Watch Bloodhounds of Broadway For Free

Memorable, crazy movie

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Damon Runyon's "Bloodhounds of Broadway" (1952) is basically "Kissin' Cousins" meets "Guys & Dolls"; as New York bookie "Numbers" Foster (Scott Brady) stumbles onto calico-clad Emily Ann Stackerlee (Mitzi Gaynor) in rural Georgia and takes her (and her dogs) with him back to his New York City nightclub.Simply put, no Hollywood actress ever glammed up or plained down with quite the degree of erotic fantasy contrast of Mitzi Gaynor, or at least of a young Mitzi (and she was only 21 when "Bloodhounds of Broadway" was filmed). The mind-blowing qualities of this disparity accounted for much of her popularity with audiences and producers, and gave a special sizzle to her most memorable films. On the other hand, her performances in films that failed to showcase this disparity (like "South Pacific") had a sterile flatness."Bloodhounds of Broadway" neatly exploits Gaynor's physical range, it is almost as if the storyline was written solely for this purpose. Her transformation deliberately lacks subtlety because the whole point is to overwhelm the observer with the contrast, causing them to participate in producing the synergy of the experience. It is plausible only because Gaynor has a unique physical quality which visually sells it, bookending the production at her most innocent with "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" and at her hottest (this side of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes") with "Jack of Diamonds".The audience's reaction to the transformation of Emily Ann nicely illustrates the concept of a film as a semifinished product, to be used by the viewer to complete the artistic process rather than something they simply consume.If you are buying the DVD used (or unsealed) be sure that the two-fold brochure and the 20th Century Fox envelope are included; the envelope contains four miniature black & white lobby cards on glossy heavy stock paper. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

In "The Big Street" (based upon Runyeon's short story "Little Pinks"), busboy Henry Fonda pushes crippled nightclub singer (Lucille Ball) from New York to Florida in a wheel chair. In "Bloodhounds of Broadway", Georgia country bumpkin Mitzi Gaynor leads gangster Scott Brady to U.S. Route 1 which heads to New York (we know this, because a sign on the Georgia portion of Route 1 indicates it goes to both Washington D.C. and New York), and ends up joining them there. Kindhearted Mitzi Green takes her in, makes her give up her gingham and pigtails for a more worldly nightclub look, and before you know it, Gaynor is on-board to headline a show in Brady's nightclub. This makes Brady's mean-spirited girlfriend Marguerite Chapman very angry, and she threatens to turn states evidence over to have Brady sent up the river for running a horse racing syndicate. But, while Brady knows he faces certain jail time, he realizes that he loves Gaynor, and she realizes he needs to face a limited sentence in order to go on with his life. Will he show up in court on time before nasty Chapman gets there to spill the beans on him? The bloodhounds in the title are just that, two actual hunting dogs that Gaynor brought along with her. (Convienantly, they happened to be sleeping in Brady's car when they started off for U.S. 1). Cute little things, swallowing up sleeping pills and growling at Brady when they wake up. But Gaynor can sing them to sleep, which also works on stage, as they like there like lumps as Gaynor performs a musical number. She looks nothing like Nellie Forbush in the movie of "South Pacific", but gives a sweet, perky performance that is typical of the Fox movie musical heroine of the 30's, 40's, and 50's. Richard Allan, Gaynor, and Mitzi Green perform a lively version of "I've Got a Feeling You're Fooling" (from "Broadway Melody of 1936"), while Gaynor and little Sharon Baird perform a cute number called "Cindy" which has some nice acrobatic dancing by Baird. "Eighty Miles Outside of Atlanta" and "Jack of Diamonds" are nice production numbers. The first one is a hillbilly song, not unlike "You Can't Kill My Hillbilly Heart" from the Rosalind Russell musical "The Girl Rush" (1955) and most of the score of "Li'l Abner", while "Jack of Diamonds" has no relation to the gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond, but is fun just the same.Brady is fine as the gangster, but of the supporting players, Green and Wally Vernon stand out. Marguerite Chapman plays a one-dimensional harpy typical in these types of films, but gets her comeuppance in a nice fight sequence with Gaynor's take no prisoners character who simply has had enough of her. I've seen many film versions of Damon Runyeon's stories, and others stand out in my mind as better. Bee Humphries is funny in the opening sequence as Apple Annie, a Runyeon character from "Lady For a Day" (and later "A Pocketful of Miracles"), whom, like Nicely Nicely Johnson (from "The Big Street" and "Guys and Dolls") made an appearance in an unrelated Runyeon story. Although she does pop up briefly towards the end, I wished to see more of her, and more of the Broadway lights, which sadly are minimal.

Lots of slang like used in GUYS AND DOLLS. Well it is based on Damon Runyon's stories, so why not? Gamblers and dolls. Simple plot revolves around a numbers man Scott Brady meeting up with a little hick from GA, Mitzi Gaynor. Shades of what was to become her Nellie Forbush in SOUTH PACIFIC. Her character development in this is kind of sudden. In "life" a real cute little innocent, and in the musical numbers a regular siren. But who cares. This is a musical. Fox should release more of these little gems that were no great shakes at the box office, but are very much needed in this day and age of smutty and violent films. Nice interview with Mitzi on the new DVD. She says nice things about Marilyn Monroe during THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS, but I understand she didn't like her and didn't say very nice things about her. Has she changed her mind? Hope so. Well, let's have more of Mitzi like GOLDEN GIRL and THE I DON'T CARE GIRL. BLOODHOUNDS is certainly worth a look for nostalgia if nothing else.

I am an entirely biased Mitzi Gaynor fan. The most all around talent of them all. Singer, Dancer, completely natural actress and entertainer extraordinaire.I think the less said about Scott Brady the better. Someone once said about an early Katherine Hepburn movie "she covered the range of emotions from A to B" ... well she was still two up on Scott. Couple of nice Damon Runyon comedy relief characters that did do nice work, however. The bloodhounds were fun and provided a great ending. The number "Bout Eighty Miles Outside of Atlanta" knocked my socks off. Straight out of a Lil Abner scene in Dogpatch (only better) The other big number, "Jack of Diamonds" was also a good example of Mitzi comin' on full blast. Throw the rest of the movie away and just give me those two numbers and I am still happy.Thank you for your attention .. go see the movie.