Broadway to Hollywood

The idea of showing the history of Broadway through a fictional family dynasty that lasts three generations is a very good one. And, in the process, they could have done a nice job of showing the changing styles and tastes of theater. However, the writing really, really, really disappointed in "Broadway to Hollywood"--it should have been a lot better. The problem is that the main characters are too flawed--so much so that you don't like them. The men are womanizers and sometimes alcoholics--full of promises to change but down deep they are simply jerks. The women are long-suffering idiots who tolerate their husbands' infidelities and selfishness--at least most of the time. So, you hate the men and are irritated with the women--not a great recipe for an enjoyable film. In many ways it came off like an amoral and self-centered (and sometimes heavy-handed) version of "Yankee Doodle Dandy"--a film about Broadway that DID work! As a result, "Broadway to Hollywood" was mildly interesting but nothing more.

I have a few final comments that I hope provoke your interest and might make the film, despite its limitations, worth watching. It's interesting that Jackie Cooper received third billing in this film--although he's in the film only about five minutes or so! This is undoubtedly because, at the time, he was a HUGE star at MGM, but I am sure his fans were disappointed in seeing so little of him in the movie. Also, right after Junior's wife dies, watch for a scene with two bizarre clowns. It's practically impossible to tell because of all the makeup, but these are Curly and Moe Howard of the Three Stooges! This is because the Stooges originally signed with MGM but the studio had no idea what to do with them--and stuck them in some very strange films (including some very odd roles in "Dancing Lady"). Finally, watch the very young Mickey Rooney tap dancing (in the scene right after the Stooges). He is simply amazing to watch--especially because this performing dynamo was so young! Wow--what talent.

It's the 80's at Tony Pastor's Theatre. Ted (Frank Morgan) and Lulu Hackett (Alice Brady) are The Hacketts, a semi-successful married couple vaudevillian song and dance team. They have their baby in their dressing room. They bring up their child Ted Jr. (Jackie Cooper) in the business. As an adult, Junior (Russell Hardie) exceeds his parents and follows his girl Anne Ainsley (Madge Evans) to another show. Ted quits the new show and the spotlight on his son out of pride. He finds that their old standards are out of date. Junior suffers from the drink after Anne's tragic death. It's the grandson Ted Hackett III (Mickey Rooney)'s turn to join The Three Hacketts. As an adult, he moves away to Hollywood by himself and gets into the movies but history seems to be repeating itself.

I like the premise of a multi-generational performing family. It promises to follow the family thru the entertainment business during some great changes. This has some interesting actors including a couple of famous child stars like pre-teen Mickey Rooney. The execution leaves something to be desired. It's a bit disjointed as the story keeps jumping forward in time. The idea is there, but it's not really fulfilled. I want Ted to stay with his younger generations and become their manager. There is plenty of potential conflicts as an overbearing stage father. Separating the family and the disjointedness of time jumping leave me a bit cold.

There are basically two tales of interest behind this unremarkable maudlin melodrama about three generations of vaudevillians, the second of which succumbs to drink and the third of which succumbs to sloth as well.

The first tale is why this film was made in the first place. In late 1930 MGM producer Harry Rapf was making a sequel to the Hollywood Revue of 1929. Unfortunately, musicals went out of fashion before the movie was finished and MGM had to shelve the project. Thus MGM was saddled with some very expensive musical footage and no movie. This film was an attempt to try to fit a story around some of that footage and recoup some of the losses. That is why you'll find long and often elaborate production numbers that don't really fit the plot placed awkwardly at points along the movie.

The second tale of interest is how this movie was considered by Buster Keaton to be "the final insult" hurled at him by MGM after they unceremoniously fired him this same year - 1933. He thought that the story of the third generation of Hacketts - Ted Hackett III - looked just a little too autobiographical to be a coincidence. Ted the 3rd is the member of a famed vaudeville family who gets recruited to go into motion pictures. Once he gets to Hollywood he begins to drink heavily - a vice that his father also had - and his drinking causes him to be late to the movie set if he even bothers to show up at all. Buster was furious about this movie, and nobody could convince him his own problems with MGM were not at the foundation of the plot and that it was simply an attempt to salvage "The March of Time" alias The Hollywood Revue of 1930.

Take these points of interest away from the film and there really is not much to see here other than Morgan and Brady's excellent performance as the senior generation of Hacketts who see "the march of time" from the height of vaudeville's popularity through the arrival of talking pictures which renders their profession obsolete.

Broadway to Hollywood follows a vaudeville family as the mother vows her son won't be forced into show business and the father wants the legacy to continue. Frank Morgan and Alice Brady have their marital troubles, with Frank's womanizing and the instability of their profession, and when their son Jackie Cooper enters the scene, he manages to steal the audience's attention with his cuteness. Jackie's only in the movie for about ten minutes, until his character grows up,

Amazingly enough, in a movie set in vaudeville, none of the lead actors can dance. They're either filmed from very far away with obvious dance doubles, or in tight closeups that show them moving only their shoulders with huge grins. The exceptions are the kids, Jackie Cooper and Mickey Rooney, who ironically plays Jackie's son. You have to wait an hour to see him, and once again, he's only on the screen for a few minutes. This is a generational saga, with Frank and Alice aging decades in the ninety minutes. They start off as a young couple, then wind up with a grown-up grandson in their midst. If you're renting this movie to see the kiddies, you'll be disappointed. You'd better be watching it for Frank and Alice, who age very gracefully. With their white hair, Alice's dowager hump, and Frank's dark circles that show the hard life they've lived, it really feels as if you've known them their entire lives.

In the start of the movie, their gag at the end of their song and dance is for Alice to pick up a bouquet of roses thrown on the stage. Frank says to the audience, "I'll find the fellow who sent her those and break his neck!" to a strong laugh. As the decades pass, the laughter dwindles, and even though Frank's tone gives the same delivery, his eyes show he's humiliated and disappointed that he's never achieved more. Finally, as an old man, he uses a monocle, has a slack jaw, and wobbles his legs when he rises from his chair, all while preserving the dignity of a man who used to entertain audiences with his legs and the ladies with his good looks. If you're a Frank Morgan fan, rent it; he truly embodies the old hoofer who's tried and failed his whole life. If you're not, you probably won't enjoy it.

Broadway to Hollywood is the story of a vaudeville couple, Ted and Lulu Hackett played by Frank Morgan and Alice Brady, and their trials and tribulations over a 30 year period.

The problem for a contemporary viewer is that the people in cameos and the names that are dropped are probably unknown to the MTV generation. You would have to know that Joe Weber and Lew Fields for instance were a great vaudeville comedy team who then went into the producing end of the business in order to appreciate a scene where Joe Weber wants to hire young Ted Hackett II, and will give the elder Hacketts small bits in his show in order to get him.

Because it is revived every year around the 4th of July, I suppose Yankee Doodle Dandy is the best comparison to this film to make. The elder Cohans there are a show business family whose kids are raised in the theater atmosphere the way the Hacketts raise their son. Of course here we go into a third generation of Hacketts.

Doing a small unbilled part in this film is Nelson Eddy who sings In the Garden of My Heart during a show. Ironically in two years Eddy would be starring in Naughty Marietta and Frank Morgan would be supporting him.

In reading the credits I was flabbergasted to read that the brothers Howard of the 3 Stooges played a pair of clowns who essentially roll a drunken Ted Hackett Jr. as he's being fired from a show. Certainly Moe and Curly who started in vaudeville would know all about that venue of show business. They are unrecognizable in their clown make up.

When the film is nearing it's conclusion it's now Ted Hackett III who is hitting the big time in Hollywood played by Eddie Quillan. His parents were played by Russell Hardie and Madge Evans. Still it's Morgan and Brady who carry this. It's like if Walter Huston and Rosemary DeCamp were the central characters of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

It's a nice film with a good story, but I fear it's too dated for today's audience.