Gold Diggers of 1935 [HD]

Number-crunching
After having directed the musical numbers for several of their films -- 42ND STREET, FOOTLIGHT PARADE, and GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 ---, Warner Bros. finally let Busby Berkeley be the sole director for GOLD DIGGERS OF 1935, which as usual only features three musical numbers (with two of the big numbers stockpiled at the very end of the film). The plot concerns a stingy millionairess (Alice Brady) losing control of her two children at an expensive lake resort, and the characters are the two-dimensional types -- the easily-horrified dowager, the excitable Russian impresario, the stuffy collector of curios, etc. -- that might have been lifted from restoration comedy. Berkeley has such a heavy hand with his actors, however, that the acting seems more akin here to Kabuki. Brady even sustains a bizarrely florid hand gesture to indicate when she is thinking (you would never guess that in a year she would be honored with a Best Supporting Oscar for her sensitive work in IN OLD CHICAGO). The...

this is the one!
This is the one to own if you must own only one.
Of Busby Berkeley, that is.
It's a pleasant change of pace from the "putting on a show" plot that predominates "Dames," "Golddiggers of 1933," "Footlight Parade," and "42nd Street." (All five-star, by the way.) Yes, there is a show, of course, but that's not the main plot point.
Gloria Stuart adds a different dimension from Ruby Keeler. (Though she doesn't dance. :-))
Alice Brady and Adolph Menjou chew the scenery splendidly.
But "Lullaby of Broadway" is the best of all Berkeley production numbers. Powerful. Self-contained. Expertly realized. Beautiful. It blows me away.

Wow, What An Era
The studio system of the 1930's and 40's had much to recommend it.

Where are the likes of those wonderful character actors, such as Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, Alice Brady, Gloria Stewart, Frank McHugh, Franklin Pangborn, and Adolph Menjou, who was sort of a junior John Barrymore, to be found today?

And who will ever duplicate the choreographing genius of a Busby Berkeley?

With all of the advantages of the technology of today, why do we see so much garbage, and so little quality and innovation?

Actually, much of what we see today borders on perversion, and outright pornography.

Something is wrong when we have to seek out 60 and 70 year old movies to be entertained, and in black and white, no less.

I guess we should just be thankful to have them, and in such glorious abundance.

And thanks to Amazon for making it all available to us.

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