Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952), 7- Color

A calculating New York bookie hires a talented singer and dancer to entertain his nightclub. She brings her pet bloodhounds with her. This makes his girlfriend jealous, so she considers spilling the beans on his dealings to the feds.
1h 30min | Comedy, Musical | 14 November 1952
Director: Harmon Jones
Stars: Mitzi Gaynor, Scott Brady, Mitzi Green, Michael O'Shea, Henry Slate.
Robert Sidney ... musical numbers staged by


The plot summary is off in some important ways: the bookie (SB) is "calculating" in the sense that he's an arithmetic savant. He brings MG to NY because she protected him at home, so she's in danger there. Yes, she brings along the dogs, but not because he's hired her. And I'm not sure that he's the one to hire her. I don't remember who owns/runs the nightclub. He runs a bookie joint. The jealous dame only thinks she's SB's gf. So it's nice to be brief, but accuracy matters.

The majority of the plot involves SB avoiding the law about his gambling racket, and trying to get MG settled into a career in NY. Fortunately she sings and dances.

9 songs in the Soundtracks; fewer than half didn't have dancing. What really distracted me: 2 of the songs are Brown/Freed compositions, both used this year in Singin' in the Rain over at MGM. How did Fox get them?

The trouble now: we're in the era when I like the style of production numbers very much. So even with a poor story, with actors I don't care about (except MG), I'm giving this a "high" rating - for me.

Fox, dir. Jones; 7-
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