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Broadway vu par Hollywood, "a street that runs North, South and wild." The title character (Johnnie Walker) gets fan mail by the hundreds, his car stalls during an enforced holiday upstate, provincial saltimbanques have their tent set up nearby. Back to basics, being able to say "I love you" to become a bit player in a shabby Civil War melodrama. Plucky leading lady (Bessie Love), hambone dramatist (Lionel Belmore), the specialist in "deep-eyed villains with a soprano voice," earnest troupers one and all in a little spectacle that crumbles before its audience. "They're so terrible, they're great," the city slickers bring them to the Great White Way as part of a mocking revue. The comedy-tragedy schism, the seeds of derisive camp, the young Frank Capra has it all at his fingertips. A grand gesture during the theatrical farrago hits the painted backdrop and brings down a sandbag, the piano player dozes off on the wings when he's not selling popcorn to patrons. Costume party at the star's mansion, an aborted kiss between masks. "Oh, you're just acting. You don't mean what you say." Accidental lampoon on opening night, the playwright on the balcony among cackling faces, it might be The Producers except for the broken participants. "You know, this isn't as funny as it seemed at first." The protagonist's blackface act reinforces his charade, his greasepaint melts away during the emotional moment of truth with the heroine under a downpour. The upshot is an audition line turned romantic declaration, capping the blueprint for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. With Ernest Hilliard, David Mir, and Sidney D'Albrook. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |