''Broadway Musketeers'' is a 1938 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

for

Warner Bros Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...

. Starring

Margaret Lindsay Margaret Lindsay (born Margaret Kies; September 19, 1910 – May 9, 1981) was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive. She was noted for her supporting work in successf ...

Ann Sheridan Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan (February 21, 1915 – January 21, 1967) was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films ''San Quentin'' (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938) with James Cagne ...

and Marie Wilson as three women who grew up in an orphanage and cross paths later in life, it is a remake of the Warners pre-code crime drama film, ''

Three on a Match ''Three on a Match'' is a 1932 American pre-Code crime drama released by Warner Bros. The film was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and stars Joan Blondell, Warren William, Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis. The film also features Lyle Talbot, Humphrey Boga ...

''.

Plot

Isabel Dowling, Fay Reynolds, and Connie Todd are three women who grew up together in an orphanage, and who meet again later in life. Each woman's life has taken a very different path: Isabel is married with a young daughter, Connie is an office secretary, and Fay performs in nightclubs. The three are reunited when Fay is arrested for performing a striptease, and Isabel and Connie arrive to bail her out. They make plans to keep in touch every year on the same day, at the same restaurant. Isabel is bored and unhappy in her marriage. Her husband, Stanley Dowling, goes away to California. When she and Connie go to a nightclub to watch Fay sing, she meets gambler Phil Peyton and they soon begin an affair. They are in an automobile accident that makes the headlines just as Stanley returns to New York. Their daughter's nurse, Anna, meets the train and tells him about the affair. At the hospital, Fay tries unsuccessfully to cover for Isabel. Dowling divorces Isabel and retains custody of their daughter Judy. Isabel marries Phil, whose gambling soon ruins them. Meanwhile, Fay and Stanley fall in love and marry. Isabel has been separated from her daughter for some time when Fay takes pity on her and one day allows her to take Judy for a visit. Phil puts the child up as security against his debts. The gangsters to whom he owes money discover he has deceived them. They kill Phil in retribution and decide to hold on to Judy, planning to demand a ransom, and leaving police to assume that Isabel killed Phil. Eventually, Isabel overhears the gangsters deciding to kill the two of them to cover their crimes. One of them, Milt, has grown fond of Judy. He protests and is killed. In a bid to save her daughter, Isabel tears the front page off a newspaper with the headline "Held by Murder Gang" over photos of herself and Judy, clutches it in her fist, and plunges through a closed window to die on the pavement below, trading her life to reveal Judy's whereabouts to police. Judy is rescued. At the trio's next ritual birthday meeting—a celebration of Connie's impending marriage to her boss, who turns out to be love-sick rather than hypochondriacal— little Judy arrives to take her mother's place at the table.

Cast

as Isabel Dowling *

as Fay Reynolds * Marie Wilson as Connie Todd *

John Litel John Beach Litel (December 30, 1892 – February 3, 1972) was an American film and television actor. Early life Litel was born in Albany, Wisconsin. During World War I, he enlisted in the French Army and was twice decorated for bravery. Ba ...

as Stanley Dowling * Janet Chapman as Judy Dowling * Richard Bond as Phil Peyton *

Dick Purcell Richard Gerold Purcell Jr. (August 6, 1905 – April 10, 1944) was an American actor best known for playing Marvel Comics' Captain America in the 1943 film serial, co-starring with Lorna Gray and Lionel Atwill. Purcell also appeared in fil ...

as Vincent Morrell * Anthony Averill as Nick *

Horace MacMahon Horace McMahon (May 17, 1906 – August 17, 1971) was an American actor. He was one of Hollywood's favorite heavies. McMahon began his acting career on Broadway, then appeared in many films and television series. In 1962, he received a Pr ...

as Gurk *

Dewey Robinson Dewey Robinson (August 17, 1898 – December 11, 1950) was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 250 films made between 1931 and 1952. Career Dewey Robinson was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1898, and made his B ...

as Milt *

Dorothy Adams Dorothy Adams (January 8, 1900 – March 16, 1988) was an American character actress of stage, film, and television. Early years Adams was born in Hannah, North Dakota. She later moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, and was educated there. ...

as Anna *

James Conlon James Conlon (born March 18, 1950) is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera, principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, and artistic advisor to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Early ...

as Skinner * Jan Holm as Schoolteacher

Production

The film was announced in May 1938 under the title ''Three Girls on Broadway''. The

black-and-white film Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a grayscale, range of shades of gray, shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology imp ...

was produced from late May to late June 1938. At the end of filming Sheridan had her contract renewed for three years and Lyndsay's for two years. M.K. Jerome and Jack Scholl wrote two songs for the film, both sung by Sheridan: "Has It Ever Occurred to You?" and "Who Said That This Isn't Love?"

Release

Released October 8, 1938, ''Broadway Musketeers'' garnered tepid to poor reviews. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reviewer

Frank Nugent Frank Stanley Nugent (May 27, 1908 – December 29, 1965) was an American screenwriter, journalist, and film reviewer, who wrote 21 film scripts, 11 for director John Ford. He wrote almost a thousand reviews for ''The New York Times'' before lea ...

compared the film to a nightmare in its difficulty to follow, while ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called it "a

programmer A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...

of average distinction". The review in ''

Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

'' found the cast superior to the story, saying that the plot elements did not "add up". An ''

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

'' reviewer called it a "sordid melodrama." Decades later,

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

gave the film two and a half out of four stars in his ''

Movie Guide ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally calle ...

'' and called it "a snappy remake ... with some interesting plot variations".

References

External links

* * * * {{John Farrow 1938 films American musical drama films 1930s musical drama films Warner Bros. films Films directed by John Farrow American black-and-white films 1938 drama films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films