This is How Movies Should Be Made

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Blistering performances.

"Broadway melody 38" is the second fantastic "melody" film after "Broadway melody 36". One of the reasons " Melody 36" was so great was due to the wonderful Eleanor Powell. Her talented dancing magic and her lovely beauty just lights up the screen. Eleanor is back in "Melody 38" for more of that. Eleanor is also wonderful in "Born to dance", "Rosalie", "Lady be good", and "Broadway melody 40''. The wonderful Judy Garland joins this film too. She lights up the screen with her beautiful singing. Sophie Tucker, another great old time actress is here as the owner of a boarding house for performers trying to get work. Judy is staying there, and Eleanor comes over there too. Also, the guy from "Melody 36" as the "expert" snoorer is back this time as an "expert" sneezer, which would've been OK if they left it alone with him just being the snorer in "Melody 36". It's just for that reason I rate this film a 9 and a half instead of 10, but I decided to round it off to a 10 since so much of this film is wonderful. I liked Buddy Ebson and George Murphy in the opera singing barber shop ("Singing barbar of Seville"). The singing barber and his partner Billy Gilbert were a good couple of characters added to the film starting with them gambling together on the races with the horse "Fast asleep", and Billy saying "you better hope for your sake that that horse doesn't get sleepy in the race". Then, when Buddy and George found that they needed their money and the money Billy put down for something else and couldn't bet on the race, Billy and his partner chase them down, "Ah-haa!, so that's where are yoouu!!". I liked Billy's way of not being able to quite phrase things correctly, such as "and don't give me the cross doub。 of $800 and kept avoiding me, but I would be angry. And $800 then was similar to like $8000 today), she then gets them all to make peace and bet together in another race with the horse "Fast asleep". That horse was a former horse of Eleanor's (she had to sell him due to the depression). She is now trying to buy him back, with the help of Robert Taylor and George trying to come up with the money for her to do so, including at a bidding auction. Robert doesn't want Eleanor to know that he wants to buy her horse back, which makes sense due to Robert not wanting to remain too desperate since he has a crush on her. Robert gives George the money, George asks "where shall I tell her I got it?' Robert: "tell her anything, tell her it was bank night" George: "I get it, tell her anything except that it came from you" Robert: "That's right". I can relate to him loving Eleanor. There's more of her wonderful dancing in this film, this time to "I'm feeling like a million" and "Follow in my footsteps". Eleanor shows more of her amazing dance talent, all of her great kicks, twirls, and other fabulous dance moves. Eleanor could sing beautifully too, as she sings " Yours and mine". Then Judy Garland's wonderful " Everybody sing" in the waiting room. Judy sings great, then the stuffy, quirky waiting room assistant joining in the song ("sing a song of sixpence "), then some fat guy joining in with a very deep, bass voice. " Everybody sing" was one of two pieces of Judy's famous songs in this film. The other's the famous "Dear Mr. Gable, you made me love you", with Judy sitting at her dresser looking at a scrapbook of Clark Gable. And Judy singing it with her very talented voice and with so much passion. It was one of her many wonderful memorable pieces of cinematic gold in the years between the late 1930s and 1950 with Judy at MGM. Between her, Eleanor, and numerous others in the film, "Broadway melody 38" is another wonderful golden age treasure.

"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.

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!

In the 1930s, there were many, many musicals that followed pretty much the same pattern. In fact, Hollywood did little to disguise this and followed the same formula again and again. In the case of Broadway MELODY OF 1938 (oddly, made in 1937) and a dozen other films it was as follows: A nice but poor girl (Eleanor Powell) wants to be discovered as a new singing/dancing sensation. Through grit and the power of niceness, she is able to ultimately be discovered by a big-name producer (Robert Taylor) who promises to build an entire multi-million dollar show for a no-name (I'm sure this happens all the time). But, in a case of "not-niceness", the evil diva or rich lady puts a stop to this dream and it looks like our little sweetheart will have to give up her dreams. However, in the end, as if out of nowhere, the show MUST have this little trooper and she pulls off the performance of a lifetime and she instantly rises to international stardom! Unfortunately, because of this formula, Broadway MELODY OF 1938 suffers greatly. After all, if you've already seen several similar films, you know exactly what you're in for with the film. Heck, I think most writers could have written this film even after a severe head injury--it was that "by the numbers" so to speak.So at the outset the film has a poor and recycled plot. However, when it comes to singing and dancing the film does a lot better--though it is NOT a particular standout either.Eleanor Powell, as always, was an absolutely amazing tap dancer--possibly the best there ever was (and definitely the best female tapper on film). While her singing voice was only adequate, her dancing was tops. George Murphy (sort of like a poor man's Fred Astaire) was also fine in the role as the male singing/dancing lead. However, for comic relief, Buddy Edsen was included as well and while he could dance, his ungraceful and gangly style was very odd when they had him dancing with Powell and Murphy.They also had some interesting support from Sophie Tucker and Judy Garland. Ms. Tucker, sadly, was well past her prime when she made this and only a few other Hollywood films. She had been a huge star on stage, but unfortunately, here she is given a rather obnoxious role and you can't tell just how great she was in her heyday. However, in great contrast, Judy Garland is only 15 here and on top of her game. Of all the performers in the film, her singing talent easily outshines the others. Unfortunately, while given some good songs in the film, her most famous song from the film was the rather saccharine and annoying ode to Clark Gable. It made me cringe and just seemed like a cheap ploy by MGM to plug one of its stars (Gable).So, what you've got overall is a very formulaic film with some decent but not particularly memorable songs. Fortunately, Robert Taylor does NOT sing or dance, so at least this is a plus. While the total package is adequate, unless you are a huge musicals fan, I'd just recommend you see a better example of the genre.By the way, now that I think about it, wouldn't have been neat to have seen Buddy Ebsen dancing in a film with Jimmy Cagney? Both could definitely tap, but both had little grace and made up for it by intensity. Seeing these two completely non-subtle dancers on the same stage might have been interesting.