User reviews

Designed partially as a showcase for RKO owner Howard Hughes girlfriend, Janet Leigh. Hughes could afford to import quite a lot of first rate talent in the effort, mostly from best in the musical business MGM. Current or former MGM talent included Leigh, Ann Miller, Gloria DeHaven, and Tony Martin, along with musical number director Busby Berkeley. Leigh proved herself competent as a singer and dancer, and is certainly pleasant in personality and a pleasure to look at.

In the musical numbers featuring the four "girls", Gloria DeHaven is the standout (sorry Ann Miller fans). DeHaven sings superbly, handles the dancing with aplomb, has just the right mix of charisma, humor, sincerity, and takes a back seat to no one in the beauty department.

I thought the musical numbers well staged and mostly very pleasant (exception the very banal Pellican Falls school song). The comedy of Smith and Dale, I could live without, if you'll excuse the expression. And Eddie Bracken is too frenetic and broad in his comedy for my taste.

Though none of the songs became a standard, a couple are excellent; I especially enjoyed "The Worry Bird", and "The Closer You Are" has a gorgeous melody.

All in all, the film is the equal of many of the lower budget MGM musicals, and that ain't bad at all.

Two Tickets to Broadway was to be Howard Hughes's answer to MGM type musicals and in fact he engaged the two leads from MGM, Tony Martin and Janet Leigh. The usual criticism was voiced with Martin being 15 years older than Leigh, but in this case it works because part of the plot is fresh faced Ms. Leigh avoiding being taken in by older Broadway sharpies.

No memorable songs were written by composers Jule Styne and Leo Robin for this film and that's a pity because if a hit had come out of it, the film would be better remembered. Martin, I'm sure realized no hits were coming out of this and he probably had two of his own songs put in there. He had hit records around this time of the Prologue from Pagliacci and There's No Tomorrow (O Sole Mio). He performs them well.

I would love to know if Janet Leigh was dubbed and by who. I don't believe she ever sang in any other film. For that reason I suspect a dubbing if for no other reason that she wouldn't want to be going up against a singer with as powerful a voice as Tony Martin.

Ironic that two of the players in this Ann Miller and Janet Leigh died this year. Nobody had to worry about dubbing Ann Miller in any department. She performs her big number, Let the Worry Bird Worry for You in classic style.

Bob Crosby who by that time was known as the afternoon Crosby because his radio and later TV show came on in the afternoon unlike his legendary brother. Being the Bing Crosby fan that I am, I have a soft spot in my heart for his Let's Make Comparison where he's comparing himself to brother Bing. Bob led a pretty good jazz band at that time and had a modest career in B films.

Eddie Bracken who was so good in his Paramount films was cloying and annoying in this one. His machinations trying to get his clients on the Bob Crosby show were downright stupid here and not terribly funny.

The ending though was an unintentional hoot. Janet Leigh comes from Pelican Falls, Vermont and early in the film she's given a send off by the high school band performing their alma mater song. I thought the ending with the high school band, interrupting Bob Crosby's broadcast to reprise their high school song was ridiculous. Was that Howard Hughes's idea? Well he didn't do as much damage here as he did on The Outlaw.

The film had a lot of potential and it could have been done better even at RKO, but I suspect Howard Hughes meddled a bit too much here.

Tony Martin was the only singer/actor who I EVER had a crush on, so I totally disagree with the reviewer who said that he's only fit for gangster roles (REAL women don't want a man who looks pretty like a woman)! I graduated HS in 1955, so I was younger than Janet Leigh in 51, but I loved his big hit "I get ideas". As to the film, he did not look as good as I remember in publicity pictures (there was not the extent of distribution back then so I do not remember ever seeing him in film). I agree that his acting was not superb, but not much worse than Gene Kelly, tho' the dancing could be better. In those days the studios tried to make their people as versatile as possible. I think I'll save this one on DVD just for old times sake (of my old crush) because (with that "Big Chief Hole in the Ground" musical number), it will probably not get much exposure in the future. It is not at all PC (it's almost offensive even to me). It is surely offensive to native Americans.

Howard Hawks and RKO combine to make a MGM musical but fails as this musical lacks pow wow even though Busby Berkeley did some choreography.

Janet Leigh plays Nancy Peterson who leaves her small home town of Pelican Falls to go to New York and make it big on Broadway. She bumps into three out of work showgirls who were on tour with a flop show and now try to get back to New York and they want to give their agent a piece of their mind for leaving them stranded.

The sleazy agent is Lew (Eddie Bracken) who always ducking and diving. He promises a lot and delivers little. He wants to keep hold of his number one talent Dan Carter (Tony Martin) from quitting show business by promising him that he will get him a spot on a television show with musician Bob Crosby but it is more lies. Carter meets Peterson over a suitcase mix up and he teaches her not be taken in by shysters but he himself gets roped in by his agent's outlandish schemes.

The film drags despite a few bright song and dance numbers from the showgirls. A lot of the songs are a dull and the deli store owners and their shtick is interminable.

Old-fashioned without being embarrassing, "Broadway" features Janet Leigh as a sparkling small town lass who moves to the Big Apple to work in theater, falling in league with other young hopefuls and staging their own revue. Not too far-fetched(Carol Burnett did the same thing in real-life)and Janet bounces happily throughout. Not really remarkable, but a nice time-filler. Bob Crosby pokes fun at older brother Bing in the film's most self-conscious moment. **1/2 from ****

A run-of-the-mill musical with Tony Martin and Janet Leigh in the lead roles. Eddie Bracken provides semi-comic relief. You can see the hand of producer Howard Hughes in this one, with its profusion of showgirls and, for 1951, a heaping helping of skin(albeit, G-rated by today's standards).

I hated this film when I first saw it, perhaps thanks to a truly embarrassing performance from Tony Martin (a good singer but not the world's greatest actor).

Janet Leigh, Gloria de Haven, and Ann Miller want to make it big in show-business, and come through their vaudeville roots to stage a revue that they hope will be taken up by the Bob Crosby Show. There's some pretty good musical numbers along the way but the film creaks and drags badly in some sections (although the girls are consistently good). Crosby has a number all about 'brother Bing' which is fun. And there's a good support role from Eddie Bracken.

On subsequent viewings I have warmed a bit more to 'Two Tickets to Broadway'. It isn't all bad and there are certainly musicals out there which are worse. But I still can't watch Tony Martin in a number in Indian dress without cringing ...

I'm not a big fan of musicals in general, so I tend to like only the really good ones (Guys and Dolls, Anchors Aweigh, Singing in the Rain, American in Paris, etc.). I thought I'd give this a try because I usually love Janet Leigh movies. However, I found this film to be rather mediocre.

First what Iiked. Janet Leigh and the supporting cast did well with their roles. Some of the songs were kinda catchy and I enjoyed several of the performances. Tony Martin really sings well, and Eddie Bracken is his usual dopey self.

Now what I didn't like. Tony Martin can't act. Or at least he couldn't in this movie. Plus I didn't like his character at all. He seemed way too old for this role. He looked old enough to be Janet Leigh's father - and he acted like it too. It was very creepy and I didn't care for it at all.

I didn't like the deli owners, either. I found them to be annoying and I was tempted to fast-forward all of their scenes. The movie plot was rather weak, as is usual in musicals. But this one especially seemed like a disjointed collection of song and dance routines. For me, a good musical is one that can weave songs and dances into the narrative more organically. This didn't do it for me.

I thought Bob Crosby's number making fun of his more famous brother Bing was amusing, but honestly I thought it detracted from the flimsy storyline in the first place. I probably would have left it out of the movie entirely.

And near the end of the film, there's a rather insensitive (if not offensive) routine when the main characters dress up like Native Americans and portray them in a stereotypical manner. I didn't care for this at all, and I'm sure there will be many people who would find it to be offensive. True, this was made in 1951 when such portrayals were not seen negatively, but I still didn't like it. If you are offended by such content, you shouldn't see this movie - or you should at least fast-forward the film through this part.

Overall, I give this a 5/10, though I think it's probably closer to a 4.

The initial commenter wondered if Janet Leigh was dubbed in this film since he couldn't remember her singing in any of her other pictures. Well, she did sing in other films, most notably in "Bye Bye Birdie", and "My Sister Eileen", and while she was not known as an accomplished singer or dancer, she managed to give fairly good performances in both films and to demonstrate a competent ability in numerous guest appearances on variety television programs of the '50's and the '60's. I hope this will help to answer your questions. You might also look at her work in "Rogue Cop", where she plays a singer, and "Walking my Baby Back Home", a musical she made with Donald O'Connor, as well as "Fearless Fagan" where again, she is a singer/entertainer. She speaks at length about her musical experiences in her autobiography, "There really was a Hollywood", and gives a great accounting of her early career.

I was getting ready for work this morning, but almost didn't come in thanks to this movie being on TCM. This was a totally silly, frothy, fun movie to watch, and was reminiscent of "Bye Bye Birdie" (at least in the opening) and a thousand other movies that involve a small-town girl moving to the Big Apple to pursue her dreams of being a Broadway star.

Tony Martin was a revelation to me; I don't think I'd ever heard of him or heard his singing, but I thoroughly enjoyed his performances, solo and with "his girlfriends". Janet Leigh was a solid choice for the ingenue. Bob Crosby looked and sounded like a slightly more famous man with the same last name, and even did a song poking fun at that.

:LIke I said in the title, you'll never mistake this movie for "Citizen Kane", but it's a funny take on the girl-makes-good genre.

Howard Hughes's line up of acts is basically his way of responding to the other studios' efforts to do the same thing. There are echoes of the Garland/Rooney cycle of musicals from MGM, with a spice of Fox glitz and the good ol' feelin' of well-being from Warners' Doris Day vehicles of a similar period.

The only snag is that Hughes did really have any big stars on his payroll. What TWO TICKETS TO Broadway presents is a panoply of would-be leading lights, youngsters on their way to stardom, and imitations of more famous originals such as Bob Crosby who does a specialty number with a cardboard cutout of his more illustrious sibling Bing.

Having said that, some of the cast give winning turns. The triumvirate of Janet Leigh, Ann Miller and Gloria DeHaven adumbrate a similar conception in Fox's GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953); and they acquit themselves thoroughly well in the song and dance sequences, with Miller getting the chance to show off her famed legs. Tony Martin croons his way through one or two numbers, to the delights of hordes of adoring bobbysoxers. Eddie Bracken camps it up in a largely extraneous comedy role.

Yet perhaps the most interesting aspect of James V. Kern's all-star line-up is its inherent structural contradiction that tells us a lot about the contradictions of movie capitalism at the time. The film begins in Garland/ Rooney fashion by suggesting that, given time and talent, anyone can make it big so long as they have the drive and energy to do so, even if they originate from small-town and America and have to travel to New York by Greyhound bus. This is precisely what Leigh, DeHaven and Miller try to do.

Yet once they get there, they find that they are very much at the agents' and radio program-makers' mercy. They have to alter their work to suit specific formats, and compromise at every opportunity in line with their employers' requirements. We wonder at this point whether Broadway - like Hollywood - actually values originality, or whether or not both institutions would be much happier with carbon copies of tried and tested formulas.

The film does not attempt to answer the question, of course (why should it, when it was planned as a joyful musical), but it reveals an undercurrent of cynicism about the potentially adverse effects of money-making and success.

Most musicals are quite preposterous and unreal and this one is no exception. Despite some good singing and dancing, this one is pretty lame. Lots of mistakes and unbelievable events. When Tony is at the boarding house to pick up his missing suitcase, the suitcase changes positions throughout the scene. When he leaves he doesn't take his suitcase???? When he and his girls are summoned at the last minute to go on Bob Crosbys TV show, how in the hell could they get all those costumes and orchestrations and fancy sets in such a short time. It would take days to set everything up. And it's very mean spirited of the Eddie Bracken character to lock up and hide the act that was supposed to go on. Just a few of the many complaints about story lines and realities. Oh, Its a musical and anything goes. Impressed with Janet Leighs singing and dancing talents.. Always nice to see Ann Miller do her routine that she has done in all her films. Eddie Bracken is terrible and the two delicatessen characters are worse.

I enjoyed the story to "Two Tickets to Broadway" and I really enjoyed SOME of the music. But the problem is that the studio poured nearly a dozen musical numbers into the film...more than most musicals. And, had they deleted a few of the numbers (particularly the godawful American Indian one near the end), it could have easily earned a 7...possibly an 8.

Lew (Eddie Bracken) is a small-time agent whose client is the very talented Dan Carter (Tony Martin). But Lew's been able to accomplish nothing for Dan nor for his other clients, various ladies at a boarding house for Broadway hopefuls. So, he does what any good agent would do...lie his head off and make promises he'll likely never be able to keep. But how long can he keep doing this until the truth is discovered?

Tony Martin is excellent in the film....with a gorgeous voice. My only complaint is casting Janet Leigh as his love interest, as when the film begins she's just graduated high school. Why is this a problem? Well, Martin is 38 and sure looks every bit of it...making the relationship seem a tad creepy. I don't blame him or Leigh for this...just the script and casting department. Leigh is also fine, though I am pretty sure she's not actually doing any singing, as she never was known for musicals and had her voice REALLY been this good, surely they would have put her in more musicals. Smith & Dale are also very good in comic relief...and given the style of comedy, they probably worked out better than the originally planned team of Laurel & Hardy, who were just too old and sick to perform in this film.

No, everyone was fine...but the songs were just too often, often very bland and the Indian song, well, it'll surely make the more PC folks out there heads explode! Worth seeing but far from as good as it should have been.

First of all, to those upset about the Indian number - get a life. This was '51. Don't take it so seriously - and keep away from pictures with Mantan Moreland, etc.

Then there are the criticisms about Tony Martin. He has the dark look, so some people automatically assume he should portray gangsters. Prejudice, prejudice against dark-haired people. Tsk.

Martin sang grand opera in this movie, pop songs, novelties and did beautifully with all of them. Not all of the music was memorable, but even the songs that might be described as mediocre were beautifully presented. The girls were attractive and personable. Miss Leigh was a doll and, yes, she did her own singing and dancing.

No one can knock Ann Miller. What a great talent. Speaking of talent, The Charlivels were outstanding as a high wire act, and as dancers.

Interesting casting was Max Baer's bro, Buddy, also a boxer, as a tough swabbie.

The Bob Crosby number, where he compares himself with brother Bing was very well done - real life situation. The one thing I missed - I wish his band had played some of its trademark Dixieland. OOoops - is that word offensive to northern ears? The plot was ancient but, who cares. Howard Hughes put this together and came up with a fun, pleasant movies.

I found this movie quite enjoyable and entertaining. Janet Leigh and Ann Miller don't disappoint and neither do the rest of the cast. Basically this movie is about trying to break into show business after vaudeville. There's plenty of singing and dancing. There's one number that includes them portraying American Indians. If you're "offended" because it's considered politically incorrect now, then don't watch! Please save your criticisms and just don't watch so you won't be "offended" ! If you just want to be entertained and even laugh at a couple of parts, the do watch. This movie was made to entertain, and it does.

This is not a bad musical. It's also not a good one. Tony Martin has a solid - yet unexciting - singing voice, and Janet Leigh - of course - cannot sing OR dance. So she was the perfect choice for a musical? It all drifts along without offending or titillating (now and then touched by a nice bit from Eddie Bracken, or the "Jewish" banter of the restaurant owners), and one can watch it or not.

And then Martin appears as "Big Chief Hole-In-The-Ground" in a musical number that should be profoundly repulsive to modern audiences. Its caricature of reservation Indians as being somehow rich, due to oil being found on the land, is quite offensive when one realizes that many, many times entire tribes were moved off their land simply because it suddenly became valuable. So this bit is no longer amusing in the least. It wouldn't be any great problem (given that such casual racism pops up in a lot of older films), except that the film is so near to being empty of interest, that this concern - at least for this viewer - is downright horrifying. All the film's other problems (Janet's non-musicality, a general lack of wowser tunes, the presence of that "Dancing Loutess" Ann Miller, and a drifting filmic sensibility) fade to nothing beside this large hole in the "entertainment."