42nd Street (Snap Case)
by Lloyd Bacon
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DVD details
Actor: Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Guy Kibbee, Ruby Keeler, Warner BaxterDirector: Lloyd Bacon
Cinematographer: Sol Polito
Editor: Frank Ware
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Writer: Bradford Ropes
Writer: James Seymour
Writer: Rian James
Writer: Whitney Bolton
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: Pan & Scan, 1.33:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-09-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Reviews of 42nd Street (Snap Case)
DVD Review: Every Home Should Have One
Summary: 5 Stars
What a fantastic box set (& what a fantastic price from Amazon!). My favorite is Gold Diggers Of 1933, but they're all great. Lots of extras; the main one being The Busby Berkely Disc. 21 Busby B. dance numbers (including the amazing Lullaby Of Broadway), if you're ever feeling down just put this on, better than any medicine.DVD Review: WE'RE IN THE MONEY
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a review for "The Busby Berkeley Collection" a box set of five Busby Berkeley related musicals issued by Warner Brothers on DVD. These are the ground breaking musicals made during then depths of the Depression that must've knocked the socks off of anyone who saw them. Here they are:
42ND STREET (1933) dby Lloyd Bacon w/Busby Berkeley. Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Ruby Keeler and another great cast of character actors.
The original let's put on a show and hope we can make a profit movie, this one has it all. Beautiful women, great show music and an astounding cast of supporting players including Dick Powell, Ginger Rodgers, Guy Kibbee and the show stopping title number," 42nd Street," which is still an amazing accomplishment. One of the all-time greats.
FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933). dby Lloyd Bacon w/ Busby Berkeley. James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Frank McHugh. This time James Cagney takes the Warner musical formula for a spin and everyone's a winner. Watchng Cagney go through his paces for this Berkeley extravaganza is a real treat and the climactic number, "Shanghai Lil" is a show stopping knock out. Like many of these early WB musicals The Depression and lack of money is a paramount theme but the energy and optimism displayed on screen is something our modern audiences might appreciate.
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933) dby Mervyn LeRoy/Busby Berkeley. Warren William, Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler. Unforgetable Depression-era musical featuring "We're In the Money" and the classic "Remember My Forgotten Man." Possibly some of the most heartfelt performances in any movie musical. Despite it's massive scale GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 still projects a sense of intimacy with some of these numbers which unfortunately are still relevant today. A must see.
GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935 (1935). dby Busby Berkeley. Dick Powell, Adolph Menjou, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady, Hugh Herbert. A top grade musical with a silly story about Alice Brady trying to save money while backing a milk fund benefit at a summer resort. But the highlight is the astounding "Lullabye of Broadway," a gradually darkening musical number with a shocking ending. In this one even the tap dancers are threatening, worth seeing for the "Lullabye" alone, but the rest is enjoyable and the music in most of these Berkeley associated performances is outstanding.
DAMES (1934) dby Ray Enright/Busby Berkeley. Joan Blondelll, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Zasu Pitts. Not quite as outstanding as the previous musicals I have mentioned but certainly good enough to watch and enjoy. DAMES stands on its own with numbers like "Dames," "The Girl At the Ironing board," and "I Only Have Eyes For You." Part of the problem with watching this first Busby Berkeley box set is that there are so many excellent musical performances they tend to run together. But who cares, this first busby Berkeley box set is a great value and it's on sale during the holiday shopping season
at Amazon.
Also included in this box set are documentaries and some wonderful WB cartoons with musical themes that are featured in the above Berkeley films.
Last but not least a highlight disc entitled "The Busby Berkeley Disc" is included with this box set and no matter how familiar you might be with the movies I mentioned you just might enjoy seeing these remarkable numbers performed one right after the other.
Considering the age of these films the picture and sound quality is fine, a top quality
set in every way possible. Without a doubt this is a classic collection that any film lover would be happy to own.
DVD Review: Depression Era escapism to the max
Summary: 5 Stars
Great to have all these in one package. Saw these originally as a college student in a course 'History of the Movies'...they capture all the cliches: chorus girl succeeds, boy gets girl, etc. Amazing is the fact of what you see is painstakingly real...no computer generated anything here! DVD Review: Tough Pre-Code Wonder
Summary: 5 Stars
Those hoping for MGM technicolor candy-coated escapism should look elsewhere. 42nd Street is a hardscrabble Warner Brothers movie from a hardscrabble era. In 1932, the filmmakers were not straight-jacketed by the Production Code (Warners, admirably, was the last studio to fully comply) and it shows. 42nd Street entertains grandly, but also warrants serious attention as a reflection of the United States in the throes of the Great Depression.
The plot has been summarized many times but may be worth another look through the darker prism of the film's historical context:
Theatrical producers Jones and Barry hire down-and-out Julian Marsh, excellently played by Warner Baxter, to direct their new show, "Pretty Lady." Marsh is a brilliant director but a desperate man. He has lost all his money in the '29 stock market crash. He's a physical and emotional train wreck. If "Pretty Lady" fails, it's all over for him. He drives himself and his cast relentlessly, grinding his cast through endless rehearsals, grinding the endless cigarettes he chain-smokes into the stage floor.
Leading lady Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels) has known great success in the past, but is glad to have a job "with this Depression on." She not only carries the lead of the show, she carries the responsibility for its financing. She has no taste whatever for the show's unattractive but wealthy backer, Abner Dillon (Guy Kibbe), but she must spend time in his company, dangling the promise of her sexual favors just out of his reach, to keep him supporting the production. Meanwhile, she meets secretly with her unemployed ex-lover from her vaudeville days, Pat Denning, who lurks in the vicinity of the theater. Dorothy wants to be with Pat, but he says there's a name for men who let women support them, and it's not a very nice name, obviously referring to gigolo.
Billy Lawlor, the juvenile lead (Dick Powell), befriends naive newcomer Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) at a casting call. Peggy, along with women of the world Anytime Annie (Ginger Rogers) and Lorraine (Una Merkel), win places in the chorus. There are plenty of not-so-subtle hints at the casting couch during auditions.
Grueling rehearsals go on and on, and finally, at a drunken cast party, Dorothy makes it clear to Abner that she cannot stand him. He threatens to withdraw his financial support. Dorothy then breaks her ankle. Marsh is desperate when he realizes that he is going to lose his leading lady and his financial backing.
At some point off-screen, Anytime Annie steps in as Abner's new companion, so the financing is saved. Abner wants Annie to take Dorothy's place, but Annie insists that Marsh give Dorothy's role to Peggy Sawyer. With less than 24 hours to go before the Philadelphia opening, Marsh pushes Peggy to the point of collapse. Marsh's famous line is, "Sawyer, you're going out there a youngster but you've got to come back a star." The less-famous lead-in is Marsh telling Peggy that that all the money invested in the show and 200 jobs are riding on Peggy's back--a rather large burden for a frightened chorus girl with no prior experience.
There's a lot of sex in 42nd Street (off-screen of course, this is not Last Tango in Paris), not much of it motivated by love. There's a lot of fear. The film ends not with the performers' triumph, but with a shot of an utterly spent Julian Marsh sitting at the bottom of the fire escape outside the theater, watching the crowds go by and listening to them discount his role in the show's success. It's hard to think of a less escapist musical made between 1930 and 1960.
It may not be escapist, but 42nd Street is an excellent movie. The Busby Berkeley production numbers (often sexually suggestive and dark in theme) induce jaw-dropping. The Warren & Dubin songs have some clever lyrics and really stick in your head. Dick Powell charms, singing and handling his light comedy well. Ruby Keeler is a barely adequate singer, and her clogging dance style is not much appreciated today, but she's so appealing it doesn't matter. Ginger Rogers and Una Merkle provide expert comic relief. The off-stage business moves along briskly.
42nd Street is the original mold for the backstage musical film. I actually prefer this to musicals where the characters in lumber camps or city streets burst into song and dance for no apparent reason. In 42nd Street, the musical numbers make sense because the characters are directing, producing, auditioning for, rehearsing for, putting on, a Broadway musical show. As an imdb reviewer commented, complaining that 42nd Street has too many cliches is like complaining that Shakespeare has too many quotes. Even if you don't care for musicals as a genre, this holds such a significant place in American film history that it's worth a look for any film lover.
Other recommended Warner Brother's musicals of this era: From the pre-Code era: Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade (watch for the National Recovery Act support--coming from Jack Warner, a lifelong Republican but ardent supporter of the New Deal). Post-code Dames and Gold Diggers of 1935 are a bit more fluffy, but have some hilarious comedy and more phenomenal musical numbers. These five films are available as a boxed set with a sixth disc containing musical numbers only. Warning: Some of these movies contain material featuring small-person actor Billy Barty that seems in bad taste today, and African-Americans are portrayed as grinning menials. The period-era cartoons on the DVDs contain ethnic stereotypes which Warners's on-screen commentary acknowledges to be offensive and wrong but typical of the era.
DVD Review: BERKELEY IS MASTERFUL!!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the greatest sets of films ever released. High quality all the way for these Berkeley films. My only criticisms are with the extras. Some of the cartoons on the various discs have had added to the end title "dubbed version copyright Turner Ent." These are cartoons which have been "restored" by Turner, although "ruining" them might be more appropriate. More info is available by doing a search of the aforementioned phrase. In any case, it is completely unacceptable to add this to any film. If they add it before or after, I will put up with it, but NOT during a film. Also, the cartoons on GD of 1935 have an annoying PC disclaimer. Lastly, the removal of the "Mule" number on the Busby Berkeley disc is censorship at its worst. The PC Nation strikes again. Censorship of a work of art is unacceptable for any reason.
Description of 42nd Street (Snap Case)
Set during the depression, this is the granddaddy of backstage musicals in which the understudy finally gets a chance to shine. It may seem a little clich? now, but in 1933 this was hot stuff. All that behind-the-scenes atmosphere feels very genuine, and the script is more acerbic than you might expect.A sickly Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) puts his all into what may be his last show, only to face a disaster when leading lady Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels) sprains her ankle. Thank heavens for ingenue Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler), who steps in at the last minute. The vivacious soundtrack includes "Shuffle off to Buffalo," and the still-catchy title tune. Best of all are those extravagant, kaleidoscopic dance numbers by Busby Berkeley, then in his prime. --Rochelle O'Gorman
The Busby Berkeley Collection celebrates the work of one of the most visually inventive director-choreographers in the history of film. The centerpiece is of course 42nd Street (1933). This is the quintessential backstage musical in which young Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) goes from wide-eyed chorus girl to leading lady, urged by Warner Baxter, "You're going out there a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" A cast that also includes Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers (when she was an RKO contract player and before she teamed up with Fred Astaire) performs "Shuffle Off to Buffalo, " "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me," and the title tune, in which Keeler tap-dances on a black surface that turns out to be the roof of a car. Berkeley's numbers are known for their kaleidoscopic patterns, their stark black-and-white contrast, and their sheer sense of spectacle. But more than anything, they're known for their celebration of women. By the dozens, they dance, play pianos, frolic in waterfalls, and, in some of the most overtly sexual numbers, stand spread-eagled in a line as the camera passes through their legs. In many ways, the title song from Dames sums it up best: "What do you go for / to see a show for? / Tell the truth, you go to see those beautiful dames."
While Berkeley choreographed and directed the musical sequences in these films, the plot sections were generally directed by others such as Lloyd Bacon. Keeler and Powell were the most frequent headliners, supported by character players such as Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, and Ned Sparks, and most of the songs were contributed by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The stories aren't much, usually revolving around the putting-together of a musical show as well as the lives and loves of chorus girls. The term "gold diggers," which is the source of the title of two of the films included in this set, refers unflatteringly to chorus girls in search of wealthy husbands.
Gold Diggers of 1933 opens with a justly famous shot of Ginger Rogers wearing an outfit of coins and singing "We're in the Money" first in English then in pig Latin. Gold Diggers of 1935 is capped by "The Lullaby of Broadway," a 14-minute story-within-a-story that seems one of the inspirations for Singin' in the Rain's "Broadway Melody." Dames (1934) has the aforementioned title tune as well as "I Only Have Eyes for You" (with Powell singing to dozens of Keeler faces). Footlight Parade changes things up a bit by starring James Cagney as a producer desperately cranking out musical numbers. Keeler and Powell emerge from their bit-character roles to headline two of the big productions stacked together at the end, while Cagney replaces Powell in the third, showing off the vaudeville hoofing skills he would use later in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy.
DVD supplements are generous. The sixth disc is the 163-minute Busby Berkely Disc, a former laserdisc program that collects just the musical numbers from nine films without the plot filler. Most of the numbers are already included in the films in this collection, but there are also one number each from Fashions of 1934, Wonder Bar, In Caliente, and Gold Diggers of 1937. Also on the discs are new and old featurettes (one tracks the development of 42nd Street from book to screen to stage), and vintage cartoons and shorts (one promotional short has Berkeley on-screen talking up Dames). Picture quality is about the same as on the Astaire and Rogers Collection, Vol. 1: good for the age of the material, but with noticeable fuzz and print damage. --David Horiuchi
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