Broadminded (1931)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Pretty good comedy about a playboy (William Collier, Jr.) whose father grows tired of his constant woman-chasing so he sends him out west with his cousin (Joe E. Brown), which turns out to be a major mistake. Out west the playboy strikes up a relationship with a woman who he plans to marry if they can stay away from a crazed South American (Bela Lugosi) that they keep running into. At 73-minutes the plot doesn't really carry even that short running time but there are enough good things here to make this worth sitting through at least once. Brown gets top-billing but the picture actually belongs to Collier with the big-mouthed comedian playing more of a supporting role. Brown certainly eats up each scene that he's in and actually manages to turn in some very funny moments including one where he spoofs Jekyll and Hyde and another sequence where he talks about how he almost beat up a South American only he doesn't realize the guy is sitting and hearing everything he's saying. Marjorie White and Margaret Livingston add nice supporting performances as does Thelma Todd who plays a friend of the boy's who ends up getting them into more trouble. I didn't care too much for Collier and in fact thought he dragged the film down a bit as he was a bit too stiff in the role and really didn't add any laughs. The highlight of the film is without question Lugosi who easily steals the film with his hilarious performance. I've often wondered what would have happened had the actor never appeared in Dracula and got type cast in horror roles. Many of his early films show he had some nice talent that studios could have worked with and he shows that off here. He mainly plays a guy whose job is to scare Brown by screaming and raving but Lugosi is so good that you'll have a laugh riot just watching him. The strawberry shortcake scene is a minor classic as is the scene that follows during the car wreck. The screenplay has several weak spots but I guess that's to be expected as the film certainly goes for many laughs but in the end it only gets about half of them. I doubt those who hate older movies are going to change their opinion by watching this but this remains a must-see for fans of Lugosi and of course Brown fans will want to check it out.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Pretty good comedy about a playboy (William Collier, Jr.) whose father grows tired of his constant woman-chasing so he sends him out west with his cousin (Joe E. Brown), which turns out to be a major mistake. Out west the playboy strikes up a relationship with a woman who he plans to marry if they can stay away from a crazed South American (Bela Lugosi) that they keep running into. At 73-minutes the plot doesn't really carry even that short running time but there are enough good things here to make this worth sitting through at least once. Brown gets top-billing but the picture actually belongs to Collier with the big-mouthed comedian playing more of a supporting role. Brown certainly eats up each scene that he's in and actually manages to turn in some very funny moments including one where he spoofs Jekyll and Hyde and another sequence where he talks about how he almost beat up a South American only he doesn't realize the guy is sitting and hearing everything he's saying. Marjorie White and Margaret Livingston add nice supporting performances as does Thelma Todd who plays a friend of the boy's who ends up getting them into more trouble. I didn't care too much for Collier and in fact thought he dragged the film down a bit as he was a bit too stiff in the role and really didn't add any laughs. The highlight of the film is without question Lugosi who easily steals the film with his hilarious performance. I've often wondered what would have happened had the actor never appeared in Dracula and got type cast in horror roles. Many of his early films show he had some nice talent that studios could have worked with and he shows that off here. He mainly plays a guy whose job is to scare Brown by screaming and raving but Lugosi is so good that you'll have a laugh riot just watching him. The strawberry shortcake scene is a minor classic as is the scene that follows during the car wreck. The screenplay has several weak spots but I guess that's to be expected as the film certainly goes for many laughs but in the end it only gets about half of them. I doubt those who hate older movies are going to change their opinion by watching this but this remains a must-see for fans of Lugosi and of course Brown fans will want to check it out.