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Footlight Parade
In the tradition of films like 42nd Street and Golddiggers of 1933 comes Footlight Parade, another dazzling backstage musical from Warner Brothers that owes a large portion of its appeal to the ridiculously imaginative Busby Berkeley and his uncanny ability to continue reinventing the art of presenting dance onscreen.
The musical stars James Cagney, once again displaying his underrated skills as a song and dance man, as Chester Kent, a director of stage musicals who learns with the advent of sound movies, that he might be out of work permanently. After his materialistic wife demands a divorce, Chester may have found a way to continue is work by staging something called prologues, which are like mini-musicals staged to be shown before a movie.
With the help of his loyal assistant, Nan (Joan Blondell), Chester becomes the king of prologues until rival directors begin stealing his ideas. Given a mammoth assignment of multiple prologues and suspecting there might be a spy within his company, Chester gets the idea to lock the company in the theater until the show opens. Chester also finds his romantic life being complicated by Nan's best friend, Vivian and the reappearance of his ex-wife, and not even noticing that the devoted Nan only has eyes for him.
This one takes a minute to get going, but once it does, director Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley and their very talented cast really deliver. Bacon is to be applauded for the offbeat casting of Cagney as this Broadway director since this was nine years before he won an Oscar for playing George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. As a matter of fact, this was the first film ever where Cagney danced onscreen and, as he always did, knocked it out of the park. As I watched Cagney in this film, I couldn't help think how good he might have been playing Julian Marsh in 42nd Street. He is beautifully complimented by the scene-stealing Blondell, who doesn't make a false move onscreen as the devoted assistant obviously madly in love with her boss, but always putting his happiness and the good of the show over her personal happiness. Blondell's performance in this film is what musical comedy is all about.
Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Sammy Fain, and Irving Kahal are among the composers who contributed to the score for this musical comedy feast with songs like "Sitting on a Back Yard Fence", which featured Ruby Keeler dressed as a cat; "Anchors Aweigh", "One Step Ahead of My Shadow", and three incredible Busby Berkeley-staged creations that absolutely defy description and belie the fact that these numbers are supposedly taking place in a movie theater. "Honeymoon Hotel" is an elaborate mini-musical that covers the courtship of Ruby and Dick Powell through their check in at a fancy hotel where we meet the staff and their family. "By a Waterfall" is an indescribable water fantasy that was probably the inspiration for Esther Williams' entire film career and "Shanghai Lil" found Cagney and Keeler tapping their way into our hearts as a sailor and an Asian good time gal, accompanied by about two hundred tap-dancing sailors. These three numbers alone added a half bag of popcorn to my rating. This celebration of everything that is movie musical comedy has to be seen to be believed.
In the tradition of films like 42nd Street and Golddiggers of 1933 comes Footlight Parade, another dazzling backstage musical from Warner Brothers that owes a large portion of its appeal to the ridiculously imaginative Busby Berkeley and his uncanny ability to continue reinventing the art of presenting dance onscreen.
The musical stars James Cagney, once again displaying his underrated skills as a song and dance man, as Chester Kent, a director of stage musicals who learns with the advent of sound movies, that he might be out of work permanently. After his materialistic wife demands a divorce, Chester may have found a way to continue is work by staging something called prologues, which are like mini-musicals staged to be shown before a movie.
With the help of his loyal assistant, Nan (Joan Blondell), Chester becomes the king of prologues until rival directors begin stealing his ideas. Given a mammoth assignment of multiple prologues and suspecting there might be a spy within his company, Chester gets the idea to lock the company in the theater until the show opens. Chester also finds his romantic life being complicated by Nan's best friend, Vivian and the reappearance of his ex-wife, and not even noticing that the devoted Nan only has eyes for him.
This one takes a minute to get going, but once it does, director Lloyd Bacon, Busby Berkeley and their very talented cast really deliver. Bacon is to be applauded for the offbeat casting of Cagney as this Broadway director since this was nine years before he won an Oscar for playing George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. As a matter of fact, this was the first film ever where Cagney danced onscreen and, as he always did, knocked it out of the park. As I watched Cagney in this film, I couldn't help think how good he might have been playing Julian Marsh in 42nd Street. He is beautifully complimented by the scene-stealing Blondell, who doesn't make a false move onscreen as the devoted assistant obviously madly in love with her boss, but always putting his happiness and the good of the show over her personal happiness. Blondell's performance in this film is what musical comedy is all about.
Harry Warren, Al Dubin, Sammy Fain, and Irving Kahal are among the composers who contributed to the score for this musical comedy feast with songs like "Sitting on a Back Yard Fence", which featured Ruby Keeler dressed as a cat; "Anchors Aweigh", "One Step Ahead of My Shadow", and three incredible Busby Berkeley-staged creations that absolutely defy description and belie the fact that these numbers are supposedly taking place in a movie theater. "Honeymoon Hotel" is an elaborate mini-musical that covers the courtship of Ruby and Dick Powell through their check in at a fancy hotel where we meet the staff and their family. "By a Waterfall" is an indescribable water fantasy that was probably the inspiration for Esther Williams' entire film career and "Shanghai Lil" found Cagney and Keeler tapping their way into our hearts as a sailor and an Asian good time gal, accompanied by about two hundred tap-dancing sailors. These three numbers alone added a half bag of popcorn to my rating. This celebration of everything that is movie musical comedy has to be seen to be believed.