Esperanças Perdidas

Small town Ohio girl Winnie Wharton (Wini Shaw) goes into a club to audition. The owner is not impressed but Lucky Lorimer (Lyle Talbot) insists on a second chance. That is her start. In time, she would be performing in high class Park Ave clubs and Lucky would be her manager. She likes him but he keeps it professional. He starts dating steel heiress Iris Marvin (Genevieve Tobin), but she refuses to marry him.

This is nothing great, but I do appreciate the love triangle. That is also not the greatest. Winnie is gone for too long in certain sections. The trio has some chemistry but not a lot. This movie is fine mostly.

Broke hustler Lyle Talbot quickly promotes singer Wini Shaw into a major star. But as their fortunes rise, their goals diverge. Miss Shaw loves Talbot steadfastly s a torch song, while Talbot sets his gaze on rich Genevieve Tobin.

Frank MacDonald's first movie as director shows signs of having its script having once had a very different ending. The Production Code had been in full force for at least eighteen months before it was released, and so all the men get what they want, including Allen Jenkins landing a very rich Spring Byington. In the meantime, there are several numbers for Miss Shaw and Phil Regan to sing, and Marie Wilson gets four lines.

MacDonald gets in a few comic bits; he was never a distinguished director, but he had a bit of a dab hand at comedy. He would spend most of his movie career at Republic, where he directed some of the best Roy Rogers vehicles outside of Joseph Kane. When he made the seemingly inevitable switch to the small screen, it was mostly westerns, but he also helmed some episodes of Get Smart. He retired at the end of the 1960s and died in 1980 at the age of 80.

Wini Shaw is "Winnie", singer, looking for work. Shaw only had 31 roles, and most of those were uncredited roles or real short films. Lucky (Lyle Talbot) helps her get into showbiz. not much of a story line, just a couple songs sung by Shaw, and her pounding the pavement, looking for work. some big name co-stars, with Spring Byington (Jezebel, You Can't Take it with You) and mister nasal, Allen Jenkins. Byington was already 49, but looks SO much younger. too bad the script was so threadbare and the story was short. Genevieve Tobin (married to big shot director Bill Keighley). this had potential. could have been a great film. liberal use of obvious backdrops and doubles. did anyone count the number of times Jenkins says "Toots" ? Directed by Frank McDonald ; had started as a dialogue director, then THIS film was his first director job. it's very okay.

What promises to be a light "rags-to-riches" musical-comedy, quickly devolves into a tedious melodrama. The script is weak, the characters drab, the editing choppy and most of the performances wooden. The picture comes to life only when Allen Jenkins' cocky "Fishcake" is on screen; his scene on a runaway horse sets an energetic pace that the rest of the film would have done well to emulate.

"Broadway Hostess" is a B-movie from Warner Brothers that has very little to recommend it...nor is it bad. In fact, it really is the epitome of blandness...made well enough but nothing to excite any viewer in any way.

Wini Shaw plays Winifred, a woman who supposedly has an amazing musical talent. But whenever she sings (and it's way too often), you can't help but think that you've heard better. But still, folks in the film go gaga for her and with the help of her new agent, Lucky (Lyle Talbot), she manages to become a huge success. At the same time, she's in love with Lucky and he's in love with Iris (Genevieve Tobin), though she seems indifferent towards him. And, a monkey wrench to all this is Iris' very unstable and emotionally stunted brother, Ronnie...who is simply a bad egg.

Combine mediocre singing with some actors who are dull as dishwater and indifferent and cliched writing and you have the recipe for blandness. You know this is a pretty dull thing when the best thing about the film is the sidekick (Allen Jenkins). A time-passer...at best.

By the way, if you do watch the film look for Dennis O'Keefe in the gambling hall. Before finding stardom, O'Keefe was in dozens and dozens of films as a bit player...and here he clearly is a bit player....albeit a very tall one!