Copyright 1 May 1942 by Paramount Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Rialto: 24 June 1942. U.S. release: 9 May 1942. Australian release: 9 July 1942. 6,124 feet. 68 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Gangster asks his accuser to find his estranged daughter.NOTES: Movie debuts of both Macdonald Carey (from radio) and Anthony Mann (from TV).COMMENT: Anthony Mann who directed the acclaimed live television drama The Streets of New York in 1939 was finally snapped up by Hollywood and auspiciously assigned this noirish, Runyonesque thriller to which he brought not only some of his characteristically atmospheric touches but his ability to coax thrilling portrayals from often indifferent actors. Eduardo Ciannelli delivers the best performance of his life here, a rendering that is so striking it will literally knock your socks off. J. Carroll Naish, another extremely variable player, lags not far behind (the scene in which he measures Carey up is quite chilling). Carey himself comes across with pleasing vitality, and there's a knock-out study of a woman on the ledge by Jean Phillips. In a much smaller role, Joan Woodbury also makes quite an impression. And there's a great line-up of support players as well. Considering the film's "B" running time, production values are welcomely lavish, with moody photography, extensive sets and heaps of extras.

More than 20 years since his real life death and the subsequent death of his character, Tom Horton, MacDonald Carey's voice still gives the opening line in "Days of Our Lives'" opening credits. It's a tribute this popularity that the character is still mentioned and that on occasion, his classic films are rediscovered. This war era crime drama is a new discovery for me, opening with Jean Phillips feigning an attempted suicide and Carey coming to her rescue. Before he can find out her name, he's pretty much hired her as his secretary, assisting him in his cases being a private detective on the side of his practice, mainly concerning members of the criminal element, played by J. Carroll Naish and Eduardo Cianelli. Under different direction, this might seem be rather ordinary, but a few dark elements (mixed in with some sly comedy) show the potential of director Anthony Mann. There's a plethora of famous character actors here, including tough talking but dimwitted Warren Hymer, sweet Scot Mary Gordon and sauced Jack Norton. I don't know if Dr. Horton would approve of Dr. Broadway's methods, but I'm sure he'd enjoy the movie!

This rapid-fire, Runyonesque crime story marks the auspicious directorial debut of Anthony Mann, later to enter movie history for several noirs (especially those made in collaboration with cinematographer John Alton), some superior westerns, and his uncredited work on Spartacus (where he was replaced, according to many to the movie's detriment, by Stanley Kubrick). Even this early, and working from a light-crime formula, Mann shows his innovative style. He cuts the sentiment and slapstick down to the barest minimum, keeps every scene to a point, and favors ellipsis over literalism (photographed by Theodor Sparkuhl, the movie has a rich look, too).On the ledge of a hotel overhanging Times Square, a `nut sundae' (Jean Phillips, nearing the end of her brief candle of a career) keeps ranting to the crowds and rescue workers gathered below. When physician to the stars and drifters of the Rialto, Dr. Broadway (Macdonald Carey), saves her, it turns out to be a paid publicity stunt on the part of the starving girl, who ends up being Carey's secretary and gal Friday.The bad news for Carey is that a mobster (Eduardo Ciannelli) he helped put away (by saving his life then informing the police) is looking for him. And finds him, but instead of exacting the expected revenge, asks him to locate his daughter and give her $100-grand. But when Ciannelli is found murdered in Carey's office, suspicion falls on the Doc. And somebody else is after the money....Mann casts the movie with a big roster of character actors playing police, gangsters and Carey's mob of `colorful' mugs (particularly memorable are Ciannelli and, as his rival, fronting as an affable men's clothier, J. Carrol Naish). It's been suggested that Dr. Broadway may have been the opening salvo of a series of programmers. Since it didn't take off, it may have been owing to the competent but uncharismatic Carey, or to Phillip's too-close-for-comfort impersonation of Ginger Rogers. At any rate, it's a blessing that Mann didn't get bogged down in a string of programmers that wouldn't have allowed him to take the startling turns his career would later take. But it would have been a fun string of programmers.

I saw this when the late William K. Everson did a whole weekend of Paramount B movies, and it was easily the winner out of the whole batch, slick and atmospheric. The first feature of radio director (and Chaplin assistant director) Anthony Mann, it was a highly promising debut that inexplicably led neither to a Dr. Broadway series nor an immediate studio contract for Mann(not that the string of low-budget Bs Mann did follow it with, including Railroaded, T-Men and He Walked By Night, would necessarily have been better made at bigger studios).Future soap opera star Macdonald Carey stars as Dr. Broadway, so-called because he serves as all-purpose medico, advisor and crime-solver to the Runyonesque denizens of Broadway. Carey is a little bland in the lead, which may be why a series didn't follow, but J. Carrol Naish is terrific as a sinister criminal who operates a tailor shop as a front-- the scene where he "takes the measure" of Dr. Broadway could have inspired the more obviously sexual double entendre banter in The Big Sleep about what kind of horse Lauren Bacall likes to ride.