BROKEN HEARTS OF BROADWAY
Starring Colleen Moore and Johnny Walker
HARRISON'S REPORTS
July 28, 1923
The story material is old-fashioned, but skillful handling, coupled with the acting of such well-known players as Colleen Moore, Johnnie Walker, Alice Lake and Kate Price, has made it into an interesting, as well as appealing, drama. Colleen Moore, in particular, is extremely sympathetic in the role of the young country girl who does not let the stage glitter blind her.
The pitfalls that lie in the path of any young woman who wants to gain fame on the New York stage is the theme. In the development, the heroine, a young girl from the country, is shown obtaining, through the services of a woman friend, a position as a chorus girl. But because she will not consent to be "sweet" to one of the owners of the show, she is discharged. To the entreaties of her friend to accept what comes to her, the heroine plugs her ears. Driven out of her home by her landlady because she is unable to pay her rent, she finally, in desperation, decides to follow the advice of her friend, feeling sure that she will be able, after all, to come out unscathed. Her friend's beau murders the rich man who was lavishing his attention upon his sweetheart. Circumstantial evidence points to the heroine as the murderess. But the real murderer is made by the hero, who loved the heroine and who stood by her in her hour of adversity, to confess to the crime. The joy over his ability to liberate the heroine inspires the hero to write a successful song entitled "Broken Hearts of Broadway," which is eventually made in to a play, with the hero and the heroine as the stars.
"Broken Hearts of Broadway" is really a story within a story; it is told by a chauffeur (Tully Marshall) to a young friend from the country (Creighton Hale) who found himself in New York broke; he is told by the chauffeur that New York's Broadway, in order to make a person, it must first break him. This method of presentation has, no doubt, been resorted to in order to give two well-known players a chance to appear in the picture and thus make the picture easier to sell. But the picture could get along without the prologue and the epilogue.
A good picture for the small communities and the neighborhoods.