Universal enjoyed a big early talkie hit mixing show biz and gangsters in 1929's Broadway Babies, which launched a number of copycat productions with 'Broadway' in the title. Less than two months later, First National's Broadway Babies also alternated songs with crooked poker games and gangland rubouts. 'Boy Wonder' director Mervyn LeRoy was a veteran of vaudeville, but the film's backstage atmosphere is pure Hollywood. Top billing went to starlet Alice White, a sexy Clara Bow type with a perky smile and a wiggly figure. The backstage story sees the virginal showgirl Delight (White) given romantic advice by her two more worldly friends, cute Florine (Marion Byron from Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr., 1928) and Navarre (popular Sally Eilers). Delight drops her fiancé and stage manager Billy (Charles Delaney) in favor of a carefree rumrunner from Detroit, Perc (Fred Kohler). Delight and Perc arrange to be married, but when he runs afoul of an influential gangster, the wedding provides the perfect setup for a mob ambush. Non-singing Alice White is awkwardly dubbed by Belle Mann for the sound version; as with many 1929 shows, a silent version was released as well. Comic relief Tom Dugan relies on a stutter to get laughs, a gag that had to be carried in title cards for the silent version. Jazz-age movies about racy showgirls frequently flirted with on-screen nudity, but Variety noted that the big production Broadway Babies was censor proof, with 'nothing suggestive, not even a gesture.' The concern may reflect mounting exhibitor complaints about risqué content in studio films: The Motion Picture Production Code wouldn't be drafted until the next year.

By Glenn Erickson