TWO TICKETS TO BROADWAY looks like an MGM musical, but it isn't, despite stars like Ann Miller, Tony Martin, Janet Leigh, and Gloria DeHaven. Rather, it's a Howard Hughes production for RKO, in color, and with no expenses spared. Musical has Vermont girl Leigh going off to Broadway to be a star in a big production number called "Pelican Falls." That's the one and only ticket to Broadway (not two) in the film. On the bus she meets three weary chorus girls (Miller, DeHaven, and Barbara Lawrence) heading back to New York after their stinker of a show closes and leaves them stranded. Their inept agent, Eddie Bracken, had no money to send them. Meanwhile, another of his clients (Martin) is about to leave town because he can't get a job. The gathering spot is a deli run by the bickering Smith and Dale comedy team. Bracken hits on a plan to hire an actor to pretend to be a TV producer who's interested in hiring everyone for a show, so Bracken wheedles the up-front money from Smith and Dale to create an act. Eventually it all comes to a head when they find out they've been tricked but the TV host (Bob Crosby) hires them anyway because they're so swell.
Leigh, who was supposedly Hughes' girlfriend at the time, gets a chance to sing and dance, but Miller outshines everyone else. DeHaven gets a few songs, but Martin gets the majority of them. Among the supporting cast are Taylor Holmes as the fake agent, and among the chorus girls are Joan Shawlee, Joi Lansing and Vera Miles. Interesting to note that the bickering deli partners were originally to be played by Stan Laurel and Olivier Hardy, but one of them was ill at the time of shooting.
Several of the song numbers are duds, but the jaw-dropper is "Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground" in which Martin plays an Oklahoma Indian who hits oil and gets rich, allowing him to have his four squaws quickly ditch their moccasins and don high heels, minks, and glittering jewels, and then get pregnant (each one carries a papoose on her back).
Leigh, who was supposedly Hughes' girlfriend at the time, gets a chance to sing and dance, but Miller outshines everyone else. DeHaven gets a few songs, but Martin gets the majority of them. Among the supporting cast are Taylor Holmes as the fake agent, and among the chorus girls are Joan Shawlee, Joi Lansing and Vera Miles. Interesting to note that the bickering deli partners were originally to be played by Stan Laurel and Olivier Hardy, but one of them was ill at the time of shooting.
Several of the song numbers are duds, but the jaw-dropper is "Big Chief Hole-in-the-Ground" in which Martin plays an Oklahoma Indian who hits oil and gets rich, allowing him to have his four squaws quickly ditch their moccasins and don high heels, minks, and glittering jewels, and then get pregnant (each one carries a papoose on her back).