 42nd Street 1933  N/R, 89 min.
Genre: Musical / Drama / Romance
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Una Merkel, Ruby Keeler, Guy Kibbee, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, George E. Stone, Allen Jenkins, Ned Sparks, Edward J. Nugent, Robert McWade, Louise Beavers, George Irving
Busby Berkeley's musical numbers highlight this entertaining film about what goes on behind the scenes of the Broadway musical show, "Pretty Lady." The show's director Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) is in poor health but wants to enjoy one more hit before he retires. When the show's temperamental star, Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels) breaks her ankle on the night of the show's opening, chorus girl Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) fills in and takes over the lead. Featured numbers include" "You're getting to Be a Habit with Me," "Shuffle off to Buffalo," and "42nd Street." The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
|  | |
Dames 1934 N/R, 92 min.
Genre: Musical / Comedy
Director: Ray Enright
Cast: Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Zasu Pitts, Hugh Herbert, Guy Kibbee, Arthur Vinton, Sammy Fain, Phil Regan, Arthur Aylesworth, Johnny Arthur, Leila Bennett, Berton Churchill
Multi-millionaire Ezra Ounce (Hugh Herbert) leads his friends and family in a campagne for "the preservation of America's Morals." Meanwhile, his distant cousin, Jimmy (Dick Powell), is producing a show in what Ezra believes to be "the demon world of the theater" starring Ezra's niece Barbara (Ruby Keeler). Ezra's solution: hire thugs to wreck the show, and mayhem ensues.
| | |
Footlight Parade 1933 N/R, 104 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh, Claire Dodd, Renee Whitney, Ruth Donnelly
This is one of those grand scale musicals that, in this instance, contains some of Busby Berkeley's best work. Chester Kent (James Cagney) is a brash, hustling stage director who faces economic and romantic problems.
| | |
 Gold Diggers of 1933 1933 N/R, 96 min.
Genre: Musical
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Cast: Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Aline MacMahon, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, Warren William, Ned Sparks, Ginger Rogers, Sterling Holloway, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Billy Barty, Hobart Cavanaugh, Busby Berkeley, Charles(1) Lane, Tammany Young
This musical proved so popular that two sequels were made: one in 1935 and another in 1937. Unemployed showgirls Carol (Joan Blondell), Polly (Ruby Keeler), and Trixie (Aline MacMahon) want to perform in a musical, and IF Polly will play the lead, singer-composer Brad Roberts (Dick Powell) will foot the bill. Brad and Polly are in love, but Brad's wealthy family disapproves and will stop at nothing to break them up–but they fail, and the show goes on. Ginger Rogers sings "We're in the Money" while wearing only silver dollars in one of the great Busby Berkeley production numbers.
| | |
Mother Carey's Chickens 1938  N/R, 82 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Rowland V. Lee
Cast: Fay Bainter, Anne Shirley, Ruby Keeler, James Ellison, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, Virginia Weidler, Frank Morgan, Margaret Hamilton, Alma Kruger, Donnie Dunagan
The "chickens" in this story are a mother's (Fay Bainter) children (Anne Shirley and Ruby Keeler); this mother sacrifices her all to protect her youngsters. Remade in 1963 as "Summer Magic."
| | |
| 1. 42nd Street (1933)
2. Dames (1934)
3. Footlight Parade (1933)
4. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
5. Mother Carey's Chickens (1938)
In The News
|
