42ND STREET (1933)

After Hollywood flooded the market with D.O.A. Early Talkie musicals (1929 - 1932), they became so unpopular, theaters were putting up placards promising ‘All Talking/No Songs,’ studios removed already filmed production numbers from films and the Movie Musical was declared dead . . . at the age of three and a half.*  But the genre came roaring back in 1933 thanks to three hits from Warner Bros. (42ND, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933; FOOTLIGHT PARADE) and the first paring of Rogers & Astaire at R.K.O.  But where Fred & Ginger figured out how to trip the light fantastic on film, Warners tethered musical comedy to current events, specifically The Depression, in all its desperation.  Naturally, improved sound technology had a lot to do with things, but in 42ND STREET, first to be released, it was the realistic portrayal of a world falling apart, even if it was the fantastic backstage world of a B’way musical in trouble.  Warner Baxter is a powerhouse of physical exhaustion as the show’s director with one last chance to make back his Wall Street losses.  And the rest of the cast is chockablock with iconic turns from Ruby Keeler as a naïf but game chorine; Dick Powell’s sweet-natured boy ingenue; Bebe Daniels’ leading lady with a sugardaddy (Guy Kibbee) she can’t abide, but who’s backing the show (she’s stuck on old partner George Brent); and a veritable cartload of tasty characters (including Ginger Rogers before she was poached by R.K.O.).  Funny putdowns & Pre-Code innuendo galore , cleverly put together by book director Lloyd Bacon from a pacey script.  Yet, the film, which is dead serious, fights a reputation of campy silliness, largely because of those famous Busby Berkeley dance routines.  But in these early films, his work is double tethered, to the stage and to the financial meltdown just outside the theater alley door.  Excess production values would soon set in (marvelous fun, but in a different/campy way), but here, as in GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 and FOOTLIGHT PARADE.’33, the naughty Berkeley touch has a human scale still involved with what audiences would return to once they left the show.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:  Those other ‘33 classics: GOLD DIGGERS; FOOTLIGHT; Fred & Ginger’s FLYING DOWN TO RIO- all essential viewing.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/gold-diggers-of-1933-1933.html   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/footlight-parade-1933.html    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2024/06/flying-down-to-rio-1933.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *After the phenomenal, but misleading grosses on Al Jolson’s JAZZ SINGER follow-up, THE SINGING FOOL/’28, only Paramount consistently found the key to success in early sound musicals, thanks to Ernst Lubitsch and Rouben Mamoulian.