by other reviewers. Having typed that, I should add that the script is tight, the performances fine and the direction good. So what you have is a typical 40s screwball comedy which will provide an enjoyable diversion for all age groups.

Finally but most interesting of all are the outstanding Pennsy railroad scenes, especially the pacing shots. Unusually, railroad fans are treated to a number of long shots and station scenes.

All in all, good fun for railroad and comedy fans alike.

The Broadway Limited is much funnier, and more consistently funny, than many better-known screwball comedies of the period. Its plot builds on several interlaced misunderstandings. A movie star (Marjorie Woodworth) is pressured by her scheming, tyrannical Hollywood producer (Leonid Kinskey) to pretend to adopt a baby for publicity purposes. The producer's assistant (Patsy Kelly) turns to an ex-boyfriend, a railroad engineer (Victor McLaglen), to borrow a baby for the stunt, but the baby he gets may have been kidnapped and the subject of a widespread police hunt. The movie star runs into her ex-boyfriend (Dennis O'Keefe), who thinks the baby really is hers. And the baby keeps disappearing and reappearing on a cross-country train trip.

As in many comedies, the romantic lead roles are blander and less interesting than those written for the character actors, who get all the best lines. Top-billed Victor McLaglen has a substantial role -- watch his underplayed reaction to the bratty kid who asks him, "Is that your real face?" But so does Leonid Kinskey, who has a ball and one of his biggest parts ever as the manipulative producer. Down-to-earth Patsy Kelly replaced dithering Zazu Pitts as Thelma Todd's partner in two-reel comedies, but this is the only film in which they appeared together. That's a shame, as they make a superb team, particularly when they share a bed with the baby (and a leaky hot-water bottle) between them.

Broadway Limited is a madcap, low-budget comedy from 1941. It stars Marjorie Woodworth, Dennis O'Keefe, Leonid Kinskey, Victor McLaglen, Patsy Kelly, and Zazu Pitts.

Wanting publicity for his star, April (Woodworth), a director, Ivan (Kinskey) wants her to take a baby with her on a train going from Chicago to New York.

The director's secretary (Kelly) asks her old beau, who is the train's engineer, for help. He hears from a stranger that he has just such a baby. Once on the train, April runs into an old love, Harvey (O'Keefe), who knew her at school.

Meanwhile the search is on for a kidnapped baby, and the engineer wonders if the baby on the train is that child.

The best scenes in the film are those showing the Pennsylvania Railroad trains, equipment, and the pacing shots. Excellent.

Kinskey, Pitts, and McLaglen are just great, very funny. I admit that I've never cared for Patsy Kelly. She had a loud voice and a flat delivery (to me) and that's about it. O'Keefe and Woodworth were okay - with a touch better casting, this comedy might have gone up a few notches. Woodworth was apparently pushed into stardom before she was ready, and O'Keefe, always solid and likable, doesn't have a flair for comedy.

Fun and enjoyable. The baby is cute, too.

"Broadway Limited" earns a good rating (7 of 10) mostly for its screwball plot. The last two-thirds of the film are cleverly funny as the cast play 'pass the baby.' I don't think this could have been staged any other way than on a train. So, the railroad setting adds some to the fun. I imagine younger people watching today in most of the U.S. would find scenes of rail travel quite foreign. I remember it well.

The cast of supporting comics is quite good, but Dennis O'Keefe was just fair and Marjorie Woodworth was flat and far too serious. Had the romantic leads been able to get into the comedy, the film would have rated and fared much better.

This was Woodworth's first lead role since Hal Roach discovered her three years earlier. He had been building her up with publicity to become the next Jean Harlow. But, as some news accounts of the time, and later articles noted, Roach pushed her too soon. Unfortunately, she wasn't ready to debut with a talented cast of accomplished comedians and comediennes. With this and a few more co-starring roles that didn't fare well, Woodworth's promising young career soon faded from view.

Woodworth's story is interesting. She did have talent and the usual attributes that went with early Hollywood stars. And, she got a chance to make it big. But, as with many another would-be star, Woodworth's career in films soon died. To show how abruptly and completely she fell from the scene, the DVD issued today of "Broadway Limited" doesn't include her name on the front cover. She's in the cover photo, but the names across the top billboard are O'Keefe, Pitts, McLaglen, Kinskey and Kelly. Even IMDb didn't have a bio or trivia section on Woodworth as of the time of this review. But, I was curious and found an interesting article about Woodworth's Hollywood "career" and later life online at obscureactresses.wordpress.com.