Footlight Parade [HD]

Cagney the Hoofer
James Cagney is of course best known for his sympathetic, even lovable, gangster in such films as Public Enemy and White Heat (well, he is not quite so lovable in the latter). What is less well known is that he shone in a variety of other kinds of roles during his long career, up to and including Shakespeare's Bottom.

One of the genres in which Cagney was most successful was the movie musical. Later in his career, he was even able to combine his talents by playing gangsters in musicals such as Love Me or Leave Me and Never Steal Anything Small. Probably the best of his musicals, though, was 1933's Footlight Parade. As Chester Kent, producer of live musical prologues to films during the early days of the "talkies," he dances and sings, and in typical Cagney fashion also gives the impression of being in at least five places at once. This despite having to contend with a dishonest competitor, a couple of even more dishonest colleagues, a grasping ex-wife, a nervous...

Well worth the viewing.
FOOTLIGHT PARADE is the last of the great Warner Brothers musical "trilogy" of 1933 along with 42ND STREET and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933. In my opinion, it is the best of the series, and grossing in over $700,000 (a staggering amount for depression era films), apparently the viewers of 1933 found it to be a real treat as well.

Chester Kent (James Cagney) is a down-and-out-of-luck stage producer when he finds himself out of a job (ironically, via motion pictures). To make matters worse, his wife leaves him and his agents (Guy Kibbee and Arthur Hohl) don't need him anymore. All of this in the first five minutes of the film!

Kent gets a breakthrough idea: putting on one pre-picture prologue may cost a bundle, but if you tour the country with that one prologue, it will pay for itself practically! Soon, he has an entire establishment including his right hand gal Nan (Joan Blondell), stenographer turned tap dancer Bea Thorne (Ruby Keeler), a singing college romeo Scotty (Dick Powell), a...

The classic pre-Code musical
Many people now consider this the best of the major Warner/Busby Berkeley films (the others: GOLD DIGGERS OF 33, 35 & 37, 42ND STREET, FASHIONS OF 1934, IN CALIENTE, DAMES, WONDER BAR). I have to agree. The non-musical segments are as good as the production numbers. This is an amazing showcase for Joan Blondell and James Cagney, whose rapid fire 30's dialogue is something to behold. The script is still funny, and quite racy as well ("I've met miss Bit....I mean RICH before").

George Feltenstein at Warners has promised a Busby Berkeley boxed set DVD in 2005. Lets hope this film gets some sort of restoration, and that they maybe throw on Berkeley numbers from lesser films (VARSITY SHOW, THE SINGING MARINE) as extras.

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