Fifty Roads to Town (1937) User Reviews (4)

Another cute but contrived rom-com from the golden age of Hollywood.

[Larry41OnEbay-2 · 6/10 · 15 January 2019]

I found this rare title on YouTube and it is silly and charming. And if you don't want to know too much plot, just watch it and stop reading. Now. But if you are still interested here the facts: SPOILERS: Two cases of mistaken identity complicate matters when a woman he believes to be a process server comes across a man she believes to be a criminal.

A warrant out on him, Peter Norstrand flees his New York City home and heads north. Hiding out, he is spotted by lodge guest Millicent Kendall, who grips a document when she comes to a room. Peter pulls a gun on her and makes her burn it, unaware that it is actually a marriage license.

Millicent is a missing heiress, planning to elope with her fiancé. Peter forces her to spend the night in his cabin so as not to inform on his whereabouts. When she attempts to escape in the snow, he takes away one of her shoes.

A sheriff and his deputies begin a search for an actual fugitive, Dutch Nelson, and are mistaken for trappers by Peter, who fires a gun to scare them away. The lawmen respond with machine guns and tear gas. Peter reveals to Millicent that the warrant is just to force him to testify in a friend's divorce. As she falls in love with him, the real Dutch turns up.

lots of fun

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 22 November 2021]

Don Ameche and Ann Sothern star in "Fifty Roads to Town" from 1937.

Until Tyrone Power attained stardom at 20th Century Fox, Ameche was their go-to leading man. After Power's rise to fame, Ameche still played leads, except when Power was in the film.

In this story, Peter Nostrand (Ameche) is on the lam, but at first, we don't know why. Millicent Kendall (Sothern) is on the lam, too, but again, we don't know why. We only know they are whizzing down roads at 90 miles an hour trying to avoid each other and the police. They both wind up at a hotel that is about to close for the winter. They both escape, Millicent still in her nightgown.

Later, they wind up in a cabin. It's there they learn that Millicent is an heiress (it is, after all, after It Happened One Night) running away from her father so she can marry her boyfriend. We also then learn that Peter is running away from a divorce case in which he is asked to testify. Since both parties are his friends, he wants no part of it.

Delightful film with Millicent at one point hiding in Peter's trunk - he spots her and gives her a bumpy ride. The shootout at the end is hilarious. The two sing a song together, Never in a Million Years, and we get to hear what great voices they both had. Both had many Broadway musical credits.

I love these lighthearted comedies.

Terrible

[AAdaSC · 2/10 · 17 December 2022]

Don Ameche (Peter) goes on the run but we are not sure why. He gets tipped off that someone is coming after him so he packs a gun and speeds away. He also takes his alcohol with him! Cue a tedious high speed car chase that goes on for too long between Ameche, Ann Sothern (Millicent) and a traffic cop. It turns out that Sothern is also running away. They head to a guest house and then meet up in an empty mountain cabin, where the majority of the film takes place and the audience loses the will to live. About three quarters of the way through, out of nowhere, it turns into a musical and they sing a duet! What was that about!?

This film also contains Stepin Fetchit (Percy) as the guest house porter and he is awful. It is at the point of his arrival in the film, where he speaks incoherently and is given far too much screen time, that you realize this film is really going to suck. And suck it does. It is incredibly boring.

A most enjoyable rom-com.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 28 January 2019]

"Fifty Roads to Town" is an excellent movie and much of it has to do with the writing and very original story.

Peter (Don Ameche) is on the run. No, he's done nothing wrong but he is avoiding process servers because he has no desire to be brought into the middle of a divorce case, as the husband and wife are his friends. So, he's hiding out in the middle of no where in the mountains during the off season. To the deserted motel arrives Millicent (Ann Sothern) and Peter assumes, incorrectly, that she is trying to serve him with a summons to court. At the same time, she comes to believe that he's a gangster!! Can it get crazier...yup. Soon a real gangster arrives in the area...a desperate character who has escaped from prison! How can these three all work together to make a nice rom-com? See the film.

Ameche and Sothern are wonderful here. The writing is spot on as well. The only negative is having Stepin Fetchit in the movie. He is only a bit player but seeing and hearing his awful racial routine is enough to give many an apoplexy. My advice...try to look past this awful product of the times and appreciate the other 95% of the film...it's worth your time.