Broadway Gondolier Film Review

In an early scene Joan Blondell looks at Dick Powell like he is a popsicle in need of a good licking. Later she says the classic line "I like Dick". My guess is that it didn't have the double meaning back in 1935. But the palpable chemistry between the two of them was real as they were to marry the next year. Two cinematic charmers with Powell and his easy ways and Blondell with her sly wit and eyes the size of the moons of Jupiter - though only two of them. This is a Warner Brothers musical during that period when they were pumping them out like donuts. This is less ambitious than most of these since the film doesn't have the services of Busby Berkeley and doesn't have any big numbers or dancing. Mainly just the voice of Powell and a few other bits and pieces - seeing The Mills Brothers was a pleasure even if they had to share the stage with Powell. Powell was a fine singer though not really strong enough to carry a film. The songs are from the team of Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The two of them had written the songs for 42nd Street, Footlight Parade and a bunch of the Gold Digger movies. Lloyd Bacon, the director of this one had been at the helm for 42nd Street, often given credit for reviving the musical after it had burnt itself out in the early 1930s. He also directed Wonder Bar which has to hold the record for the most blackface ever on screen.

This is a cute film leaning heavily on the personalities of the two stars. Powell is a cab driver in New York City and one night picks up two music critics who had seen the last 30 seconds of an opera but plan to write reviews anyways - in the cab they try to sing one of the refrains and get it all wrong until the cab driver shows them how. When the cab holds up traffic a cop comes over to get them on their way but ends up joining in with a rendition of Rigoletto. The two critics are so impressed with his singing that they give him a written recommendation for a radio manager to give him a chance.

His secretary is Blondell who bounces Powell out of the office along with his music teacher played by Adolphe Menjou who has to keep up an Italian accent throughout the film. Eventually, Blondell relents and gives him that popsicle look. It goes headfirst into screwball for a while and makes a stop in Venice where Powell has taken a job as a singing Gondolier. "Tell Mussolini I am coming". He comes back to America pretending to be Italian and is a big hit. The last third drags as they throw in too much music and not enough Blondell. Blondell never fails to delight me. The other two main co-stars are Grant Mitchell as the flustered radio head and Louise Fazenda as head of the Flaggenheim Cheese Company who sponsors the radio show and is open to a romance with a much younger man. Fazenda had been a top female comedienne with Sennett back in the silent pictures and has some nice moments here.