Fifty-five years before Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) was slumming it in Queens to find true love, Robert Treat Bradford aka Brad Roberts (Dick Powell) was doing the same thing, except it wasn't to find love, it was to make music.
"Gold Diggers" stars Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, and Ruby Keeler as roommates and showgirls: Carol King, Trixie Lorraine, and Polly Parker respectively. Polly (Ruby Keeler) was in love with a music writer named Brad Roberts. What she didn't know was that he was from money. Brad was slumming it in a cheap apartment banging out tunes. Brad wanted to keep his identity secret lest his brother find out he was writing show tunes and dating a showgirl.
Alas, he couldn't keep his identity secret. When Brad stepped in to replace the lead man in a big theater production his brother Lawrence Bradford (Warren William) found out. As a result, Lawrence threatened to withhold the family money from Brad so long as he was dating a showgirl because they were all "gold diggers." Brad refused to leave the show and refused to leave Polly.
Lawrence decided to be proactive. He and his lawyer Fanuel 'Fanny' Peabody (Guy Kibbee) went to Polly's place to see if he could buy her out. He didn't see Polly, but he saw her roommates instead. At that point I knew he and Carol (Joan Blondell) would fall in love. If the how of them falling in love was more compelling I wouldn't have minded the predictability of it.
Even though that was predictable (including the forcible kiss followed by Carol wilting in his arms), there was some originality with trying to make him change his mind about his brother and Polly.
Then there was the second major flaw. Like I mentioned about the movie "Glorifying the American Girl," there was too much screen time spent on the musical within the movie. At least thirty minutes was spent showing musical numbers from the play Brad wrote music for and it wasn't at all germane to the plot. When I see that done I tend to think that the writers need material to increase the runtime of the movie to make it a full length feature.
In the end everyone was married or engaged to be married and it wasn't the least bit romantic. Brad and Polly got married, which was nice and a must for a happily ever after. Then Trixie (Aline MacMahon) and Fanny got married, which was pathetic as she was unabashedly marrying him for his money and how easy it was to get it out of him. Finally, Carol and Lawrence were engaged, which was kind of lame because they fell in love too easily and with no real impetus except that she thought he was nice.
$2.99 on YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.
"Gold Diggers" stars Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, and Ruby Keeler as roommates and showgirls: Carol King, Trixie Lorraine, and Polly Parker respectively. Polly (Ruby Keeler) was in love with a music writer named Brad Roberts. What she didn't know was that he was from money. Brad was slumming it in a cheap apartment banging out tunes. Brad wanted to keep his identity secret lest his brother find out he was writing show tunes and dating a showgirl.
Alas, he couldn't keep his identity secret. When Brad stepped in to replace the lead man in a big theater production his brother Lawrence Bradford (Warren William) found out. As a result, Lawrence threatened to withhold the family money from Brad so long as he was dating a showgirl because they were all "gold diggers." Brad refused to leave the show and refused to leave Polly.
Lawrence decided to be proactive. He and his lawyer Fanuel 'Fanny' Peabody (Guy Kibbee) went to Polly's place to see if he could buy her out. He didn't see Polly, but he saw her roommates instead. At that point I knew he and Carol (Joan Blondell) would fall in love. If the how of them falling in love was more compelling I wouldn't have minded the predictability of it.
Even though that was predictable (including the forcible kiss followed by Carol wilting in his arms), there was some originality with trying to make him change his mind about his brother and Polly.
Then there was the second major flaw. Like I mentioned about the movie "Glorifying the American Girl," there was too much screen time spent on the musical within the movie. At least thirty minutes was spent showing musical numbers from the play Brad wrote music for and it wasn't at all germane to the plot. When I see that done I tend to think that the writers need material to increase the runtime of the movie to make it a full length feature.
In the end everyone was married or engaged to be married and it wasn't the least bit romantic. Brad and Polly got married, which was nice and a must for a happily ever after. Then Trixie (Aline MacMahon) and Fanny got married, which was pathetic as she was unabashedly marrying him for his money and how easy it was to get it out of him. Finally, Carol and Lawrence were engaged, which was kind of lame because they fell in love too easily and with no real impetus except that she thought he was nice.
$2.99 on YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.