Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

JohnHowardReid Copyright 7 February 1933 by Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 4 March 1933. U.S. release: 24 February 1933. 61 minutes. (Formerly vailable on a good VintageFilmBuff DVD).SYNOPSIS: Showgirl's rich father-in-law seeks custody of her son.COMMENT: Director Lanfield starts this one with a wow of an extended one-take bang, and then winds slowly - very slowly - downhill. But as the film only runs for one hour (not two or three), our attention is still pretty high at the climactic power-packed courtroom encounter in which Joan crosses swords with an expertly aggressive Donald Crisp. Despite her prominence in the billing, Ginger not only has a small part but is barely recognizable as the RKO Rogers we all know and love. Ricardo Cortez likewise drops out for a long period. In fact, the plot is as flimsy as the lingerie - but in this delightfully overloaded with showgirls case, only a misogynist would even dream of making a complaint.

lugonian "Broadway Bad" (Fox Films, 1933), directed by Sidney Lanfield, is an interesting movie more for its casting than its story. Starring Joan Blondell, Ricardo Cortez, Ginger Rogers, and Donald Crisp, all contract player names usually associated with Warner Brothers studio, yet all featured in this one Fox movie with a backstage musical sounding title to it. Regardless whatever studio release, it's definitely common ground material found in many a motion picture during the Depression era pre-production code thirties.Following an introductory segment on a train revolving around gossiping chorus girls from Lew Gordon's Frolics of 1929, Antoinette "Toni" Sanders (Joan Blondell), a member of the troupe, having missed the train to be alone at an empty stadium of Yale University to be with Bob North III (Allen Vincent), a college boy and rich man's son, while her loyal friend and roommate, Flip Daly (Ginger Rogers) awakens to find Toni's bed has never been slept in all night. It is later revealed that Toni is secretly married to Bob so not to be expelled from college. Craig Cutting (Ricardo Cortez), the show's backer responsible for Toni's employment, is unaware of Toni's marriage. Thanks to the troublesome Aileen (Adrienne Ames), Craig's former mistress, she takes Bob to Craig's penthouse apartment where he's holding a social function with Toni. Misunderstandings occur as Bob walks in on them, followed by a divorce, naming Craig as correspondent. To avoid a scandal, Toni attempts to leave Gordon's (Spencer Charters) Frolics. Instead, thanks to Joe Flynn (Phil Tead), a publicity man, stumbles upon the idea how such publicity will help the show's proceedings. Through the course of time, Toni rises from chorus girl to featured player of Frolics of 1933. As for Toni, who has risen to fame and fortune, is now a mother of a four-year-old son she calls "Big Fella" (Ronnie Cosbey), and romantically involved with Craig. As for Bob, now down-and-out, having lost all financial income from his father (Frederick Burton), owing a huge $15,000 gambling debt. Bob comes to Toni, who refuses to have anything to do with him. When Bob discovers the child she has to be his son, he and fellow gambler and racketeer, Tommy Davis (Francis J. McDonald), attempt to get more money out of her as well as Bob taking her to court so to disgrace her name and gain custody of the boy.Other members of the cast consist of Donald Crisp (District Attorney Darrell); Margaret Seddon (Bixby, the babysitter); and Eddie Kane (Eddie Malone, the Jeweler). While some sources label songs listed in this production, only "Forget the Past" is vocalized only too briefly. During its relatively short 62 minutes, which might have been longer in the director's cut, the major disappointment is how little screen time Ginger Rogers is offered. She's here and there during Blondell's troubles, with little to offer. "Broadway Bad" also shows how Ricardo Cortez could play decent characters as opposed to nasty ones for which he excelled, notably at Warner Brothers.A very rare find as in most Fox Films of the early thirties, "Broadway Bad" is not so bad but not that great either. It had a lot to offer but little to add. Blondell seemed a little out of place in a role that might have better served for Barbara Stanwyck. Even though a Fox Film, it does use a latter 20th Century-Fox logo in surviving prints that were televised on New York City's public television showing on WNET, Channel 13, in December 1992, and decades later, on a cable channel called "Movies" in November 2016. Regardless of its pros and cons and age, "Broadway Bad" is a worthy viewing, especially for long forgotten gems such as this one. (**)

skyvue This movie's a very entertaining little Pre-Code picture.I'll ***SPOILER ALERT *** this, even though the previous poster didn't:The father was Bob. She just didn't want to lose custody of the baby to that lowlife (if upper-crust) creep, so she lied about it. After all, Bob had been trying to blackmail her prior to discovering the kid, so that makes her justified in doing whatever she must do to keep the child out of his clutches.And Blondell's terrific in this picture, as she was in just about every other movie she ever made. She had a down-to-earth, likable quality that always served her characters.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre I saw 'Broadway Bad' in May of this year, at the Cinevent festival in Columbus, Ohio. If I hadn't been attending the festival anyway, I would never have bothered to see this movie, as it stars an actress whom I loathe: Joan Blondell. Always cheap, vulgar, squawk-voiced and unattractive, Blondell is in her usual mode here. She manages to look a bit different this time round, but only because this movie was made at Fox (Blondell's usual studio was Warners) ... so the lighting, costumes, hairstyles and general ambiance are a change of pace for her. The storyline - concerned with morals, reputations and sexual hypocrisy - is something more typical of Warners than of Fox.Blondell plays a chorus girl named Tony. (Is that short for Anthony?) In the 1930s, chorus girls were generally perceived to be of low virtue (and some of them certainly did fit that description), but we're given to understand that Tony is a good girl for all her brassy behaviour. She gets a proposition from playboy Craig, who is wealthy in his own right, but she turns him down to marry Bob, who's even wealthier but only because he's the scion of a prominent family.Apparently, Tony is genuinely in love with Bob (rather than gold-digging his folks' money), yet she remains friendly with Craig. When Bob catches Tony with Craig once too often, he divorces her. In order to obtain the divorce, Bob's father's lawyers ruin Tony's reputation.As she's now been branded as a bad girl, Tony decides to cash in on it. She straight away becomes a Broadway star by trading in on the public perception that she's a slut. (Oh, so that's how it works!)I forgot to tell you about the baby ... I mean, the scriptwriters forgot to tell you about the baby. All through this argle-bargle, Tony has secretly had a baby. Apparently she was with some other man before Craig and Bob. We never do find out who this man was, nor the precise nature of Tony's relationship with him - were they married? is he dead? - nor anything that would enable us to decide how much of our sympathy Tony deserves.Bob's rich parents find out about the baby, and they assume that Bob is the father. They sue Tony to acquire custody of the child. The courtroom scenes degenerate into soap opera. Expect some big revelations that you really won't care about.Ginger Rogers is quite good as Tony's friend, a chorus girl named Flip Daily. (She must be an acrobat.) I would rather have seen this movie with Ginger Rogers in the lead, as she was vastly more talented than Blondell and certainly easier on the eyes and the eardrums than Blondell ever was. I'll rate 'Broadway Bad' 4 out of 10, mostly for its proficient photography and efficient direction by the underrated Sidney Lanfield. There are some good supporting performances. Rogers is excellent, as is Ricardo Cortez as the semi-caddish Craig. (Over the course of his career, Cortez made an interesting and graceful transition from shiekish leading man to cynical hero to amoral cad to outright villain: at this point, he was in his early cad phase.) Joan Blondell, as usual, stinks. The lighting on the Fox sound stages doesn't conceal Blondell's facial moles as well as the lighting at Warners did.