''Stars Over Broadway'' is a 1935 American

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as brea ...

directed by

William Keighley William Jackson Keighley (August 4, 1889 – June 24, 1984) was an American stage actor and Hollywood film director. Career After graduating from the Ludlum School of Dramatic Art, Keighley began acting at the age of 23. By the 1910s and 1920s ...

, written by

Jerry Wald Jerome Irving Wald (September 16, 1911 – July 13, 1962) was an American screenwriter and a producer of films and radio programs. Life and career Early life Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, he had a brother and sons who were act ...

, Julius J. Epstein, & Pat C. Flick, and starring Pat O'Brien,

Jane Froman Ellen Jane Froman (November 10, 1907 – April 22, 1980) was an American actress and singer. During her thirty-year career, she performed on stage, radio and television despite chronic health problems due to injuries sustained in a 1943 plane cra ...

James Melton James Melton (January 2, 1904 – April 21, 1961), a popular singer in the 1920s and early 1930s, later began a career as an operatic singer when tenor voices went out of style in popular music around 1932–35. His singing talent was similar to ...

Jean Muir Jean Elizabeth Muir ( ; 17 July 1928 – 28 May 1995) was a British fashion designer. Early life and career Jean Muir was born in London, the daughter of Cyril Muir, a draper's floor superintendent, and his wife, Phyllis Coy. Her father ...

Frank McHugh Francis Curry McHugh (May 23, 1898 – September 11, 1981) was an American stage, radio, film and television actor. Early years Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, of Irish descent, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents, Edward A ...

, and Eddie Conrad. It was released by Warner Bros. on November 23, 1935.

Plot

Al McGillevray, a failed theatrical manager, is about to commit suicide when he hears Jan King, the hotel porter, singing and offers to make him an opera star. After Jan agrees, Al takes a series of odd jobs to pay for his singing lessons, and his teacher, Minotti, arranges an audition at the Metropolitan Opera. Jan is well received, but when Al learns that he will need another five years of study before he will be ready to go on stage, he takes Jan to the radio stations, intending to make him a crooner instead. At an amateur-hour competition they meet Nora Wyman, another singer. She begs Al to manage her as well, but he tries to discourage her, saying she is too nice for a career in show business. Jan auditions at a noisy club where he becomes an immediate success and meets another successful singer, Joan Garrett, who helps him get more work. Al wants Jan to study opera again now that they have enough money, but Jan is having too much fun as a crooner. As he becomes more popular, Jan starts to drink and is late for his shows, then misses one completely and is fired. Al finally succumbs to Nora's wishes and allows Minotti to hear her sing. Although Minotti thinks Nora has a good voice, Al persuades him to tell her otherwise. Nora is devastated by the news and walks in front of a car. In the hospital, Al tells Nora what he has done, confessing that he lied because he loves her. After he leaves her, he spends the last of his money to send Minotti and Jan to Italy to save Jan's voice. Sometime later, Al visits Jan backstage at his opera debut and Nora is there, too. Jan has learned about Al's generosity and wants him to manage him again. Nora tells Al that she has decided her singing is not important, and all she wants is to be his wife.

New stars and old

Singing star James Melton had enjoyed popularity as part of

The Revelers The Revelers were an American quintet (four close harmony singers and a pianist) popular in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Revelers' recordings of "Dinah (song), Dinah", "Ol' Man River, Old Man River", "Valencia (song), Valencia", "Baby Fa ...

, a close-harmony vocal group of the late 1920s. He went solo as a radio and recording artist in 1934, but had not yet been featured in full-length films. Warner Bros. signed him and groomed him for stardom in ''Stars Over Broadway.'' This was also Jane Froman's tryout for features; she had appeared in a single Warner short two years earlier. Meanwhile, Warners' singing star of 1929-30, Frank Fay, had fallen from popularity and made his last appearance for the studio in this film, as the emcee of a radio amateur hour.

Cast

* Pat O'Brien as Al McGillevray *

as Joan Garrett *

as Jan King *

as Nora Wyman *

as Offkey Cramer * Eddie Conrad as Freddy *

William Ricciardi William Ricciardi (12 July 1871 – 16 February 1961) was an Italian actor known for his role as Signor Baldini in ''San Francisco'' (1936). He also appeared in the Phil Rosen film ''The Heart of a Siren'' (1926). In ''Anthony Adverse'' (193 ...

as Minotti * Marie Wilson as Molly * Frank Fay as Announcer *

E. E. Clive Edward Erskholme Clive (28 August 1879 – 6 June 1940) was a Welsh stage actor and director who had a prolific acting career in Britain and America. He also played numerous supporting roles in Hollywood movies between 1933 and his death. Biog ...

as Crane *

George Chandler George Chandler (June 30, 1898 – June 10, 1985) was an American actor who starred in over 140 feature films, usually in smaller supporting roles, and he is perhaps best known for playing the character of Uncle Petrie Martin on the televi ...

as Charlie

Reception

Frank S. Nugent of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote in his review: "The Warners have tackled the operatic film with an engaging sense of humor. In ''Stars Over Broadway'', which opened last night at the Strand, they contemplate grand opera with their tongue in their collective cheek, and with Al Dubin and Harry Warren standing by to assist the Messrs. Verdi, Schubert, and von Flotow in moments of upper registral stress and strain. The result is a generally amiable and melodious comedy which merits praise chiefly for its failure of fawn completely upon the diamond horseshoe. If there has been an evil in this operatic film cycle, it has been that of obsequiousness. No Uriah Heep could be more unctuous than the cinema has been in the presence of the Metropolitan. And opera, when placed in the Fellowship of the Sacred Cows, can be made very dull indeed. Just as dull, in fact, as some of the screen plays about those other Sacred Cows—motherhood, the home, the Hippocratic oath and the football team. ''Stars Over Broadway'', then, is close to its best in that moment when Pat O'Brien refuses to permit the opera to claim his protégé. James Melton, and drags him from the Met stage to the microphone to convert his vocal assets into coffee-hour gold. It seemed that the maestri who heard the singer were thrilled with his voice, but felt he needed about five more years of study before chancing a début. And Mr. O'Brien, as he tactfully expressed it, 'needed some dough' and 'wasn't going to wait till I decorate a wheel chair'."

References

External links

* * * * {{William Keighley 1935 films 1930s English-language films Warner Bros. films American musical films 1935 musical films Films directed by William Keighley Films scored by Heinz Roemheld American black-and-white films 1930s American films