BROADWAY LIMITED
US, 1941, 77 minutes, Black-and-white.
Victor Mac Laglan, Marjorie Woodworth, Dennis O' Keefe, Patsy Kelly, Zasu Pitts, Leonard Kinski.
Directed by Gordon Douglas.
This is a very entertaining film, taking us back to the themes of the screwball comedies of the 1930s, action happening on trains (with a play on the title, The Baby Vanishes, with memories of the British Hitchcock film, The Lady Vanishes).
Within a short running time there are quite a few characters and quite a few complex situations.
The film opens with a focus on one of those dominating European film directors, played by Leonid Kinski, who enjoys press conferences and attention, promoting his star, played by Marjorie Woodworth. But, she wants out. He devises a way of promoting her next film, ordering his assistant to find a baby so that there will be cute photographs of star and baby for the admiring press.
The assistant is played very effectively by Patsy Kelly, always good at comedy. She asks her traini driver and engineer friend, played by Victor Mac Laglan in a rather soft rather than aggressive style. He talks in a bar, somebody hears him and gets him a baby for $500. In the meantime, there are headlines that a baby has been kidnapped in Los Angeles.
In the meantime, when they get on the train, the film star’s former boyfriend, a dedicated doctor, Dennis O’ Keefe, sees her again but is suspicious of her relationship with the film director, with the train driver, and a lot of dialogue confusion as to who is the father of the baby! Added to that is the head of the fans of the actress, Zasu Pitts, bringing a lot of confused comedy as well. And the man who organised the trip with the baby, looking very sinister, is also on the train. And the attendant tries his best to sort things out for everyone.
The dialogue is often very amusing as are the situations. There are plenty of mixups, the train driver getting the baby off the train and leaving it with a note for the police during a delay at a station while there he has to drive another train to a different destination. However, the sinister -looking man gets the baby back on board!
Touches of romance, ditzy comedy from Zasu Pitts as well as from the film director, deadpan comedy from Patsy Kelly, and a big buildup to the group solving the case and handing the baby over to the police – only to find that the baby was found in Los Angeles before the trip and the poor man who is arranging for them to have the baby was travelling back home to Philadelphia for a family surprise.
The film was directed by Gordon Douglas who had been acting for Hal Roach and his comedies and moved into direction. This is his third feature film. He went on to a quite a range of films from drama to action, touches of comedy as well as detective stories (including through with Frank Sinatra).
