Cowboy from Brooklyn

Dick Powell was one of the greats; certainly here he is winding down his WB juvenile singing roles. Nevertheless, he could do comedy, his most memorable dramatic roles were a few years hence. WB had two excellent singers in this picture, Priscilla Lane, who has a duet, and Ann Sheridan, who did not get to sing a note. These gals were special. Pat O'Brien was just plain fun machine-gunning his lines, and the character roster in support is WB at its best. Dick Foran singing off key is trouper at work for a Broadway headliner. WB stalwarts Granville Bates, Emma Dunn, Hobart Cavanaugh, Elizabeth Risdon add to the absurdity. James Stephenson was playing this one for laughs; The Letter was two years away. Have yourself a happy hour.

Dick Powell is a down on his luck musician/singer from Brooklyn who's looking for some kind of work at Priscilla Lane's dude ranch. She signs him on as a new singing cowboy although Powell has a deathly fear of anything on four legs. Visiting talent agents Pat O'Brien and Ronald Reagan hear Powell and immediately want to manage him. All of this ain't sitting too well with Dick Foran, Lane's sweetheart. Powell is moving in on him in the talent and love departments.

Cowboy from Brooklyn is so typical of the wonderful entertaining nonsense that movies used to be about. But Dick Powell by this time was desperately trying to broaden his image. It was being continually cast in these kind of films that made Powell leave Warner Brothers two years later after his contract was up.

Pat O'Brien made six features with Powell, more than anyone else except James Cagney. By this time he was playing fast talking press agents, managers, etc. in his sleep. He too would leave Warner Brothers in two years for greener pastures.

Ronald Reagan before he left for even greener pastures said that the two best friends he made at Warner Brothers were Pat O'Brien and Dick Powell. He described both as being inordinately patient and kind with a new player just getting started. He never forgot the encouragement both gave him in his career.

Dick Foran in Boy Meets Girl showed he had some hidden comedy talents in burlesquing his singing cowboy image. He does it again here, deliberately singing offkey and flat to contrast with Powell's tenor. Not too many performers would let themselves be deliberately upstaged like that. At the time he was the singing cowboy star at Warner Brothers and he too would be leaving them shortly.

The gimmick here is how Powell turns into what O'Brien built him up as. It's pretty funny I have to say and here's a hint. Think Road to Rio.

Dick Powell and Priscilla Lane sing a cute duet called "Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride": Standing under a tree, Powell strums a guitar while the two trade lines and hardly stop smiling through the whole song. It's a charming highlight of this enjoyable and unassuming comedy.

Powell plays a singer on his way west (from Brooklyn) who gets stranded at a Wyoming dude ranch run by Lane and her family. Hired as a ranch entertainer, Powell is quickly discovered by vacationing press agent Pat O'Brien, who immediately gives him a new name ("Wyoming Steve Gibson") and hauls him back to New York to present him as the next big thing—a "genuine" singing cowboy. What will happen if the public learns Powell is a fake?

Among the many whimsical elements here are Powell's fear of animals (he turns tail and runs when he sees so much as a bird fly past); Lane's insistence on proper Western pronunciation and terminology (you don't "think," you "reckon"); and Pat O'Brien's lightning fast delivery of virtually every line he speaks.

Ronald Reagan is also funny as O'Brien's bemused but enthusiastic assistant. Dick Foran pitches in as a frustrated western crooner himself who butchers "Home on the Range" every time he can corral an audience.

Powell and Lane are attractive leads, and both are especially good in the scenes they share. The plot really isn't much….but the songs are fine and the cast make it all very easy to watch.

From the outset, you can tell that this is NOT the gritty Dick Powell of the 1940s (when he appeared in such great Noir films as MURDER MY SWEET). No, this is clearly the 1930s Dick Powell--with lots of singing and not particularly deep plots. While the film is not his usual song and dance extravaganza, it still features Powell singing quite a bit--and was just the sort of film that Mr. Powell apparently hated to make. Fortunately, the tunes are lighter and the plot goofy enough that, while fluff, at least it's enjoyable fluff!

The film begins with, what else, Powell and his friends singing. This time they are in a boxcar headed for California in the hopes of making it big in Hollywood. However, they are caught and, along with their instruments, are tossed off the train (literally). In the middle of the wide open West, they soon stumble upon a dude ranch where they are given jobs singing cowboy songs for the paying guests. The trouble is that Powell and his friends are from New York and Powell also is deathly afraid of animals. Despite this, when talent agent Pat O'Brien comes to the ranch, he's taken with Powell and sees him as the next Gene Autry--not knowing that Powell knows nothing about life on the ranch.

The film's plot is rather silly (especially with the hypnotism scenes) but it also is quite fun--so despite some stupid aspects of the film (such as Dick Foran's poorly written and overacted character) and too much singing you can't help but enjoy it. I also think that the best performance in the film was that of O'Brien--who spoke a mile a minute and really seemed in his element as the talent agent.

During his early Warner career, DICK POWELL found himself playing the leading juvenile role over and over, sometimes with pleasant results. HARD TO GET ('38) with Olivia de Havilland at least showcased him in a daffy, colorful comedy role that he handled adeptly and had only a couple of songs to sing. It was really one of the best among his brash Warner roles.

But COWBOY FROM BROOKLYN is pretty thin stuff, even for Dick Powell fans and pretty hard to swallow, even with a cast that includes PAT O'BRIEN, PRISCILLA LANE, RONALD REAGAN and ANN SHERIDAN, none of them seen advantageously, particularly Reagan and Sheridan in minor roles.

It's a musical about a singer (DICK POWELL) who must pretend to be an authentic cowhand for the sake of landing a job on a dude ranch run by PRISCILLA LANE. PAT O'BRIEN is a manager who discovers Powell and thinks he's an authentic cowboy he can use in his rodeo. The zany plot takes it from there with the mistaken identity theme in full gear.

A book on Warner films gives a brief rundown of the film as described by N.Y. Times critic, Bosley Crowther: "A piteously frail satirical idea." Nuff said.

Fans of any of the above stars are likely to agree with Crowther. I know I did. Some of the musical moments are pleasant enough, but not enough to compensate for the silly plot, culminating in a hypnotized Powell able to overcome his fear of animals long enough to get a film producer to sign him to a contract.

Trivia note: That's JEFFREY LYNN in a bit role as a reporter with one line to speak--and JAMES STEPHENSON as the hypnotist.