Diagonaldi Very well executed

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Ploydsge just watch it!

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

atlasmb "Broadway Melody of 1938" feels like the real start to Judy Garland's film career. After it was made, she was very busy cranking them out for MGM. In this film, she is still being portrayed as the child performer, dressed in ankle socks and Buster Brown outfits. She was approximately age 15 during the production of this film and they were fighting her budding bustline, but she was still viewed as the cute young girl who could swing and scat. She is only seventh billed for this film, however, with plenty of talent headlining.Personally, I love B&W films where the images are crisp, with clear contrast. "BM38" is delightfully clean.I noted right away that the director intended to use the camera in creative ways. In the opening shot, the camera tracks down a marquee, crosses the street (Broadway?) and moves down the sidewalk to a sign. I don't want such camera work to detract from the action, but if it adds to the spectacle or adds emotional impact, it is welcome. Note the dance scene that takes place in a railroad car. The camera frames the dance in various ways, adding action to the performance.The story itself is about the machinations behind the scenes of a Broadway revue--the raising of funds, the casting, the political concerns. The cast is talented and energetic. The songs and dances are very entertaining.There is one part they could have left out--a specialty act in which a guy ruminates on the types of sneezes. Sometimes studios find it difficult to leave out the kitchen sink, even when it brings the action to a complete halt. But if you can overlook this one distraction, "BM38" is well worth viewing.

weezeralfalfa The second of a series of films made in the '35-40 period entitled Broadway Melody, that featured the dancing of Eleanor Powell, among other musical and comedic talents. Sturcturally and personnel-wise, this film more resembles the '36 film than the '40 film. Like the '36 film, Eleanor and Robert Taylor are the romantic leads, and Buddy Ebsen serves as one of the lead dancers as well as for a bit of humor with his gangly backwoods screen persona. Taylor and Ebsen would not return for the '40 film. Robert Wildhack also returned for his inane scientific analysis of sneezes, this time, instead of snores, as in the '36 film. Again, most of the musical numbers were composed by the team of Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed. In contrast, most of the (less memorable) songs for the '40 film were composed by Cole Porter. Like the '36 film and unlike the '40 film, several songs without dancing are performed by several vocalists:very young Judy Garland(primarily), an aging Sophie Tucker, Charles Igor Gorin, George Murphy, and Eleanor replace Frances Langford and several others in the '36 film. Unlike the '40 film, where Eleanor is the only lead female dancer,this film and the '36 film feature a secondary female dancer(Judy Garland in this case). Unlike Eleanor, they always were accompanied by a male dancer(Ebsen in Judy's case). Thus, Eleanor has fewer dance numbers in the first 2 films than in the '40 film.This film does have a few things in common with the '40 film, lacking in the '36 film. Eleanor takes part in several duo romantic dances, whereas June Knight did all the romantic dances in the '36 film. Secondly, the prominent role of George Murphy as a singing-dancing partner for Eleanor and in the screen play. However, in the "40 film , he is soon supplanted by Astaire as Eleanor's dancing partner. In this film, he gets two romantic dances with Eleanor alone, plus a dance or two that includes Ebsen.You will notice that in these dances and the one in the '40 film, unlike Astaire, he occasionally fully lifts or carries Eleanor.This is especially prominent in their beautiful dance to "Your Broadway, My Broadway". In fact, I don't recall Astaire ever doing a full lift or carrying a dance partner(despite the fanciful painting on my '40 DVD jacket!. Correct me if I'm wrong. He sometimes did partial lifts and supports(frequent in "Silk Stockings", for example). Occasional lifting and carrying of the female partner enhances the romantic atmosphere of the dance. This is why I find Murphy as a dance partner for Eleanor generally more pleasing than Astaire. He was also a tolerable singer, charismatic and better looking. I rate their long dance to "I'm Feeling Like a Million" as the most spontaneously fun dance in the 3 films, if not the most elegant nor technically challenging. It will remind you of Kelly's "Singing in the Rain" dance, except that it's a duo dance instead of a solo.In addition to Ebsen's sporadic humor, veteran comedian Billy Gilbert shows up several times to display his trademark brand of humor to good effect. Thankfully, Robert Wildhack's scientific classification of sneezes is a less prominent part of the show than in the '36 film! Presumably, audiences of the time were more amused by these acts than most present day viewers.It gave them a chance to laugh at the commonly perceived tendency of scientists to over intellectualize everything.Judy Garland had 2 songs: a special version of "You Made Me Love You", which she sang at Clark Gable's birthday party and which is here repeated, and a rousing version of "Everybody Sing". In retrospect, these were warm ups for her central role the following year in "The Wizard of Oz". Veteran stage actress Sophie Tucker, as Judy's stage mother, also sang and talked a bit about the days of yore on Broadway. Charles Igor Gorin began the film with "The Toreador song", from "Carmen", and later played an important role in inspiring Eleanor's horse Stargazer to jump over hurdles and thus win the Saratoga race, by his rendition of a familiar song from "The Barber of Seville".On the whole, I enjoyed this edition of Broadway Melody a bit more than the others. I think it had the best screen play, the best mix of comedy, and a good mix of pure singing numbers and dancing that the '40 film lacked. However, I won't be terribly upset if you prefer one of the other two.Both the major Fox and MGM musicals of the late '30s tended to have a formula where the lead romantic man usually was an essentially non-musical pretty boy(usually Robert Taylor, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Young, or Clark Gable for MGM, or Tyrone Power, for Fox). This changed around 1940, when Astaire and Mickey Rooney began starring in MGM musicals, and Don Ameche or John Payne usually replaced Power at Fox. Poor George Murphy still usually ended up without the girl in either case!

lugonian "Broadway Melody of 1938" (MGM, 1937), directed by Roy Del Ruth, the third installment to MGM's "Broadway Melody" yearly titled series, following 1929 and 1936, is an ultra lavish edition (minus Technicolor) with a galaxy of stars, and being most noted today mainly for young Judy Garland, in her MGM feature debut, singing to the portrait of movie actor, Clark Gable, than anything else in the entire production. It would had been more interesting in making Garland the central focus to the story as a teen-aged daughter of a legendary Broadway star (Sophie Tucker) of long ago wanting to keep the family tradition going after her mother retires, and the struggles and hardships that come with it. Instead, this edition of "Broadway Melody" includes enough subplots to make this a two hour plus special, and possibly was, but due to some noticeable sudden cuts and abridged scenes with quick blackouts, it finally made it to a 112 minute cut. Even Judy Garland's singing voice to the song, "Yours and Mine" is heard during the last half of the opening credits, and not seen as part of an audition as such, in the plot.For the storyline, Caroline Whipple (Binnie Barnes), a former chorus girl now married to a middle-aged millionaire, Herman (Raymond Walburn), is fond of Steve Reilly (Robert Taylor), and she agrees to back a show for which he has written the score. Caroline maintains a large racing stable. Among her horses is Star Gazer, favored to win a big race at Baltimore. Sally Lee (Eleanor Powell), an ambitious dancer, loves Star Gazer because her father raised him. Hearing that Caroline intends to auction off the horse in New York, Sally stows away in a box car and hopes to go along with him. On the train she meets Steve Raleigh (Robert Taylor), who's traveling with the Whipples in their private car. After Sally helps him complete a score he is writing, he becomes impressed with her singing and dancing, and decides to star her in his upcoming show. While in New York, Steve arranges Sally to live in a boarding house for out-of-work actors run by Alice Clayton (Sophie Tucker), a former Broadway headliner hoping to get her daughter, Betty (Judy Garland) into show business. But before the grand finale featuring Star Gazer in a horse race, and then, the Broadway show, the subplot takes center stage on partners Sonny Ledford (George Murphy) and Peter Polt (Buddy Ebsen) who become trainer and jockey to Sally's horse, both dodging an Italian barber (Billy Gilbert) and his opera singing nephew (Charles Igor Gorin), because they owe him money they played on the horses, which won; plus character actor performers adding some comedy, including Robert Wildhack, who previously demonstrated the art of snoring in "Broadway Melody of 1936," now demonstrating his art of sneezing, which predates the comedy acts of future MGM comic, Red Skelton; Helen Troy as Emma Snipe, the "answer to everything" secretary, and a lot funnier than the sneezer; plus the legendary Robert Benchley in a supporting role as a critic.The musical program includes: "The Toreador Song" from Bizet's CARMEN (sung by Charles Igor Gorin); "Follow in My Footsteps" (sung by George Murphy, Buddy Ebsen and Eleanor Powell); "Yours and Mine" (sung by Eleanor Powell); "Everybody Sing!" (sung by Judy Garland, with Sophie Tucker who sings a portion of "Happy Days Are Here Again", Barnett Parker, and others); "Some of These Days" (sung by Sophie Tucker); "I'm Feeling Like a Million" (sung and danced by George Murphy and Eleanor Powell); "Dear Mr. Gable (You Made Me Love You)" (sung by Judy Garland); "Your Broadway and My Broadway" (sung by Sophie Tucker/danced by Eleanor Powell), and "Broadway Melody" (closing with cast). A cut song, "Got a Pair of New Shoes," which Garland would sing in her latter film, "Thoroughbreds Don't Cry" (MGM, 1937), can be heard briefly sung by chorus during the finale."Broadway Melody of 1938" is pure New Yorkish, with the opening and closing credits focusing on the legendary Broadway theaters, Radio City Music Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House and the streets of Broadway in the after sundown hours. The talented dancing by Eleanor Powell highlight the story, although having her tap-dancing in a box-car and later along with George Murphy on the New York streets in front of the Plaza Hotel around the water pond where they are the only one's around, with the orchestral score playing on cue, may seem foolish by today's standards. These "fantasy" numbers set against realism, along with Garland's memorable "Dear Mr. Gable" number, which takes place in her bedroom after everyone is asleep, all might have worked better as production numbers within the Broadway show, but this has become the normal style of film entertainment, especially by MGM standards, looking more like a dance musical from the 1940s and '50s. Remember Gene Kelly on the streets dancing and singing in the rain in 1952? And speaking of dancers, Buddy Ebsen should not go unnoticed, especially during his brief dancing segment opposite pert Judy Garland in the Broadway finale.In spite of some of its shortcomings, "Broadway Melody of 1938" will not disappoint any avid lover of movie musicals from the golden age of Hollywood, especially seeing some future film stars on the rise, particularly the young Judy Garland, one year before success found her with "The Wizard of Oz" (1939).Aside from "Broadway Melody of 1938" being readily available for viewing on both video cassette and cable's Turner Classic Movies, there was also a motion picture soundtrack on record released in 1983, compliments of Motion Picture Tracks International, which not only includes the entire score in stereo, but an outtake song of "I'm Feeling Like a Million," sung by Judy Garland on piano. One can only hope that someday, musical and/or storyline outtakes from the film will resurface in parts on video or DVD. Next and final installment, "Broadway Melody of 1940" (1940). (***)

Rina-3 What can you say when you have the talented tootsies of Eleanor Powell and George Murphy, the fabulous songs of Judy Garland and Sophie Tucker, the handsome debonair Robert Taylor and the funny Buddy Ebsen and Binnie Barnes and several other unforgettable talents! Sophie's song Red Hot Mama is just one of those songs that needs to be heard again and again. Broadway Melody is a piece of Americana that everyone should give a chance....you might just like it!