Howdy Broadway

... instead it is a clash of musical styles. It can't figure out if it wants to accentuate the jazz of Tommy Christian and his Collegians and the accompanying eccentric dancing, or the operatic style of singing that is Ellalee Ruby's (as Betty).

The plot veers wildly, opening on the celebration of a boat race being won by Burdette University's crew team due to the prowess of Tommy (Tommy Christian). All of this seems strange for a couple of reasons - one being that sports are never mentioned again in the film, and another being that Tommy Christian is very slender and reed-like and does not strike me as the athletic type.

It's a tale of love (Tommy and Betty), an interloper that does her best to break up the romance and just cause trouble in general (Lucy Ames as Lulu), and a dean who is shocked!...shocked I say!... to discover that college kids like to hang out at nightclubs and drink - I mean Prohibition made it illegal!. Finally there are the police that just don't make arrests at a speakeasy, but take the apprehended back to their "college gang" and give lectures and pressure those arrested to put the finger on who else was there. I'm sure the police would have been unable to solve murders and robberies if they had exhibited such nanny state behavior during prohibition - it would have taken up all of their time.

The famous scene of the incompetent chorines is not what it is cracked up to be and comes at the end. I watched this scene carefully and it is typical of cinematic choreography in 1929 - with camera movement being so limited the chorus is confined to doing splits and simple routines that do not involve much movement. I saw no "botched splits" in which the dancers attempt a split, get halfway to the floor, and give up, as has been reported. Instead they do a partial split and then reposition themselves so that they curl their legs underneath themselves when they reach the floor.

Is there bad acting, cheap sets, and a mundane plot? Most certainly. Is it the worst thing I've ever seen coming out of the dawn of sound musicals? Certainly not. This very short film is now available from Alpha Video, and the public domain print they are circulating is not half bad if you want to give it a try.

Over the years, I have seen a lot of early sound films. And so I understand that there were MANY limitations of these movies. The camera was rather stationary because the sound equipment was so primitive--so actors were stuck in one location in most shots. The sound itself was also very tinny and often VERY difficult to understand. The best example of this is the Oscar-winning "Coquette". While it's a famous film with a big budget, the sound is just awful. And, because it was a new medium, a LOT of different stage acts were experimented with to find new sound stars. Because of all these factors, I am more charitable towards "Howdy, Broadway" than most folks would be. I honestly feel that the average person would turn off this film after about 30 seconds at the most. But, because of my love of this era, I kept watching--even though, at times, it was painful.

The story is about a bunch of fun-loving college students--you know, the ones in films who you NEVER see going to classes. In this case, they are busy with sports (which you never actually get to see), hanging out in speakeasies and the opposite sex. It's all a very trivial sort of existence in this film--all fun and games. There are subplots involving two ladies in love with Tommy (why?) and ultimately ends, inexplicably, in a review on Broadway (though I suspect it was more likely in a sound stage).

So why, aside from the sound quality, is this a picture that would bore most people? Well, the biggest reason is the god-awful singing of Ellalee Ruby. She sings a few times and the songs were so high-pitched that I worried that my windows or glasses would crack! I honestly can say that I have NEVER heard such high-pitched singing in my life--it was THAT painful to listen to. And, I can completely understand why she never went on to become a star!! There's also quite a bit of dancing in the film and, for the most part, this was actually pretty impressive. I particularly liked watching the guy in the speakeasy--he was great. There was a bizarre dance (if you can call it that) that looked more like a contortionist act and it was so jerky and amateurish in its execution you marvel that it wasn't edited out of the picture. Overall, the film has a fluff-like plot that is pretty dull, HORRIBLE, GOD-AWFUL singing and some nice dancing---and certainly not enough to make this a film to seek out unless you are nuts (like me). Don't say I didn't warn you.

Tommy Christian has just pinned Ellalee Ruby, but still flirts with campus vamp Lucy Ames. Miss Ames has gotten a tryout with a Broadway producer, and talks Christian into having his band play for her audition. This leads to a gig at a local speakeasy, which the cops raid. This causes problems with the dean.

There were problems with the copy of this movie: the printed was washed out, there was a loud hum which muffled the dialogue, and the upper registers of the singers' voices did not record well. These are not new problems to me, so I was able to look deeper into the artifact and realize that this early Poverty Row musical was badly produced, and the talent on view was nothing to write home about. The music for the songs was good, but the lyrics were trite. The dancing talent included a tap dancer who was ok, and a fan dancer who worked ok as a contortionist. It's an example of the poor musicals that 1929 produced in such abundance, with little to recommend them.