42nd Street (1933)
Country: US
Technical: bw 89m
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers
Synopsis:
The director of a new Broadway show has been broken by the Crash and absolutely must have a hit; their principal investor is the leading lady's capricious sugar daddy, three times her age; and the new ingénue chorus girl catches the eye of the juvenile lead...
Review:
Fast-moving putting-on-a-show musical with all the elements there. Baxter's harassed director doesn't so much direct as harangue; the chorus girls snipe at each other but have a heart of gold when the need arises, and the flat staging gradually deepens into a Busby Berkeley fantasia of three-dimensional space and impossible costume changes. An archetype of the genre with especially appealing performances and studio machinery working at its peak. Sample dialogue: (of Anytime Annie, played by Rogers) 'The only time she said 'no' was when she didn't hear the question.'
Country: US
Technical: bw 89m
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers
Synopsis:
The director of a new Broadway show has been broken by the Crash and absolutely must have a hit; their principal investor is the leading lady's capricious sugar daddy, three times her age; and the new ingénue chorus girl catches the eye of the juvenile lead...
Review:
Fast-moving putting-on-a-show musical with all the elements there. Baxter's harassed director doesn't so much direct as harangue; the chorus girls snipe at each other but have a heart of gold when the need arises, and the flat staging gradually deepens into a Busby Berkeley fantasia of three-dimensional space and impossible costume changes. An archetype of the genre with especially appealing performances and studio machinery working at its peak. Sample dialogue: (of Anytime Annie, played by Rogers) 'The only time she said 'no' was when she didn't hear the question.'
Country: US
Technical: bw 89m
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers
Synopsis:
The director of a new Broadway show has been broken by the Crash and absolutely must have a hit; their principal investor is the leading lady's capricious sugar daddy, three times her age; and the new ingénue chorus girl catches the eye of the juvenile lead...
Review:
Fast-moving putting-on-a-show musical with all the elements there. Baxter's harassed director doesn't so much direct as harangue; the chorus girls snipe at each other but have a heart of gold when the need arises, and the flat staging gradually deepens into a Busby Berkeley fantasia of three-dimensional space and impossible costume changes. An archetype of the genre with especially appealing performances and studio machinery working at its peak. Sample dialogue: (of Anytime Annie, played by Rogers) 'The only time she said 'no' was when she didn't hear the question.'