Themes: Musician's Life, Ladder to the Top, Cons and Scams
Main Cast: Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, Gloria de Haven, Eddie Bracken, Ann Miller
Release Year: 1951
Country: US
Run Time: 106 minutes
Plot
Personally supervised by Howard R. Hughes, the RKO Technicolor musical Two Tickets to Broadway stars Janet Leigh as a small-town girl who hopes to make it big in the Big Apple. Moving into a Manhattan boarding house populated by such showbiz hopefuls as Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Gloria De Haven and Barbara Lawrence, Leigh aspires to appear on the popular TV variety program hosted by bandleader Bob Crosby. Two-bit agent Eddie Bracken promises to make her dreams come true, even though he doesn't know Crosby from Adam. Along the way, Leigh falls for Martin, though the course of true love seldom runs smooth--in fact, at one point it threatens to run all the way back to Leigh's home town. Injecting their time-honored routines into the proceedings are veteran vaudevillians Joe Smith and Charlie Dale, playing a couple of stagestruck deli owners (their roles were originally slated for Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, but Laurel's illness precluded any film work). Despite the creative input of choreographer Busby Berkeley, the film's best number is the simplest: Let's Make Comparisons, wherein Bob Crosby explains why he's not his brother Bing. Seemingly a surefire box-office hit, Two Tickets to Broadway inexplicably posted a loss of $1,150,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Some movies, frequently musicals, prove good entertainment in spite of their scripts, and Two Tickets to Broadway is one such film. Like so many other "tuners" of the period, Tickets is content to take an old hat story line, throw in some bits and pieces of snappy dialogue and some much longer stretches of strictly by-the-book conversation, take some sudden detours from the plot in order to work in a specialty or two, and generally fill time until the next musical number is ready. This can often lead to tedium, but for some reason Tickets manages to avoid this trap and to be quite engaging. A viewer is never for a minute unaware that he's watching "the same old thing," but there's enough spark here from the cast and the director so that most viewers will shrug and give the little musical the benefit of the doubt. Granted, most viewers' patience will be tried whenever Eddie Bracken is around; he's stuck with some of the screenplay's most annoying material. But a vivacious and perky Janet Leigh and a silken voiced (if undeniably stuff) Tony Martin help to make up for Bracken's "comedy." And there's also the gorgeous Gloria de Haven and the dancing tigress called Ann Miller to provide further fuel. Throw in a bit of classic comedy from Smith and Dale and a very fun turn from Bob Crosby, plus some nifty sets and costumes, and the result is a pleasing, pleasant way to pass the time. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Bob Crosby - Himself; Barbara Lawrence - S.F. "Foxy" Rogers; Joe Smith - Harry; Charles Dale - Leo; Taylor Holmes - Willard Glendon; Buddy Baer - Sailor; Joan Arnold - Secretary; Joan Barton; Larry Barton - Waiter; Don Blackman - Porter; Carol Brewster; Kathleen Case; Jean Corbett; Mara Corday; Billy Curtis - Midget; Lester Dorr; Jimmie Dundee - Doorman; Joan Evans; John Gallaudet - McGiven; Jack Gargan - Dispatcher; Vincent Graeff - Cheerleader; Jerry Hausner - Agent; Ralph Hodges; Marilyn Johnson; Lola Kendrick; Anne Kimbell - Western Union Girl; Lucy Knoch; Joi Lansing - Redhead; Donald MacBride - Bus Terminal Guard; Vera Miles - Chorus girl; George Nader; Kathleen O'Malley; Anne O'Neal; Garry Owen - Man; Isabel Randolph - Housekeeper; Joan Shawlee; John Sheehan - Desk clerk; Smith & Dale; Helen Spring - Mrs. Peterson; Libby Taylor - Maid; Bob Thom; Marie Thomas - Girl; Sid Tomack - Bus Driver; Mamie van Doren; Lillian West - Old Lady; Barbara Logan; Mona Knox; Joel Robinson; Joan Whitney; Jane Easton; Michael Lally; Michael Pierce - Hot Rod Passenger; Suzanne Ames - Beautiful Girl; Shirley Buchanan; Gwen Caldwell; Rosalee Calvert; Herman Cantor; Georgia Clancy; Eileen Coghlan; Joanne Frank; Barbara Freking; Mary Ellen Gleason; Pat Hall; Evelyn Lovequist; June McCall; Norval Mitchell - Mr. Peterson; Hazel Shaw; Miles Shepard; Frieda Stoll - Wardrobe Woman; Shirley Tegge; Barbara Thatcher; Claudette Thornton; Shirley Whitney; Ann Zika - Blonde; Linda Williams - Brunette
Credit
Carroll Clark - Art Director, Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Busby Berkeley - Choreography, Michael Woulfe - Costume Designer, James Kern - Director, Harry Marker - Editor, Leo Robin - Composer (Music Score), Walter Scharf - Composer (Music Score), Jule Stein - Composer (Music Score), Mel Burns - Makeup, Mel Berns - Makeup, Edward J. Cronjager - Cinematographer, Harry J. Wild - Cinematographer, Howard R. Hughes - Producer, Norman Krasna - Producer, Jerry Wald - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Harley Miller - Set Designer, Sammy Cahn - Screen Story, Hal Kanter - Screenwriter, Sid Silvers - Screenwriter
