Tonight's Movie: Cowboy From Brooklyn (1938) - A Warner Archive DVD Review

Dick Powell stars as the COWBOY FROM BROOKLYN (1938), available on a remastered DVD from the Warner Archive.

I first saw this film over seven years ago, in 2009, and found it "exceedingly silly" at the time. It still is, but I think I enjoyed it quite a bit more this time around, having become much more familiar with the entire cast in the intervening years. For instance, this time around I got the joke of singing cowboy Dick Foran playing a would-be cowboy singer who can't carry a tune!

Powell plays Elly Jordan, a stranded traveler who earns his meals singing at a Wyoming dude ranch. A New York agent (Pat O'Brien) and his assistant (Ronald Reagan) are vacationing at the ranch and believe Elly is a real-deal singing cowboy. They sign Elly to a contract and launch him on a big career, only to discover Elly's not only not a cowboy, he has an animal phobia and can't be around horses! Complications abound.

The first half of the movie is the strongest, thanks to scenes such as Elly and ranch sweetheart Jane (Priscilla Lane) singing Mercer and Whiting's "Ride, Tenderfoot, Ride." For me that one charming scene makes the entire movie worthwhile.

Priscilla as cowgirl Jane is stuck saying things like "git" and "reckon" for the entire movie, but she's mighty cute doing it. Based on the trailer, which is included on the DVD, most of Ann Sheridan's supporting role as O'Brien's sister was left on the cutting room floor.

I also enjoyed bits such as Warner Bros. stalwarts John Ridgely and Jeffrey Lynn having small roles as reporters; Lynn would appear with Lane in several films, receiving his big break in FOUR DAUGHTERS (1938), released later that year.

The cast also includes Emma Dunn, Hobart Cavanaugh, Johnnie Davis, Rosella Towne, Mary Field, Granville Bates, Elisabeth Risdon, James Stephenson, Dennie Moore, and Candy Candido.

COWBOY FROM BROOKLYN was directed by Lloyd Bacon and filmed in black and white by Arthur Edeson. It runs 77 minutes.

The DVD is a nice-looking print.

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this DVD. Warner Archive releases are MOD (manufactured on demand) and may be ordered from the Warner Archive Collection at Amazon and other online retailers.