Footlight Parade

Comment: Order just before Christmas but still got it in time, present for Daugther who had searched everywhere for a copy.

Comment: This movie has GREAT musical numbers. The waterfall sequence alone, which pre-dates, and surely inspired the entire career of Esther Williams makes it historically interesting.
Aside from that, there is a proximity in the stylization, to silent film. One of the most humorous aspects of the movie is that when the model-singer-dancer beauties open their mouth the contrasty between the sophisticated glamor of the Big city and their trailer-suburbia accents is divine. Perhaps nowhere is it more accentuated or hilarious than in James Cagney's love interest, Joan Blondell whose photo should be in the dictionary next to the word "Broad". She is a tough gal with a Southern Staten islandish accent that could transform pure silk into flawless polyester with a few vowels. She pushes and shoves her way into Cagney's heart like a barracuda in Spring heat, and wears the most outlandishly horrid gowns ever, perfect for a funeral home's receptionist.
James Cagney surprised me as a dancer. He has amazing fluidity of movement and his make up in this film reminded me of Alia Nazimova's "Camille", specially the shadows around the eyes, which are amazing.He could have done a Dr. Caligari remake between scenes!
"Shanghai Lil" is another musical treat, complete with opium den odalisques. "The Love Hotel" is a ridiculous musical number,in its posturing goodie-two-shoes innocence that is just completely over the top. It is also hilarious to watch for that very reason.
This film is pure undiluted fun, a period piece. Strongly recommended for musical lovers.

Comment: FOOTLIGHT PARADE is a first-rate musical that should please all. Even after 75 years, Busby Berkeley's musical numbers still amaze and entertain. True, those last three back-to-back numbers could never have appeared in a theatre, but they're still knockouts by any standards. Besides the aforementioned Mr. Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh and Dick Powell all shine. You can't miss with this one!

Comment: It's hard to say which comes out on top, James Cagney's charm and energy or the mouth-opening excesses of Busby Berkeley's three grand showstoppers at the close. I give it a tie, with Footlight Parade one of the funniest and quickest of the early Thirties musicals. Although the movie clearly belongs to Cagney, Joan Blondell adds immeasurably to the good-natured story line.

And what's the story line? It's about Chester Kent (Cagney) who produces musicals, and who now is just about out of business as the talkies take over. He starts doing Prologues, live musical entertainment offered on stage before a movie starts. He gets the idea to do bigger ones and more of them, moving them around the country. He's a ball of fire and ideas, and he needs all the ideas he can get to keep relentlessly producing these things. But a rival is spying on him and stealing his ideas; Nan Prescott (Blondell), his wise-cracking secretary, loves him but he's too busy too notice; an office girl in black-rimmed, round glasses (Ruby Keeler) wants a chance to dance; his wife turns up saying she didn't divorce him after all; a blonde gold-digger is setting her hooks in him; his partners are cheating him...my gosh, what's next? This may all sound like a lot to digest, but everything happens fast, with Cagney bouncing, strutting, striding, finger-snapping, barking orders and occasionally - until the big last number when he goes all out singing and dancing -- doing a step or two just to show how it's done.

Instead of "Let's put on a show, gang" we have "We need to build three shows in three days, so lock the doors and let's start rehearsing." These three super Prologues are going to feature 40 chorines, spectacular effects and will mean a rich contract, with forty Kent units in deluxe movie houses...the whole Apollo movie house circuit! Exhaustion threatens, feet ache, but all those unbilled chorines in skimpy costumes (which include Ann Sothern and Dorothy Lamour; you can quickly spot Sothern but Lamour is more generic) stay the course, dancing their hearts out, giggling and chattering and looking remarkably unsweaty.

And then the curtains go up as each Prologue is presented in separate movie houses, one after the other on the same night, with the owner of the Apollo circuit going to determine that night whether he'll save Chester's skin or not.

First up is "Honeymoon Hotel" with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler in a 9 minute production number that features a lot of wholesome lasciviousness, with brides and grooms (some might even be married), bedrooms and beds, and doors with "Do not disturb" signs.

Then on to the next theater and 11 minutes of "By a Waterfall" that probably had the Warner Brothers accountants worrying about bankruptcy. This number is so excessive -- dozens of swimming girls, trees, fountains, a huge grotto with waterslides, a giant pool -- you'd never think there was a Depression on. Berkeley pulls out all his tricks -- synchronization, human patterns, legs and arms doing all sorts of precision things -- and he does it in the water, with a lot of underwater photography looking up. The girls are sure game. They come up smiling with water in their eyes and still hit their marks. The whole thing must have been incredibly difficult and exhausting. Ruby Keeler, who has a couple of quick shots in the water, is the only one who looks a bit cautious.

And finally, the smash finale...11 minutes of Cagney dancing and singing with Keeler to "Shanghai Lil," with all sorts of bar girls and their customers, unusual in that the races are mixed up. There's Cagney and Keeler dancing on the bar, dancing on a table, Cagney fighting. There are what looks like fifty or sixty marching marines, hupping back and forth, rifles tossed and caught. Then...this is true...a human picture forms of Franklin Roosevelt and the NRA eagle. This may be the only Hollywood musical production that has ever featured Roosevelt, a big federal agency and a bevy of sexy Chinese prostitutes.

That's entertainment, folks. It's great!

Of course, Chester's Prologues get the big contract and Nan gets Chester. The movie is full of juicy clichés that make us smile. Ruby Keeler is so endearing as she earnestly stomps out her taps with her arms flying that you want to help her along. Joan Blondell makes us forget about a lot of Hollywood females who might have been more beautiful but who had a lot less wit and personality. The movie, however, belongs to Cagney, who grabs and shakes it, and to Berkeley, a man for whom too much was never too much.

Comment: Footlight Parade is one of the best early musicals starring the great Jimmy Cagney, Ruby Keeler, and Joan Blondell. Dick Powell also turns in a great performance and his singing is superb. The song and dance numbers by Busby Berkeley are nothing short of incredible; and the plot moves along at a good pace.

The action begins when Chester Kent (Jimmy Cagney) is struggling to put on prologues, small shows as opening numbers on a stage just before a movie theater showed an early "talkie film." Chester must contend with his two swindling bosses Silas 'Si' Gould (Guy Kibbee) and Al Frazer (Arthur Hohl) and worse yet there's a rat in the company giving all their inside plans to a competing firm that also puts on prologues.

Of course, the plot goes deeper still. Chester's wife Cynthia (Renee Whitney) wants a divorce. Moreover, Joan Blondell plays Nan Prescott, Chester's devoted secretary who loves him even though Chester himself doesn't realize it. There are also great performances by Claire Dodd as the gold digging Vivian Rich who dates Chester strictly for his money and Ruby Keeler plays Bea Thorn, a drab secretary who gets a stunning makeover to try to get into one of the prologues.

The plot can go anywhere from here. Will Chester ever discover that his bosses Gould and Frazer are cheating him of his pay? What would happen if Chester does find out? Chester is smitten with the superficial Vivian; but will he ever be free of his wife and see that Nan is the only woman who truly loves him? What about that spy inside the company--how will they ever find out who it is and put a stop to their ideas being leaked to their competitors? No plot spoilers here, folks--watch the movie and find out!

The choreography by Busby Berkeley can't be beat; and the cinematography is unparalleled.

Overall, Footlight Parade stuns you with some rather good acting, a juicy plot with action and unforgettable musical numbers lavishly created by the immortal Busby Berkeley. I highly recommend this film for aficionados of classic movie musicals.