Synopsis
She wanted BROADWAY to call her BAD. She only feared they'd call her bluff!
Showgirl Tony Landers, supported by her friend Flip Daly, fights for the custody of her son during a divorce hearing.
Broadway Bad
Cast
Director
Producer
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Releases by Date
Theatrical
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USA
04 Apr 1933
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UK
Releases by Country
UK
04 Apr 1933
- Theatrical
USA
24 Feb 1933
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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I think people are a bit too harsh on Broadway Bad. It’s not a perfect film in the slightest, but it’s solid from start to end. The main issue is the very rushed feeling of the film, which makes sense because it’s basically only an hour, but Joan Blondell gives a great performance and is enough to carry the film well. I enjoyed Broadway Bad, but I will fully admit Blondell is the main reason and without her I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.
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Goes on for like 45 minutes without much of an identifiable plot, and the movie is 58 minutes, so yeah not great! Joan Blondell never wastes your time, though. Delivering lines with so much natural flair that are dead in the water with pretty much everyone else in this cast.
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From chorines trading insults as they touch up roots with a toothbrush ("Will I be a real blonde?" "As long as no one looks at your hair...") to Joan Blondell draped in dazzling paste diamonds and sticking it to the man with an assist from Ginger Rogers, this movie gives me everything I could want in a pre-code, along with gorgeous, moody cinematography that drifts from dreamland to the shadows and back again.
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i wish movies would go back to this insanely compressed format such that we could have a whole dramatic trial in the last ten minutes of a film again
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A short and snappy melodrama starring the always reliable Joan Blondell as the innocent showgirl who monetises her new-found bad girl image after getting caught up in a tabloid scandal.
Ricardo Cortez and an on-the-cusp-of-fame Ginger Rogers co-star.
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A showgirl fights in court for custody of her young child.
All the way through this I kept thinking that it must be a very early talkie, and as such gave it credit for some quite well handled and witty dialogue scenes (although these are quite front loaded and it devolves into your regular courtroom drama) in amongst some very awkward pauses. Finishing the movie I was amazed to find it was 1933 rather than 1930. I think I was a little thrown by the actual story having some scenes in 1929 but mainly by how a lot of it was really creaky and the good scenes really stood out.
If you're into Damon Runyan style broadway and night club…
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Let's be real here, it's only good because Ginger Rogers AND Joan Blondell are in this together !!
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The estranged husband of showgirl Tony Landers (Joan Blondell) files for divorce when he spots her with another man ...
Broadway Bad is a pre-Code drama directed by Sidney Lansfield, which co-stars Ginger Rogers, shortly before her breakthrough in Golddiggers of 1933 (my review). She portrays a sassy chorus girl here, similar to the roles she usually played during that time.
There are also quite a few shots of scantily clad showgirls which probably wouldn't have been possible after establishment of the Hayes code.
Overall, it's a decent little movie, not that remarkable if it weren't for Ms. Rogers.
And here's my ranking of all Ginger Rogers movies I've seen.
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A Broadway singer deals with money, men, an out-of-wedlock child, and a (for once, logical) happy ending.
Just an hour long, this is a speedy, unsubtle pre-code comedy-drama (there's lots of lingerie on display in the first half), and galvanized by a strong Joan Blondell, with better-than-good support from Ricardo Cortez and Ginger Rogers.
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I didn’t especially love this one, but I DID love how pre-Code this was, all rife with inferred sexuality, children out of wedlock, and womanly strength. It’s not saucy, but rather the kind of non-judgmental thing that would all be wiped out within two years, and is fascinating now.
Blondell as a former chorus girl who tries to go good and then realizes it’s not working for her, and as always, she’s one of the very brightest lights of the pre-Code era. Her thousand-watt smile and capacity for flitting from comedy to hard drama serves her well here, though she mostly finds herself in the latter mode. She does well with what she’s got, I think, and somehow outshines Ginger…