(1944)
2.5
Hans J. Wollstein
Everything but the studio canteen's kitchen sink is crammed into this musical hodge-podge, which reportedly was designed for the tap-dancing Eleanor Powell. But someone high up in MGM's executive wing wanted instead to showcase his girlfriend and Powell was summarily replaced by band singer Ginny Simms. Although a pleasant enough vocalist, Simms was no dancer, an unfortunate handicap considering that her leading man was hoofer George Murphy. Hence the appearance of a seemingly endless series of specialty acts ranging from Lena Horne to the dancing Russ Sisters to impressionist Dean Murphy. Throw in a very young Nancy Walker, who does full justice to a ditty called "Milkman, Keep Those Bottles Quiet," and it should come as no surprise that Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's 1939 Broadway hit Very Warm for May, of which Broadway Rhythm was ostensibly based, tends to disappear in the general din.
Broadway Rhythm on AllMovie
Broadway Rhythm (1944)
