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      The Big Broadcast of 1937

      1936 1h 40m Musical Comedy List
      60% Tomatometer 5 Reviews 52% Audience Score 250+ Ratings A radio-station manager (Jack Benny) airs a husband-and-wife act (George Burns, Gracie Allen), and the orchestras of Benny Goodman and Leopold Stokowski. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (5) Critics Reviews
      Otis Ferguson The New Republic The picture is really just a glorified vaudeville program, but while it has been done before it has never been done so well. May 7, 2024 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews It's as outdated as its lame vaudeville acts. Rated: C- Jul 19, 2015 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jun 28, 2005 Full Review Carol Cling Las Vegas Review-Journal Rated: 3/5 Oct 17, 2003 Full Review Ken Hanke Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) Fair Fields material, notable mostly for Hope and "Thanks for the Memory" Rated: 3/5 Aug 21, 2002 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member This movie is too silly and not funny enough, but it does have its funny scenes here and there. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member A very, very flat movie. The ensemble cast simply doesn't work. It completely fails at blending together the stories into one movie. WC Fields is irritating. The one high spot of the movie is "Thanks For the Memories". Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member The cast alone makes this one worth tuning into. It's a collage of various skits all linked to a common theme. Great music, good production. Amusing and entertaining. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member One of Hope's first movies and the first time he sang, "Thanks for the Memories". Fields on the bridge, drunk, steering the Stupendous through an ice field is great! "They oughtta put warning lights on those things...." Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member So it turns out that this movie actually has a plot. A couple of 'em, in fact. There's a battle of two ships to be the fastest from New York to Cherbourg--though we only focus on one of them--and the fact that Bob Hope (his character has a name, but it doesn't matter) has bet all the entertainers' salaries on the outcome. Bob Hope has three ex-wives and a fiancee. The fiancee is falling in love with the guy who invented the system that powers the ship Bob Hope has bet on. Bob Hope is falling back in love with one of his ex-wives, though I don't know for sure which one. There's some kind of wacky (and exceedingly tedious) plot involving W. C. Fields and Martha Raye, but I didn't pay much attention to that one. It is, in fact, an exceedingly busy movie. In fact, someone over on IMDB is snippy about how much time the plot takes when the acts are the interesting bit, and I couldn't disagree more. I actually found myself [i]caring[/i] about the Bob Hope plot, the one with the ex-wife who's still in love with him. "Thanks for the Memories"--which won an Oscar for Best Original Song--is actually the two of them realizing that they were really happy together. I'm actually, however reluctantly, being forced to use the word "poignant" to describe a bit with Bob Hope. How weird is that? I don't think I would have bothered watching this had I known W. C. Fields was in it. I just don't find him all that funny. I [i]certainly[/i] wouldn't have watched it if I had both realized that W. C. Fields was in it and [i]not[/i] realized that it had a plot. That would have meant even more extended W. C. Fields, and I don't think I could have taken that. You will notice, in fact, that I'm giving this movie a 6, which is generally my code for "it wasn't very good, but I actually did like it and therefore can't give it a 5 or lower." This is, indeed, true. The bits without plot did rather threaten to drag it down to a 5, but it actually seemed as though Bob Hope was acting while W. C. Fields was busy acting like W. C. Fields. Which may well have been an act; what do I know? I don't know what he was actually like. But his stage persona irritates me. A lot. Bob Hope's later screen persona was moderately irritating, but only--to me, at least--moderately. And he is, here, still young enough that they're playing him as debonair. (He was only 35; Gods, this movie was a long time ago.) He gets the girl, here--and while Dorothy Lamour's in it, she's not the girl he gets. (I'm pretty sure she plays the fiancee.) In fact, we are expected to--and do!--believe that four women found him desirable enough to marry. So I have to change my commentary about [i]Sullivan's Travels[/i]. It turns out that [i]Ants in Your Pants[/i] of whatever the hell year it was would almost certainly have been nothing like this. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member All CLASSICS are GOOD Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

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      Photos

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      The Big Broadcast of 1937

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis A radio-station manager (Jack Benny) airs a husband-and-wife act (George Burns, Gracie Allen), and the orchestras of Benny Goodman and Leopold Stokowski.
      Director
      Mitch Leisen
      Screenwriter
      Walter DeLeon, Francis Martin
      Production Co
      Paramount
      Genre
      Musical, Comedy
      Original Language
      English
      Runtime
      1h 40m