Arizona to Broadway
Cast & Crew
James Tinling
James Dunn
Joan Bennett
Herbert Mundin
Sammy Cohen
Merna Kennedy
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In the small town of Larrup, Arizona, Smiley, a con-artist traveling with cohorts Kingfish, Morris and Ambrose, persuades Lynn Martin, a traveling demonstrator of pancake making, to accompany him to a carnival, where Kingfish sells a large number of bottles of Bambo, an elixir. When a woman denounces Kingfish as a faker, Smiley, identifying himself as a medical inspector, conducts Kingfish safely through the angry crowd and grabs Lynn's purse on the way out. Later, on a train, Smiley meets Lynn again, and after he returns the purse, she explains that she is traveling to find the trail of three swindlers who talked her brother, a bank officer, into investing $20,000 belonging to an estate he was handling, and then left with the money. Two of the crooks, a couple named Sandburg, are in New Orleans, while the other, Hubert Wayne, is promoting a new show in New York. Smiley offers to help after privately convincing his cohorts that once they "cheat the cheaters," they will keep the money themselves. In a New Orleans hotel, Kingfish, masquerading as a philandering Texas oilman, attracts the interest of the Sandburgs, who plan to trap him in a compromising position and then blackmail him. After a fight, however, Kingfish, Smiley and the others get away with the Sandburgs' half of the swindle, $10,000, and proceed to New York where Lynn, posing as a chorus girl, has provoked Wayne's advances. When she introduces Wayne to Kingfish, who this time masquerades as a British jam manufacturer, Wayne, planning to swindle Kingfish, persuades him to invest $10,000 in the show to match his own $10,000, which gangster Tommy Monk fronts for the swindle. Wayne then plans to appropriate Kingfish's money through a switch of envelopes. Suspecting the ruse, Smiley trains Kingfish to do his own envelope switch. Kingfish's switch works, but after Smiley leaves with the $20,000, Wayne and Tommy discover the trick and capture Lynn and Kingfish, who reveals, to Lynn's dismay, Smiley's plan to keep the money. Tommy takes over the show to make back his money and coerces stage stars Ned Flynn, Jimmy Dante and female impersonator Ray Best to perform. On opening night, Smiley is captured at the theater, but he is able to call Tommy's rival, Rags Rigby. By imitating Tommy's voice, Smiley dares Rigby to come to the show. Rigby and his men respond to the challenge and start a massive fight in the theater. Smiley rescues Lynn and later, on another train, after he learns that Lynn did not trust him, upbraids her and reveals that he sent the money to her brother. The other three cohorts then decide to go straight. Lynn, after planting her purse in Smiley's pocket, playfully accuses him of robbing her, and they embrace.
Director
James Tinling
Cast
James Dunn
Joan Bennett
Herbert Mundin
Sammy Cohen
Merna Kennedy
Earle Foxe
David Wengren
J. Carrol Naish
Max Wagner
Walter Catlett
Jerry Lester
Jean Malin
Gene James
Bee Stevens
Geneva Sawyer
Lucille Porcett
Lucille Miller
Patsy Lee
Kay Gordon
Harriette Haddon
Philippa Hilbere
Shirley Densted
Theo De Voe
Jeanette Bates
Bonita Barker
Esther Brodelet
Lee Bailey
Marion Weldon
Ardelle Unger
Anita Thompson
Peaches Jackson
Crew
Val Burton
William Conselman
Curt Fetters
James Gordon
Percy Ikerd
Will Jason
Henry Johnson
Lou Kunkel
Arthur Lange
Sammy Lee
Louis Loeffler
Royer
George Schneiderman
Jack Schultz
E. Clayton Ward
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to Hollywood Reporter, the title of this film, Arizona to Broadway, was originally scheduled to be used by Fox as the title of a film starring Will Rogers, Sally Eilers and James Dunn, which was to be the story of Rogers' life. That project was shelved, and the story for this film was written with the title in mind. According to information in the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department at the UCLA Theater Arts Library, Dudley Nichols worked on a continuity for the film when it was to star Rogers; it is not known if any of his contributions were included in the final film. According to Film Daily, James Tinling was selected to direct this film as a reward for his work for Fox directing Spanish-language films. In the film, the character played by Walter Catlett, "Ned Flynn," has the look and mannerisms of Ed Wynn; the character played by Jerry Lester, "Jimmy Dante," looks, speaks and acts like Jimmy Durante; and Jean Malin, a female impersonator called "Ray Best," performs a Mae West imitation. According to Malin's contract in the legal records, he agreed not to use the character he portrayed in this film in any other motion picture for six months. While the screen credits list the character played by Earle Foxe as "Sandburg," a newspaper photograph in the film and the dialogue continuity in the copyright descriptions call him "Sandberg." According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Greta Nissen was to have a top role, but she was not in the final film.
