Broadway Melody of 1938
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Written by Jack McGowan and Sid Silvers
1938/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing
[box] Betty Clayton: [singing] I don’t care what happens, let the whole world stop. As far as I’m concerned you’ll always be the top. ‘Cause you know you made me love you.[/box]
This MGM musical extravaganza is worth seeing just for Judy Garland’s numbers. The performances by Eleanor Powell, Buddy Ebsen, and Sophie Tucker are gravy.
This has a pretty convoluted plot, though the plot is not what you watch for. Producer/songwriter Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor) has financial backing from millionaire Herman Whipple to put on a show. Whipple’s wife (Binnie Barnes) has agreed to the loan because she not-so-secretly has the hots for young Steve. The trio go up to Saratoga to see the Whipple’s horse Stargazer race. Stargazer comes up lame in the race and loses.
Stargazer’s ex-owner Sally Lee has been hanging around the stables. She bums a ride in Stargazer’s boxcar on the train home. There she is befriended by Sonny (George Murphy) and Pete (Buddy Ebsen) who have landed jobs tending the horse. Sally tells them she plans to try to get work on Broadway when she arrives in New York and she demonstrates her dance moves. Naturally, Steve walks in on this and knows he has found his leading lady. It is also love at first sight.
To make a long story short, Sally reacquires Starbuck. Mrs. Whipple gives an ultimatum that Steve has to choose between Sally and her husband’s money. Can Starbuck win the race so that the show can go on?
The picture is worth a thousand words. This little girl had the pipes of a star from day one. Eleanor Powell and Buddy Ebsen are fantastic dancers and have ample opportunity to show their stuff. I was really looking forward to seeing Sophie Tucker perform for the first time, but she is getting on and has been given the MGM treatment so I was a bit disappointed. There were certainly none of the salty asides she is best known for.
The songs, other than “You Made Me Love You” and Tucker’s short demo of “Some of These Days” are nothing to write home about and the story is silly but I’m glad I saw it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhPG8EBGKpI
Clip – Judy Garland singing “Mr. Gable, You Made Me Love You” (ah, chills …)
Bonus: Sophie Tucker singing “Some of These Days” – 1911
