Broadway Hostess (1935) User Reviews

This cinematic gruel helps prove the Lyle Talbot rule...

[AlsExGal · 4/10 · 27 November 2020]

... that being - The bigger part Lyle Talbot got in a film over at 1930's Warner Brothers, the more mediocre/low budget the film was. Also, if he had a smaller role in a film he was probably the villain. So, here, Lyle is the leading man.

This musical/comedy/drama starts out weirdly as there is a club on Broadway interviewing singers for its next big show. Lucky (Lyle Talbot) is helping the owner pick out a new act as a favor to his friend, the owner. In comes Winnie (Wini Shaw), and she shows herself a talented torch singer in her audition. Now, suddenly, Lucky starts acting as Winnie's agent and negotiates a very hefty salary considering Winnie is not a name yet. Some friend Lucky is!

From there the film just devolves into a bunch of tired movie tropes to the point I'm surprised that somebody with a handlebar moustache, cape, and top hat doesn't show up and tie Winnie to the railroad tracks with Winnie screaming "Help Tom! Help Dick! Help Harry! " But I digress.

The film contains a bunch of very forgettable musical numbers to pad out the plot. One really odd one, obviously trying to imitate the magic of Busby Berkeley, is entitled "Playboy of Paree" and has dancing girls simulating bubbles in a champagne glass.

The one delight in this film -Allen Jenkins playing one of his trademark not so bright mug characters and his romantic interest, a rather air headed wealthy woman played by Spring Byington. Although she is actually 14 years older than Jenkins, he always looked rather old for his age and this teaming works and entertains.

Winnie Shaw has a great voice, and she was used to much better effect in Berkeley's number "Lullaby of Broadway" in "Gold Diggers of 1935" from the same year. This was the only vehicle she had for a leading film role, and unfortunately Warner Brothers gave her an Edsel for that vehicle.

And this film also proves that sometimes you lose the battle and win the war. Note that Marie Wilson plays a horribly off key singer in the auditions that open the film and then disappears. Marie Wilson was famous in the 1940s and 1950s playing Irma in "My Friend Irma" of film, radio, and TV.

Probably worth it only for the film history buff.

I can't believe this was 68 minutes

[blanche-2 · 5/10 · 29 October 2015]

...because it felt like 3 hours.

Winifred Shaw stars with Lyle Talbot, Genevieve Tobin, Spring Byington, and Allen Jenkins in "Broadway Hostess" from 1935.

Shaw is Winnie Wharton, who, with the help of Ted "Lucky" Lorimer (Talbot), gets a singing job and makes it big.

Winnie is in love with Lucky, who is acting as her manager. Lucky wants to marry Iris Marvin (Tobin) who has mega bucks. Iris doesn't want him.

Lucky opens a gambling casino hoping to make money and impress Iris. Iris' brother Ronnie (Donald Ross) loses $30,000 gambling, and steals his sister's jewels to pay Lucky.

Lucky is arrested for theft, but the butler tells Iris that her brother stole them. She bails out Lucky and they get married. Winnie in the meantime gives her money to an attorney to bail out Lucky, but instead of bailing him out, the lawyer just bales.

Lucky finds out, and to make up for what she's lost, he backs a show that she will star in. Then Iris' brother shows up with a gun, blaming Lucky for all his bad luck.

The musical numbers in this film were awful and some of them seemed to last for twenty minutes. Winifred Shaw was very pretty and a good singer, but I don't think Judy Garland could have sold those songs.

Shaw had a short film career and instead turned to entertaining the troops during the war, then nightclubs and stage work, finally retiring in 1955. I can see why she left movies if this is the best her studio could come up with. She's shown to much more advantage introducing Lullaby of Broadway in Gold Diggers of 1935.

I love Lyle Talbot, and though he lived into his 90s, he didn't get to finish his autobiography. I can just imagine the stories he had accumulated during a 56-year career.

The epitome of a bland B-movie

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 19 December 2020]

"Broadway Hostess" is a B-movie from Warner Brothers that has very little to recommend it...nor is it bad. In fact, it really is the epitome of blandness...made well enough but nothing to excite any viewer in any way.

Wini Shaw plays Winifred, a woman who supposedly has an amazing musical talent. But whenever she sings (and it's way too often), you can't help but think that you've heard better. But still, folks in the film go gaga for her and with the help of her new agent, Lucky (Lyle Talbot), she manages to become a huge success. At the same time, she's in love with Lucky and he's in love with Iris (Genevieve Tobin), though she seems indifferent towards him. And, a monkey wrench to all this is Iris' very unstable and emotionally stunted brother, Ronnie...who is simply a bad egg.

Combine mediocre singing with some actors who are dull as dishwater and indifferent and cliched writing and you have the recipe for blandness. You know this is a pretty dull thing when the best thing about the film is the sidekick (Allen Jenkins). A time-passer...at best.

By the way, if you do watch the film look for Dennis O'Keefe in the gambling hall. Before finding stardom, O'Keefe was in dozens and dozens of films as a bit player...and here he clearly is a bit player....albeit a very tall one!

She's Not Exactly the 'Mostest.' **1/2

[edwagreen · 5/10 · 1 March 2012]

Wini Shaw comes out at the beginning like a Jane Froman type-looking for the big break and gets it at a night club. Patron gangster-like Lucky becomes her manager. She falls for him but he has his eyes set on a steel magnate's daughter.

Shaw belts out the most corny songs, even for the 1930s. Lyle Talbot is young and handsome but he is no leading man. No wonder he went into supporting roles as the years went on.

Spring Byington is also a wealthy dame, flighty as ever as she hooks up with Allen Jenkins, cohort to Talbot's lucky. With his Brooklyn accent, Jenkins steals the film with some cute one-liners.

The story in itself is abbreviated. After Lucky takes a bullet by his alcoholic brother-in-law, Shaw realizes that he is truly happy with his rich wife. O well, there is always the piano player to fall back on. Of course, this isn't exactly Doris Day and Cameron Mitchell in the superior "Love Me or Leave Me."

A Broadway Torch Singer

[lugonian · 7/10 · 30 March 2002]

"Broadway Hostess" (Warner Brothers/First National, 1935), directed by Frank McDonald, is a simple rise to fame and consequence story with a plot that appears to be a throwback from those numerous late 1920s-early 1930 musicals, with Winifred Shaw giving her all in what turned out to be her only starring feature during her short-lived movie career (1934-1937). And what a curio that is!

The story opens with an eyeview of New York City's Broadway district where the Club Intime rehearsals are being held for Joe Jarvis's (Joseph King) new show. Auditioning is Dorothy DuBois (Marie Wilson), who proves to be a poor candidate. Ted "Lucky" Lorimer (Lyle Talbot), Joe's assistant, feels the new song selection could use the talent of a good torch singer. In comes Winnie Wharton (Winifred Shaw) of Ohio, winner of a popularity contest, sent by her agent, to audition. After the audition, Winnie's career is set, rising to a popular radio singer whose songs boost record sales. Complications arise when Winnie, who is now in love with Lucky, finds that he wants to marry Iris Marvin (Genevieve Tobin), an heiress of social standing. The marriage is soon faced with problems, thanks to Iris's brother, Ronnie (Donald Ross), a pampered youth with a bad attitude and his love for both the liquor bottle and gambling.

With music and lyrics by Herbert Ruby and M.K. Jerome, songs include: "I'm Dancing With Tears in My Eyes," "Weary" (both sung by Winifred Shaw); "You Bother Me an Awful Lot" (written by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal/danced by chorus); "He Was Her Man," "Weary," "Who But You," "Let It Be Me" (sung by Phil Regan); "Playboy of Paree" (sung by Shaw and Regan); "Let It Be Me" and "He Was Her Man." The production number, "Playboy of Paree," which plays part of the REVUE OF REVUES, ACT I, sequence, was choreographed by Bobby Connolly, and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Dance Direction.

Also seen in the supporting cast are Allen Jenkins as Fishcake Carter; Spring Byington as Mrs. Duncan Griswald-Smythe; Ward Bond as a bodyguard; Mary Treen, among others.

As mentioned earlier, Broadway HOSTESS offers Wini Shaw a rare opportunity in a leading role. However, she would soon find herself going back to where she started: singing guest spots and supporting roles in second features. Shaw's singing style here appears to be a combination of both Helen Morgan and Frances Langford, but if she were given more of a chance, she would have developed a style all her own. But chances for improvement did not come. Shaw retired from the screen by 1937. Of all her films, she left a lasting legacy as the vocalist who introduces the hit tune, "The Lullaby of Broadway" from GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (1935). And that's something to remember. Although Shaw is mentioned numerous times in Broadway HOSTESS as being a torch singer and not a Broadway hostess, it's obvious the movie title is a misnomer.

Broadway HOSTESS contains enough plot elements and forgettable songs squeezed into its tight 68 minutes, with the final eight minutes or so appearing to be rushed and handicapped by heavy editing, with the final result of the movie being mediocre entertainment (A no winner for Winnie). Genevieve Tobin however, is quite satisfactory in her usual sophisticated society girl performance; Lyle Talbot does well with his good-guy role, although he's more suitable in playing a "heavy" or bad guy than a leading man; the unknown Donald Ross is definitely unlikeable as the unpleasant Ronnie Marvin. And then there's poor Marie Wilson, who, after appearing in a few scenes earlier in the story, she is placed in the background, not to be seen and heard again. Her amusing comedy antics would have helped boost up the plot a little.

Is Winifred Shaw capable of carrying on an entire movie? The answer is to sit back and watch "Broadway Hostess" whenever it plays on cable television's Turner Classic Movies to find out. (**)

A Broadway Bore

[chris-48 · 27 November 1998]

What promises to be a light "rags-to-riches" musical-comedy, quickly devolves into a tedious melodrama. The script is weak, the characters drab, the editing choppy and most of the performances wooden. The picture comes to life only when Allen Jenkins' cocky "Fishcake" is on screen; his scene on a runaway horse sets an energetic pace that the rest of the film would have done well to emulate.

"The Lady In Red" and "Lullaby Of Broadway" made me watch this.

[pronker · 5/10 · 18 March 2019]

And I'm glad I did! Wini Shaw's throbbing, sobbing voice either evokes sadness or makes one get up and dance around the room. As for her acting, it seemed adequate; Talbot's and Tobin's acting was more polished, naturally. The Berkeley-esque piece of girls dancing in a glass of champagne was just right for the movie and the song "Playboy of Paree" was so so. The song I really liked was "Let It Be Me," with Phil Regan and Shaw partnering nicely.

Now for the unexpected juicy bits: Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Treen, and Ward Bond were great fun to spot in uncredited roles, but Gordon Elliott (Wild Bill) portrayed Shaw's love interest in the Playboy of Paree number. Yes, Elliott looks good in a tux and responds to Shaw in the usual way of such things, by reacting to her lyrics with movements designed to leave 95 percent of the attention on her. Way to go, Bill.

In conclusion, the ending took a roundabout way for Shaw to reach equanimity in her life: she befriends her love's wife, takes it on the chin in unrequited love, and learns a lesson about being happy with what she's got. That's not a bad lesson for a B movie.

script needed jazzing up.

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 16 February 2021]

Wini Shaw is "Winnie", singer, looking for work. Shaw only had 31 roles, and most of those were uncredited roles or real short films. Lucky (Lyle Talbot) helps her get into showbiz. not much of a story line, just a couple songs sung by Shaw, and her pounding the pavement, looking for work. some big name co-stars, with Spring Byington (Jezebel, You Can't Take it with You) and mister nasal, Allen Jenkins. Byington was already 49, but looks SO much younger. too bad the script was so threadbare and the story was short. Genevieve Tobin (married to big shot director Bill Keighley). this had potential. could have been a great film. liberal use of obvious backdrops and doubles. did anyone count the number of times Jenkins says "Toots" ? Directed by Frank McDonald ; had started as a dialogue director, then THIS film was his first director job. it's very okay.

Come along and listen to the lullaby of Winnie.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 8 October 2016]

A New York Times review called this clichéd and hard to sit through. Well, what 1930's musical wasn't clichéd? But hard to sit through? I do partially agree. It's not dreadful, but not much went into the script to make it easy to follow. Winifred Shaw went from supporting roles and specialty appearances to the lead in this B musical about the rise of a nightclub singer and her rather uninteresting romantic exploits involving the man she loves (Lyle Talbot) and socialite Genevieve Tobin who steals his affections from her. The secondary comic plot involving Talbot's pal Allen Jenkins and the much married Spring Byington who has a humorous lengthy name. The plot just gets more absurd as it plods along.

The songs are also mediocre, lacking the memorable melodies of the bigger Dick Powell/Ruby Keeler smash hits. To call the show within a show "Revue of Revues" shows the lack of imagination. The one big musical number, "Playboy of Paree", staged by Bobby Connelly, has the chorus girls allegedly dancing in a glass of champagne, yet steals ideas already utilized by Busby Berkley. Shaw simply isn't mesmerizing enough to be a leading lady, giving this a tedious placement in the list of 1930's musicals.

Most geezers fading away nowadays only remember the champagne bubbles . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 4 December 2020]

. . . from "Best Picture" winner WINGS and from the closing montage of vintage television's LAWRENCE WELK SHOW. Though both of the aforementioned sequences of bubbly ballyhoo were overly prolonged and soon became quite tedious, BROADWAY HOSTESS takes the cheesecake when it comes to "forever blowing bubbles." Apparently this film was shot when master drill sergeant Busby B. was locked up in the hoosegow after wiping out an on-coming Real Life family during one of his alcoholic blackouts. To commemorate this grim millstone, his original film studio launches a slipshod "homage" to B.B. (imagining him to be totally lobotomized) featuring a huge, bubble-filled martini glass populated by chorus girls in gossamer gowns with attached balloons swimming with slow, spastic strokes until the camera zooms in with blemish-detecting closeness upon half a dozen skunk-eyed female faces (58:35). Winter 2020-2021 news stories report that the most frequent dying words of expiring seniors in the Old Folks wards are "It's all a hoax; this is not really happening!" That should go double for BROADWAY HOSTESS.

Features singer Winifred Shaw and Oscar nominated Dance Direction

[jacobs-greenwood · 4/10 · 15 December 2016]

This minor Musical (comedy romance), directed by Frank McDonald and written by George Bricker, features singer Winifred Shaw and received an Academy Award nomination for Dance Direction by Bobby Connolly for the "Playboy of Paree" sequence.

In the standard "small town girl goes to New York and makes it big on Broadway", Shaw plays Winnie Wharton who gets her big chance when 'Lucky' Lorimer (Lyle Talbot), recognizing that she's got something, convinces a small time club owner (Joe King) to give her a shot, and then manages her career to the top. Winnie is naturally grateful and attracted to Lucky but, as a chorus girl (Marie Wilson) had told her, she learns that he's all business. Ironically, Winnie's success enables Lucky to find his way into Park Avenue's social scene where he and his street-talking slang practitioner Fishcake Carter (Allen Jenkins, naturally) find high class dames. Fishcake charms (as only Jenkins could) a dizzy rich widow, Mrs. Duncan Griswald Wembly Smythe (Spring Byington), whom he dubs "Toots". When Lucky realizes his gal Iris Marvin (Genevieve Tobin) is just using him for her own amusement, he's insulted enough to vow that he can make the big money required to earn his way onto Park Avenue.

So Lucky opens a gambling establishment which later entices Iris's alcoholic brother Ronnie (Donald Ross) and his friend (Dennis O'Keefe, uncredited) as customers. Earlier, Ronnie had a run-in with their family butler Morse (Frank Dawson), who'd been instructed by Iris not provide her brother with brandy during a party; Lucky intervened to resolve the conflict. When Ronnie loses $30,000 shooting craps against Fishcake, who really is lucky, he steals his sister's jewelry as collateral to keep the club owner's bouncer (Ward Bond, uncredited) from becoming a debt enforcer. Lucky is then "caught" by the police with the jewels and jailed; this leads to Winnie to pawn her jewels worth $5,000 and give the rest of her cash ($10,000) to a lawyer for his bail. But Morse had witnessed Ronnie's "theft" of the jewelry, and when Lucky is cleared and released per this information, Winnie's shyster lawyer skips town with her money.

Winnie's pianist boyfriend Tommy (Phil Regan) tells Lucky, now married to Iris, about the bail money incident and that Winnie is now somewhat impoverished. Lucky decides to anonymously back a show for her comeback, which is a big success. On opening night, a drunken and ruined Ronnie decides to enact revenge on Lucky by shooting him. Tommy and Winnie bravely finish the show before rushing to the hospital where Winnie and Iris become fast friends who both love the same man.

The Wonderful Wini Shaw's Only Starring Feature

[HarlowMGM · 10/10 · 22 February 2007]

Winifred Shaw (aka Wini Shaw) was probably the greatest female vocalist the movies ever produced outside of the superstar ladies like Garland, Durbin, etc. Warner Bros. sadly did not elevate her to movie stardom but they knew she was the best singer on the lot and made her a "speciality" act for many of their musicals of the mid 1930's, coming in to sing the best song in the picture and then disappearing from the movie. The "B" musical Broadway HOSTESS was the one time Warners bothered to star Wini in a feature and just getting to hear her sing a number of songs in a single film is enough to making this film entertaining. She proves to be a capable leading lady and while lacking major star charisma does very well and is it inexplicable why Warners didn't try to develop her into a star. Looking somewhat like a cross between Dolores Del Rio and Rosalind Russell, Wini stars as an aspiring singer who walks into a nightclub for a cold audition and lands a job and a manager, gambler Lyle Talbot. Talbot makes Wini a New York sensation overnight and with her success they crash New York society. Talbot becomes smitten with heiress Genevieve Tobin much to Wini's distress, being secretly in love with Talbot. Snooty Genie rebuffs Talbot after an initial flirtation and vows to become rich enough he will have a place in society himself. After Wini's confession of love is kindly but solidly dismiss by Talbot, she quits show business despite the sympathetic shoulder of piano accompanist Phil Regan. Talbot becomes the financial success he dreamed of through his gambling operation and when Tobin's hostile, alcoholic brother loses $30,000 at Talbot's casino, he brings in family jewels to cover his debt and then frames Talbot for "stealing" them.

This 68 minute movie, essentially a melodrama with musical interludes, moves quickly with a number of good if not especially memorable songs and an above average cast for a modest budget film. Talbot, a somewhat less sexy Richard Arlen, does very well as guy from the wrong side of the tracks who wants to cross over and Marie Wilson and Spring Byington provide comedy relief in early small parts. The ending is quite surprising since programmer films are usually quite predictable in their denouement. There is a happy ending for the film but a rather bittersweet one for film fans given Wini Shaw's unrealized potential.