While Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy have moved on, much of the same cast of "Broadway Bill" (1934) is back, looking much the same in 1950 as they did 16 years before. Of course, most of them were character actors, and when you look 50 at the age of 30, chances are that at 50, they still looked 50.
Bing Crosby's easy charm makes this easy to take, and he's much more likable than the more rugged Baxter. Still more interested in professional horse racing than big business, he walks out on future father-in-law (Charles Bickford) and snooty fiancée Frances Gifford to join loyal horse trainer Clarence Muse at the track to turn Broadway Bill into a champ. Joined by Gifford's much easier going sister (Colleen Gray), he finds a new, more tolerable romance.
Much of the footage is from the original. In fact, it opens with inter-spliced footage of Clara Blandick from the original speaking with actors from the remake. Blandick's permanent wave looks odd among the more modern hairstyles. Such actors as Douglas Dumbrille and Charles Lane look the same in 1934 footage as they do in the newly filmed sequences, obviously called in by Capra so they could be seen with Crosby.
One scene with Raymond Walburn and Margaret Hamilton is identical to the one they filmed 16 years before, with one sight gag added to make it quite different. The sound quality is very different between the interspersed film with the new footage. That's a minor distraction, and for some reason, "Broadway Bill" was out of circulation for years. A major pre- release in the 1990's resulted in them being put out on VHS at the same time.
Practically every character actor from every Capra film put in an appearance, with such familiar faces as James Gleason, Irving Bacon, William Demarest, Harry Davenport, Lane, Dumbrille, Walburn and Hamilton among veterans of his films. Oliver Hardy has a very funny cameo.
This features some good novelty musical numbers with "The Horse Told Me" particularly funny. But where there's Capra, there is bound to be pathos, and this doesn't quite have the ending that people would suspect. That makes it poignant and ultimately bitter sweet yet totally memorable. Just don't watch the two films together.
Bing Crosby's easy charm makes this easy to take, and he's much more likable than the more rugged Baxter. Still more interested in professional horse racing than big business, he walks out on future father-in-law (Charles Bickford) and snooty fiancée Frances Gifford to join loyal horse trainer Clarence Muse at the track to turn Broadway Bill into a champ. Joined by Gifford's much easier going sister (Colleen Gray), he finds a new, more tolerable romance.
Much of the footage is from the original. In fact, it opens with inter-spliced footage of Clara Blandick from the original speaking with actors from the remake. Blandick's permanent wave looks odd among the more modern hairstyles. Such actors as Douglas Dumbrille and Charles Lane look the same in 1934 footage as they do in the newly filmed sequences, obviously called in by Capra so they could be seen with Crosby.
One scene with Raymond Walburn and Margaret Hamilton is identical to the one they filmed 16 years before, with one sight gag added to make it quite different. The sound quality is very different between the interspersed film with the new footage. That's a minor distraction, and for some reason, "Broadway Bill" was out of circulation for years. A major pre- release in the 1990's resulted in them being put out on VHS at the same time.
Practically every character actor from every Capra film put in an appearance, with such familiar faces as James Gleason, Irving Bacon, William Demarest, Harry Davenport, Lane, Dumbrille, Walburn and Hamilton among veterans of his films. Oliver Hardy has a very funny cameo.
This features some good novelty musical numbers with "The Horse Told Me" particularly funny. But where there's Capra, there is bound to be pathos, and this doesn't quite have the ending that people would suspect. That makes it poignant and ultimately bitter sweet yet totally memorable. Just don't watch the two films together.