Broadway to Hollywood

I'm glad I read a previous review entitled "The back story is more interesting than the movie" because the background greatly enhanced the viewing experience. Speaking for myself, I love knowing facts of lives of actors and others surrounding any older film.

Lots of dancing. I am giving it a high grade.

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.

I originally watched this film years ago when it was played on TCM. It was a nice little obscure film and I enjoyed it a lot.

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.

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.

There was a major technical breakthrough in films made between 1932 and 1933. The films seemed to speed up a bit and the camera moved around more to make films seem less like a recorded stage play.

This film is a wonderful example of a through-the-years show business family with all the sentiment and comforting clichés of the genre. The relationship of the main characters played by Frank Morgan and Alice Brady is just complicated enough to ring true.

'Broadway to Hollywood' has a grandiose title and can't live up to it. Nevertheless, this early MGM semi-musical does have some good moments in amongst the soap opera.