Broadminded

Harry Ruby and Bert Kalmar, who would work on three Marx Bros. films, including "Animal Crackers" the play of which was out the year before this film, are the authors of 'Broadminded'.

It's clear to me that this film is the Warner Bros. idea of how to cash in with a cheapie madcap story.

Thelma Todd is as wonderful as ever. She was a fine actress who always managed to do a fine job even with the sorriest material.

Grayce Hampton who played what should have been Margaret Dumont's role is flat and unfunny. The male lead, played by William Collier Jr., looks like a peeled potato, and yet he's a lady killer. He picks up every good looking woman he sees. But he's lumpy and wimpish. He's a very poor choice for the role. I think he's supposed to be Zeppo Marx playing the love interest, but he's not even that good.

Ona Munson is pretty good as the female lead, but she's not given anything to do.

Joe E. Brown who is the putative star does what he does. He mugs unmercifully throughout, and he makes the most out of his circus clown mouth, and he makes a tremendous number of unwarranted sounds. I grew up in the last years of his really active career, and I thought he was great until I was about seven, when that wore off, and from then on I found him to be darn near intolerable.

But even if were someone else playing the part, it would still be a (in my opinion of course) dull and completely predictable film.

There is absolutely zero witty repartee in this film. There's no singing, no dancing, no harp or piano or guitar playing.

Bela Lugosi does steal the greasepaint mustache that Groucho put on, but now it's in the form of extenders for Lugosi's sideburns.

Lugosi pretty much mugs his way through this film along with the rest, but he looks as though he's playing along because he's being paid. And he's never convincing. He's always Bela Lugosi gone slumming. Not that he was bad, but I'd say that he was skirting it.

I'm glad I had a chance to see this film, I've been hungering for it for several decades now, and it's often presented in movie books as practically a tour de force performance for him.

It isn't.

I did not keep a copy of the film, although I've got many Lugosi films in my library. I just don't think I'll ever want to sit through it again. As it was, it took me two days to get through it.

I gave it a five rating because my tastes aren't universal, and Lugosi and Todd fans should certainly see it.

The normally likable Joe E. Brown is trapped here in an extremely unfunny comedy with an extremely poor script. Missing is his usual screen persona of a brash, cocky naif and is seen here as just a dimwit. The screenplay is surprisingly awful and seems ad-libbed in places. Vaudeville was still alive but I have to think it was funnier than the lame jokes contained in this picture, many of which fall completely flat. Hard to believe Mervyn Leroy directed this mess.

Trapped in this movie is some pretty good acting talent, especially Thelma Todd who was a foil in some Marx Bros. pictures as well as some Laurel and Hardys. Also on hand is Bela Lugosi as a South American playboy. It's hard to tell if comedy was his oeuvre because, as mentioned, there is very little humor here. Give him an A for effort.

Not much to recommend this film except for Bela Lugosi and hard-core Joe E. Brown fans.

Even staunch fans of Joe E. Brown may be disappointed by this one, which fails to utilize his comic skills, such as they are, with maximum effectiveness. The foremost liability is the scenario, bulging with some of the feeblest jokes and flat sight gags that one is likely to find outside of a high school drama club original. But wait.....

Playing against type (to say the least) are Bela Lugosi doing an effective comic turn as a temperamental Latin/Hungarian (his accent is variable), and Ona Munson (she of the gritty roles in "Gone With the Wind" and "Shanghai Gesture" that came later) as an ingenue. These are curiosities worth seeing. But wait.....

Thelma Todd is here, too, playing the kind of role she did best, even if she hadn't Groucho's priceless reactions to her vamping. And what of Marjorie White, someone altogether new for me (and like Thelma Todd, destined to die young): a perky pepperpot with exceptional comedic attributes, mugging and bouncing throughout, creating a very appealing character without any of the comic (sic) lines having been written for her.

All in all, a third-rate picture well worth seeing.

Broadminded (1931)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Pretty good comedy about a playboy (William Collier, Jr.) whose father grows tired of his constant woman-chasing so he sends him out west with his cousin (Joe E. Brown), which turns out to be a major mistake. Out west the playboy strikes up a relationship with a woman who he plans to marry if they can stay away from a crazed South American (Bela Lugosi) that they keep running into. At 73-minutes the plot doesn't really carry even that short running time but there are enough good things here to make this worth sitting through at least once. Brown gets top-billing but the picture actually belongs to Collier with the big-mouthed comedian playing more of a supporting role. Brown certainly eats up each scene that he's in and actually manages to turn in some very funny moments including one where he spoofs Jekyll and Hyde and another sequence where he talks about how he almost beat up a South American only he doesn't realize the guy is sitting and hearing everything he's saying. Marjorie White and Margaret Livingston add nice supporting performances as does Thelma Todd who plays a friend of the boy's who ends up getting them into more trouble. I didn't care too much for Collier and in fact thought he dragged the film down a bit as he was a bit too stiff in the role and really didn't add any laughs. The highlight of the film is without question Lugosi who easily steals the film with his hilarious performance. I've often wondered what would have happened had the actor never appeared in Dracula and got type cast in horror roles. Many of his early films show he had some nice talent that studios could have worked with and he shows that off here. He mainly plays a guy whose job is to scare Brown by screaming and raving but Lugosi is so good that you'll have a laugh riot just watching him. The strawberry shortcake scene is a minor classic as is the scene that follows during the car wreck. The screenplay has several weak spots but I guess that's to be expected as the film certainly goes for many laughs but in the end it only gets about half of them. I doubt those who hate older movies are going to change their opinion by watching this but this remains a must-see for fans of Lugosi and of course Brown fans will want to check it out.

The star of this movie is listed as Joe E. Brown, the big-mouthed (literally) comedian who looks as if he could eat a hamburger in one bite. However, stealing the scene whenever he is present, is Bela Lugosi, in a change-of-pace role considering he starred in "Dracula" earlier that year (1931). Here, Bela (a native Hungarian) is a hot-tempered South American (Pancho). When Joe E. Brown (Simpson) accidentally spurts some ink on Bela's dessert at a diner, Bela goes into a maniacal rage. So naturally, their two paths keep crossing. Later Joe E. Brown has a fender-bender with Bela's car... Bela winds up driving off with Brown's car in tow! Bela has some wonderful opportunities to show his comedic abilities. When his girlfriend asks Bela to explain a mix-up to Joe E. Brown (Simpson), Bela goes: "To Simpson-- never!" and opens his mouth wide in a mugging imitation of Joe E. Brown. A must-see movie for Bela Lugosi fans who only consider him a horror actor.