"Broadway Bad" was the last film Ginger Rogers made before finding direction with her career with "42nd Street" (1933). Before then she had been drifting along, getting noticed but mostly in quickies. After she portrayed the role of "Anytime Annie" it seemed studios suddenly knew what to do with her. In this film she portrays "Flip" Daley, pal of Toni (short for Antoinette) Landers (Joan Blondell). Can it be possible there is someone in the world who feels such a strong dislike for Joan Blondell - I can't believe it!!! From the start of her career she was popular with both the critics and the public, usually playing happy go lucky chorus girls.
Tony Landers is the new chorine on the block. She is a fresh kid from the country who has caught Craig Cutting's (Ricardo Cortez) eye. The rest of the chorus line is pretty jealous - including Aileen (Adrienne Ames) an old girlfriend of Craig's. When Tony stops off to see her high school sweetheart, Bob (Allen Vincent), her friend, Flip, gets worried when she stays out all night. A few months later Bob is giving her the air and she finds out she is pregnant. I wonder if "the marriage" may have been put in to appease the censors. It was very awkwardly explained I felt. Bob finally tracks her down to Cutting's penthouse and they have a showdown - when she, in turn, goes to Bob's house it is to find that he is going away on a cruise and will not listen to her. Bob divorces Tony and names Craig Cutting as co - respondent. Aileen turns up occasionally with witty and "cutting" remarks.
Several years later Tony is a big star and is squirreling money away so she can retire with "the big fella" - her little son (adorable Ronnie Cosby). She renews acquaintance with Cutting who is disappointed at her now mercenary attitude. Bill, the low life, also turns up again (like a bad penny), he is desperate for money and sees a way to blackmail Tony. She keeps two residences - one on Park Avenue, the other in the name of Bixby, where her little boy lives. Bob is convinced he is the father - but is he???? She goes to Cutting and tells him the whole story but before she and the "big fella" can sail for Paris, Bob kidnaps the little boy. There is a trial to determine whether Tony is a fit mother and Donald Crisp is a surprise face as the prosecuting lawyer. The ending is a surprise but not to viewers of pre-code films.
Ricardo Cortez is quite the nicest person in the film but the most interesting is the beautiful Adrienne Ames. Why wasn't she a bigger star?? Ginger Rogers, for all her billing, doesn't have very much of a part - is there anything more annoying than a film about chorus girls with no musical numbers!!!! Ginger was seen in a couple of lovely dancing outfits - but not on the stage, only in the dressing room!!! The song that Tony partly sings, "Forget the Past", is a blatant re-working of Kate Smith's big hit of the time - "Twenty Million People".
Tony Landers is the new chorine on the block. She is a fresh kid from the country who has caught Craig Cutting's (Ricardo Cortez) eye. The rest of the chorus line is pretty jealous - including Aileen (Adrienne Ames) an old girlfriend of Craig's. When Tony stops off to see her high school sweetheart, Bob (Allen Vincent), her friend, Flip, gets worried when she stays out all night. A few months later Bob is giving her the air and she finds out she is pregnant. I wonder if "the marriage" may have been put in to appease the censors. It was very awkwardly explained I felt. Bob finally tracks her down to Cutting's penthouse and they have a showdown - when she, in turn, goes to Bob's house it is to find that he is going away on a cruise and will not listen to her. Bob divorces Tony and names Craig Cutting as co - respondent. Aileen turns up occasionally with witty and "cutting" remarks.
Several years later Tony is a big star and is squirreling money away so she can retire with "the big fella" - her little son (adorable Ronnie Cosby). She renews acquaintance with Cutting who is disappointed at her now mercenary attitude. Bill, the low life, also turns up again (like a bad penny), he is desperate for money and sees a way to blackmail Tony. She keeps two residences - one on Park Avenue, the other in the name of Bixby, where her little boy lives. Bob is convinced he is the father - but is he???? She goes to Cutting and tells him the whole story but before she and the "big fella" can sail for Paris, Bob kidnaps the little boy. There is a trial to determine whether Tony is a fit mother and Donald Crisp is a surprise face as the prosecuting lawyer. The ending is a surprise but not to viewers of pre-code films.
Ricardo Cortez is quite the nicest person in the film but the most interesting is the beautiful Adrienne Ames. Why wasn't she a bigger star?? Ginger Rogers, for all her billing, doesn't have very much of a part - is there anything more annoying than a film about chorus girls with no musical numbers!!!! Ginger was seen in a couple of lovely dancing outfits - but not on the stage, only in the dressing room!!! The song that Tony partly sings, "Forget the Past", is a blatant re-working of Kate Smith's big hit of the time - "Twenty Million People".