Dr. Broadway
Cast & Crew
Anthony Mann
Macdonald Carey
Jean Phillips
J. Carrol Naish
Richard Lane
Edward Ciannelli
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
New York police and firemen rush to the scene of a potential suicide on Broadway in Times Square. Dr. Timothy "Doc" Kane, nicknamed "Dr. Broadway" by the locals, also arrives at the scene, and after seeing blonde Connie Madigan up on the ledge shouting, "Out of this world, that's where I'm going," he tells the police to take away the net, the lights and the crowds, because he plans to talk her down. Doc goes out on the ledge with Connie and, after assuring himself that she is sane, struggles with her until she agrees to go inside. Just before they duck into the window, she grabs some flyers from her purse, and Doc realizes it was all a publicity stunt. After telling her that she will be arrested for the stunt, Connie pleads that she was desperate for work, and Doc sympathetically knocks her out with a punch, and tells policeman Patrick Doyle that she passed out from malnutrition. When Pat realizes that he has been double-crossed, he curses the doctor. Connie awakens in Doc's apartment, where his cronies, including The Professor, Maxie the Goat, and Benny, who owns a steambath, are playing poker. Doc explains to Connie that after his father, a reporter whose beat was Broadway, died, these Broadway locals paid his tuition to medical school. They are there now because gangster Vic Telli has been released from prison, and they fear for Doc's safety, as it was his professional testimony that sent Vic to prison. Later, Doc bravely confronts Vic at a nightclub, where to Doc's relief, Vic pulls a cigar out of his jacket instead of a gun, and asks Doc's help in locating his daughter, Margie Dove. Vic respects Doc for his honesty on the stand, even though it sent him to prison, and Doc recognizes signs that Vic is mortally ill and agrees to meet him at his office. Vic tells Doc that he has a large sum of money in a bank account that he has reserved for his daughter, whom he has not seen since she was six-years-old. Vic swears that the money was legally obtained, and asks Doc to find Margie and give her the money after he dies. Doc reluctantly agrees, then rushes out to night court after getting a call that Pat has arrested Connie. Doc makes an impassioned plea to the judge and ends up hiring Connie as his receptionist to save her from jail. Pat and Doc then find Vic murdered in Doc's office, and Pat wants to hold Doc for the crime, but lets him go after Doc promises to return in fifteen minutes after Doc gets an emergency call from his hotel. When he enters his room, Doc is knocked unconscious, and later discovers his wallet missing. Red, a gangster, uses Doc's stolen identification and the letter from Vic to get Vic's money out of the bank in New Jersey, but Doc appears outside and grabs the money, then leaves it in a locker at Grand Central Station. Doc asks Connie to call all his patients and ask them if they know of Margie Dove, and then he turns himself in to Pat. The district attorney interrogates Doc about Vic's murder, but Doc maintains that he is innocent, and that Vic was only asking him for a favor, which he intends to honor. When he returns to his office, Connie tells Doc that Margie Dove is there to see him. Doc tells Margie that Vic left her $100,000, and gives her the key to the locker in Grand Central Station. After she leaves, Doc tells Connie he suspects that Margie is an impostor, and asks Connie to follow her. Connie follows the woman into a dark theater, and is kidnapped by gangster Jack Venner's thug. Margie, an impostor, realizes too late that the money is fake when she turns it in to Jack, who operates a clothiers as a front, and he sends his calling card to Doc. Doc goes to see Jack, who takes his measurements for a suit while telling Doc that if he does not turn in the money by twelve o'clock, Connie will be thrown out a window onto Times Square. Jack, who admits to having killed Vic for the money, which he claims belongs to him, plans on using Doc's wallet to frame him for Connie's death and Vic's murder. Doc gathers together his Broadway friends, and arranges to lure Jack out just before midnight. Before he can execute his plan, however, Doc is arrested for Vic's murder because he is identified as having been with Red when he withdrew the money from Vic's account. At 11:30 that night, Doc's friends arrange for the Times Square marquee to read "Jack Venner arrested for Vic Telli murder...Full confession reported." While Maxie and friends keep Jack hostage in his own office, Jack's thugs, including Red, look out the window to read the marquee. Connie then escapes onto the window ledge and gets the attention of passersby by dropping her shoe onto the street. Doc and the police arrive and prevent Red from shooting Connie, after which Doc goes to Jack's office and tells his friends to clear out. Jack calls the apartment where Connie was being held and realizes Doc's ploy when a policeman answers. After he takes the money from Doc, Jack attempts to shoot Doc, but Maxie, who is hiding behind a rack of suits, shoots him first. Doc rushes back to the apartment and coaxes a terrified Connie back inside, but first they kiss.
Director
Anthony Mann
Cast
Macdonald Carey
Jean Phillips
J. Carrol Naish
Richard Lane
Edward Ciannelli
Joan Woodbury
Arthur Loft
Warren Hymer
Frank Bruno
Sidney Melton
Olin Howlin
Gerald Mohr
Abe Dinovitch
Thomas Ross
Charles Wilson
Spencer Charters
Mary Gordon
Jay Novello
John Gallaudet
Al Hill
Edward Earle
William Haade
Phil Arnold
John Kelly
Francis Sayles
Paul Bradley
Joe Ploski
Don Brodie
Cyril Ring
Lou Davis
Harry Depp
George Turner
Lester Dorr
Philip Harron
Walter Soderling
Kernan Cripps
John Hamilton
George Gray
Milt Kibbee
Eddie Bruce
Billy Wayne
Jack Norton
Edward Hearn
Lee Prather
Howard Mitchell
Harry Harvey
Dick Rush
Eddie Fetherston
Jack Egan
Cecil Weston
Crew
Art Arthur
Borden Chase
Hans Dreier
Garrett Fort
Harve Foster
Gene Garvin
Earl Hedrick
Emanuel D. Leshin
Harry Lindgren
Arthur Schmidt
Theodor Sparkuhl
Irvin Talbot
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film marked Anthony Mann's directorial debut.
