#Footlight parade 1933 movie

#Footlight parade 1933 movie

He starts doing Prologues, live musical entertainment offered on stage before a movie starts. Although the movie clearly belongs to Cagney, Joan Blondell adds immeasurably to the good-natured story line.Īnd 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. I give it a tie, with Footlight Parade one of the funniest and quickest of the early Thirties musicals. 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. Reviewed by Terrell-4 8 / 10 Grand entertainment, with Cagney hoofing and singing about his Shanghai Lil, and Busby Berkeley splashing water Essential for fans of Berkeley or the great leads. Nice support from solid character actors Frank McHugh, Guy Kibbee, Arthur Hohl, and Hugh Herbert. Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler are also enjoyable. There's also a lot of snappy pre-Code lines, particularly from Blondell. James Cagney and Joan Blondell are lots of fun. Most of the musical numbers are saved for the last half-hour but they're all great. with a terrific cast and the wonderful choreography Berkeley was known for. Now he has three days to come up with three brand new prologues and prevent their being stolen in order to land a big contract.įirst-rate Busby Berkeley musical from Warner Bros.

To make matters worse, a rival prologue director is stealing many of his ideas. Chester's prologues are a huge hit but the pressure of having to come up with new ideas is getting to him. So musical director Chester Kent (James Cagney) moves to producing prologues, which are short live musical stage productions that are presented in movie theaters before the movies are shown.

Stage musicals are having a rough go of it due to the rise in popularity of movies. Reviewed by utgard14 8 / 10 'Is it my fault if somebody invented talking pictures?'