(1942)
2.5
Bruce Eder
Director Anthony Mann, who would distinguish himself with location-shot, realistic crime thrillers such as He Walked By Night, T-Men, and Raw Deal, before moving on to a string of classic psychological westerns, made his debut in the director's chair with Dr. Broadway. The script is credited to a story by Borden Chase, who would write the screenplays to some of Mann's best 1950s westerns, all of them dark psychologically-focused tales of revenge and retribution -- but here Chase was doing his version of a Damon Runyon story, and the results in Mann's hands are not bad at all. The breezy B-thriller has more than its share of humor, and witty performances between the serious moments to keep the story moving, and one gets the feeling that with a little more time -- to shoot, and to work with some of the actors -- this picture could have been a real jewel. As it is, it's a fun romp across a Hollywood vision of World War II-era Broadway, with all sorts of colorful types and performances, none more unexpected than Joan Woodbury, who usually played upper-class types, in the part of a hard-boiled actress who has several secrets to hide. Mann shows what he can do in a serious mode here, in one unusual scene in which Eduardo Ciannelli's Vic Telli, knowing he's soon to die, starts talking about what he sees when he tries to sleep, in the way of the faces of the men he's killed -- that moment, and his desperation to carry out one decent act in his life, anticipate some of the dark psychology that would inform Mann's work of the next decade, and make for great viewing in this unassuming little B-picture. And even MacDonald Carey, a very stiff performer at this stage of his career, gets some decent screentime in the title-role, of a Times Square-area physician with a very colorful and unusual patient list.
Dr. Broadway on AllMovie
Dr. Broadway (1942)
