From the 1950s: She's Back on Broadway

1953 Musical Drama

From Warner Bros.

Directed by Gordon Douglas

Starring

Virginia Mayo

Steve Cochran

Gene Nelson

Frank Lovejoy

Patrice Wymore

Paul Picerni

Larry Keating

When I said in my prior piece on Virginia Mayo that I was next going to discuss one of her films, you might have thought that would have been White Heat (coming up soon actually) and what do you get but She's Back on Broadway?   And since it was my choice for today's posting, some may wonder why I wouldn't include it as part of the guilty pleasures themes, but nooooo.  No indeed.  I make no apologies for liking this movie but it is important to know that I regard it as a decidedly B feature and I love B movies and always have.  

In general B flicks were lower budget movies.  Big bucks were not spent on locations or on buying a popular book on which the film is based and not much was spent on production values.  Double features were once very popular and studios would put a B film on the bottom half of a bill with an A film.

At the same time, studios usually used their B teams of contract players to perform in B movies.  This is a Warner Bros film and all the performers listed above were under contract to the studio.  And all of them, though they may have occasionally been in A films, were basically part of the B team.  They were likely reluctant to admit it but it is what it is.

In this case and often the impetus for me to see a particular B movie is my being enamored of one or more stars.  Here are three such folks... Mayo, Gene Nelson and Steve Cochran.  In fact, I couldn't get enough of them and as a result I saw one yummy B flick after another.

Here, too, is a well-worn theme... a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of those putting on a Broadway musical.  In the 1930s this seemed to be the storyline of every other film WB produced, often adding some crime.  There's always an audience for the familiar theme.

Mayo is a movie actress without a recent hit.  The phone is not ringing and her agent (Keating), who is in love with her, can't secure  her any work.  She says she would take any part, no matter how small or insignificant, but he says she mustn't do that or she'll never reach the top again.  

He tells her that she needs to return to Broadway, her roots, and when she knocks it out of the park, Hollywood will welcome her back with open arms and wallets.  He then tells her that the play, a musical called Breakfast in Bed, will be directed by Steve Cochran, and she becomes more certain the move will be a mistake.  Six years earlier he was directing her in a play when she got a movie offer and she walked out of the play, putting many out of work and incurring Cochran's still-palpable wrath.  He wants to quit when he hears she will be the star of the new play.

Cochran and Mayo

Mayo and Cochran are at odds throughout the film, trying not so hard or so successfully to iron out their differences.  He's very rough on her in view of the company and she takes it until she storms off the stage.  He's not a bad guy but he is a deeply hurt one and because he's still in love with her, he doesn't want to add another layer to the hurt.  She's not sure why he can't get over it after six years, especially considering they once had something pretty special.

Into the mix is producer Frank Lovejoy who becomes the mediator between the two while trying to keep the money men happy and at bay.  A fun segment is watching the auditions.  Perhaps the segment is a little lengthy but it does provide some laughs.  The film is usually referred to as a musical comedy when, in fact, it is a musical drama.

I have never been able to understand why Nelson didn't become a bigger dancer-singer than he was.  I found him every bit as talented as, say, Gene Kelly, but maybe it lies in the difference between being under contract to MGM as opposed to WB.  He becomes the leading man of the play and has several musical numbers, with and without Mayo.

Wymore (who was married to WB star Errol Flynn throughout the 50s) is also a damned good tapper and she is given dramatic scenes as Cochran's lady who feels helpless when she realizes he is still in love with Mayo.  

Nine rather ho-hum songs were written for the film and there is liberal use of famous songs written by others but used more or less in passing.  The big production number, a solo with Mayo, also called Breakfast in Bed, left me a little hungry for more.  My favorite is Break the Ties That Bind You, sung by Mayo, which breaks into the film's best dramatic confrontation between singer and director because he claims he can't hear her.  (We use italics when referring to Mayo's singing because her singing voice was always dubbed since she couldn't carry a tune.)

    Mayo and Nelson

If this film were remade today, perhaps the two lead characters would not get back together but in 1953 one knew from the beginning all would be rekindled.

I've always been intrigued by billing but rarely as much as here.  There could be no doubt in anyone's mind that Cochran is the male star which begs the question of why he's billed fourth.  Nelson's role is fairly small and Lovejoy's even smaller and yet they are both billed ahead of Cochran.  Something was surely going on.  Maybe he and Jack Warner were feuding.  Studios doled out punishment by lowering billing.

As we mentioned in the posting on Mayo, she was best buddies with both Cochran and Nelson in real life.  This was her fifth film with Nelson and her sixth with Cochran.  It was also her final film with both.

Choreography legend LeRoy Prinz handled all the dance direction and B flick or not, there was some damned good work here.

Edwin DuPar wheeled around the Warnercolor cameras and I have always remembered (since childhood!) the beautiful closeups he got of Mayo and Cochran.  Both of their lovely faces fill the entire screen in solo shots which always make actors very happy.

Mayo and Wymore

Director Gordon Douglas was likely the king of Warners' B features and does a commendable job here as he always did.  The studio called on him as often as it could knowing he'd honor budgets, cool down uppity actors and oversee a happy atmosphere on his sets.

She's Back on Broadway was taken from a work called Back to Broadway.  The title was changed so that the public might be fooled into thinking it was a sequel to Mayo's 1952 production of She's Working Her Way Through College which was very successful with the public.

Here is a good dancing scene with Wymore, Steve Condos and Jerry Brandow.  You go, guys.

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