Today’s edition of Dave-El’s Weekend Movie Post is about not one… not two… but THREE (yes, count ‘em, 3!!!) movies!
- Broadway Melody of 1936!
- Broadway Melody of 1938!
- Broadway Melody of 1940!
These films have NOTHING to do with the original Broadway Melody film that MGM released in 1929. (The FIRST all singing, all dancing, all talking musical!)
These films also have NOTHING to do with each other.
All of them star Eleanor Powell but as a different character in each movie.
Broadway Melody of 1936!
Powell is Irene Foster, a young ingenue who is the high school sweetheart of Broadway producer Robert Gordon and she hopes that for old times sake, he might give her a shot a Broadway show. Robert has a show he’s ready to launch and he thinks Irene would be perfect for the lead. But Lillian Brent has other plans. Lillian is a young and very rich widow who has sunk a lot of money into this show and she thinks that earns her right to have the lead role and not risk the new play on a young ingenue no one’s heard of.
It looks like Irene Foster is on a train back home but Robert's secretary has a scheme that will put Irene in front of an audience and proves she can be a star.
There’s a sub plot with Jack Benny as a radio gossip monger (a parody of Walter Winchell) who keeps poking at Robert Gordon which keeps getting the reporter punched in the face but his audience keeps growing.
Broadway Melody of 1936 was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Broadway Melody of 1938!
Powell is Sally Lee, a young ingenue who hopes to get her chance to star in a Broadway show. Steve Raliegh catches her song and dance skills and what a coinkidink, he’s a producer with a show he’s ready to launch and Sally would be perfect for the lead. But Binnie Barnes has other plans. She’s sunk a lot of money into this show and tells Stecve to not risk the new play on a young ingenue no one’s heard of and fire her.
There’s a sub plot about a horse and Sally helps get it into a race. The horse wins and there’s enough dough to finance Steve's show and to tell Binnie she can blow and Sally Lee gets to be a star!
The film has a most notable performance by a young Judy Garland of "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)", a tribute to Clark Gable which turned the teenage singer into a Hollywood sensation, leading her being cast as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
As with the previous film, Broadway Melody of 1938 ends with a major elaborate dance sequence with Eleanor Powell at the center including a bit with her in a gender bending tuxedo.
Broadway Melody of 1940!
A bit of a change up! Eleanor Powell is Claire Bennett, a big star of the Broadway stage. The up and comers in this story are two male dancers Johnny Brett and King Shaw played by Fred Astaire and George Murphy.
A talent scout pegs Johnny as a pretty hot dancer and a perfect partner for Claire's next show. But a case of mistaken identity causes King to be mistaken for Johnny and he gets cast to star opposite Claire.
King let's "Johnny's" success go to his head as he parties late at night which makes him late for rehearsals and even misses an actual performance due to being drunk. The shows goes on when real Johnny subs in for fake Johnny.
Which is a real treat for Johnny as he is in love with Claire and to finally dance with her is a dream come true. And Claire is taken with the real Johnny in a way she never felt for the other Johnny.
In a drunken jealous rage, King shoots Claire and Johnny before dying in a hail fire of bullets when cornered by the cops! Well, I didn't see that coming!
I kid! I kid! This is NOT that kind of movie!
King realizes Johnny is the better dancer for the show and the better man for Claire and all ends well.
Broadway Melody of 1940 lacks the wild energy of the the two previous entries and poor Eleanor Powell gets put on the back burner of her own movie series. It's a perfectly serviceable Fred Astaire movie with Eleanor Powell as a perfectly fine co-star but I think Eleanor deserved better.
Eleanor is not the star of the film's climatic dance sequence and no tap routines while wearing a tuxedo.
That being said, the scene where Astaire and Powell dance to Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine" is considered by many to be one of the greatest tap sequences in film history.
Broadway Melody of 1942!
There is NO Broadway Melody of 1942 but there was supposed to be with Eleanor Powell co-starring with Gene Kelly. After a few days of rehearsal, the project fell apart with no reasons given but given what I know about Kelly's prickly perfectionism and his diva like need to always be in control, I can guess.
Eleanor Powell was an extraordinary talent who was greatly admired by her peers at the time. Fred Astaire felt intimidated by Powell, considered the only female dancer ever capable of out-dancing Astaire.
Sadly, Eleanor Powell only made a half dozen more films after Broadway Melody of 1940.
Clips of Eleanor's extraordinary performances in the That's Entertainment compilation series renewed interest in this classic film star and her amazing gifts as a dancer.
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