Only two years after 42nd STREET, this hit musical already shows a lack of care or ideas over at Warners. They’re still putting on a big B’way show & plugging in kaleidoscopic Busby Berkeley ‘numbos,’ but his big musical abstractions turn ‘camp’ when ungrounded by the tang of Depression era desperation that made the preceding films much more than the sum of their disparate parts. Even the casting has withered with an underused Joan Blondell top-billed and supporting faves Ruby Keeler & Dick Powell too light to anchor the ultra-slim plot. No James Cagney, no Warner Baxter; not even Warren William or flavorsome Damon Runyon types like Ned Sparks or an eager to please/pre-Astaire Ginger Rogers to jazz things up. And the move from A-list meggers (LeRoy, Bacon, Keighley) to routiner Ray Enright doesn’t help.
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