vert001 42nd STREET is grounded in reality from its very first scene. The Depression had devastated Broadway and by 1932 even the lower priced film industry was finding its very survival threatened by the hard times. It was no joke that a successful actress (Bebe Daniels) would submit to an affair with a slimy tycoon (Guy Kibbee) in order to secure the backing for a new production. Nor was it a mere fancy that a famous stage director (Warner Baxter) would find himself penniless by way of the stock market, nor that he would resort to strong arm tactics to ensure a show's success. And that chorus girls would consider themselves lucky to have the opportunity of driving themselves into the ground when the real alternative was starvation? As Ginger Rogers would say in the next Berkeley extravaganza: "It's the Depression, dearie."This inherent grittiness of 42nd STREET was and would remain rare in what are normally straight 'musical comedies'. The alleged escapism of thirties' movies is much overstated. I doubt that any era's films were as obsessive about depicting the suffering engendered by contemporary conditions (certainly not our own, but that's another story). However, plots can always be slotted into a relatively small number of patterns. 42nd STREET in general gives us the story of a disparate group of people being brought together by a hard-driving leader with a vision in order to accomplish something, in this case putting on a show. In a military context you would have a disparate group of soldiers being molded into a unit by a hard-driving drill sergeant. Or the project could be some sort of business, or a political campaign. In 42nd STREET, it's show business.Putting the emphasis on the leader gives one sort of story, often a biography, but despite the fact that Warner Baxter's character probably remains its most important, 42nd STREET always keeps its emphasis on the process and eventually on the show itself. Its heart, I think, remains always the chorus girls pounding themselves into exhaustion in one montage after another. Until its final twenty minutes, 42nd STREET's plot consists of various character vignettes garnished with some very sharp comedy, particularly from our acid-tongued 'Greek Chorus', Lorraine (Una Merkel) and Anytime Annie (Ginger Rogers), the all underlined with a barely concealed desperation.42nd STREET's various plot elements were not all that original at the time and of course have become far less so in the intervening years; however, its emotional treatment of these elements is anything but cliché-ish. Its Warren and Dubin musical score is excellent, Berkeley's production numbers may give us our first taste of his surrealistic genius (I haven't seen his Eddie Cantor movies so I'm not sure about that), the cast is a brilliant mixture of veterans (Baxter in the performance of his career, and maybe the same could be said of Daniels) along with rising young talent (Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler). This movie wasn't exactly the inventor of the clichés, it was the film that used them so memorably that they became set in our collective mind.There have been few musicals so wonderful as 42nd STREET.

gavin6942 Renowned Broadway producer/director Julian Marsh is hired to put together a new musical revue. It's being financed by Abner Dillon to provide a starring vehicle for his girlfriend, songstress Dorothy Brock.I suppose i shouldn't be too hard on this one. Although it is not my favorite musical, and probably not even in my top ten, I have to give them credit for being ambitious. This was 1933, and sound in film was relatively new. Going the extra step from talking to singing to full-blown musical... very brave and risky.I do wish there were bigger names attached to this picture. We have a couple, but this is not an all-star revue, and most people today (2015) will not know almost any of these folks. That could make up the difference between largely forgotten (except by historians and serious film lovers) and permanent classic.

utgard14 As many other reviewers have said, this is the grandfather of movie musicals. It gave birth to many clichés that would be used all throughout classic Hollywood musicals and even to this day, in one form or another. Warner Baxter is terrific as the slave-driving director ("I'll either have a live leading lady or a dead chorus girl"). Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell are the quintessential juvenile leads. Film debut for Keeler and first big role for Powell. Keeler doesn't have the best voice but she has a nice screen presence and immense likability. Plus her tap dancing is pretty good. Bebe Daniels is wonderful in her biggest film role. Ginger Rogers plays Anytime Annie ("She only said no once and then she didn't hear the question"). It's one of those 'tough dame with a snappy one-liner' roles Ginger did so well. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces from the '30s: George Brent, Guy Kibbee, Allen Jenkins, Una Merkel, Ned Sparks, and George E. Stone, among others. The script is fantastic with lots of that colorful lingo Warner Bros. movies were known for back in the day. Of course, the real highlight of the movie are the Busby Berkeley musical numbers like "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and the climactic "42nd Street" number, my personal favorite. It's a fantastic movie. Obviously a classic and still entertaining from start to finish, over 80 years later.

tavm If you've been reading under my username for the past several weeks, you probably know I've been reviewing movie musicals chronologically (mostly) during all that time, mainly to prepare for the latest one out now, Les Miserables. So we're now at 1933 when the major studios had reduced the song-and-dance films since 1930 when they weren't as popular as the previous year during the first full-talkie revolution. That would change this particular year when Warner Bros., in the midst of a possible bankruptcy, made this one though they saved the big numbers for the end so it's the backstage drama involving various characters that dominate the narrative to often compelling effect. I mean, seeing Ruby Keeler in her film debut is a marvel to watch in her naive charm when she first is on screen and while her dances may not have been the greatest, she put it on well good enough as evidenced by Busby Berkeley's choreography, of which this was his first Warners assignment having spent his few previous years at the Goldwyn Studios doing the Eddie Cantor movies there. His now-iconic kaleidescope of female dancers with some overhead shots gets a real workout here and they're still spectacular! The real great dramatic turn concerns the director Keeler's trained by, Julian Marsh as played by Warner Baxter whose desperateness is so stressed, you can't help but feel for him knowing how his health is here. And then there's Bebe Daniels as the supposed star of the musical play who has to decide between Sugar Daddy Guy Kibbee or her ex-dancing partner George Brent on who she wants to spend more time with. While her character is bitchy, it's very understandable here and her explanations are good for one to warm to her when she does calm down to Keeler near the end. There's also some nice comic turns by a couple of chorus girls, Una Merkel and Ginger Rogers, the last one about to become a star herself with Fred Astaire later in the year. And, finally, what about the songs themselves by Harry Warren & Al Dubin. The title song, "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me", and "Young and Healthy" are just such classics that I wouldn't mind hearing them again and again! Oh, and Dick Powell is also good in the last number I mentioned and what about the female he sings it to, Toby Wing. Isn't she so fine-looking at 17 when she was in this movie? I think I've said enough so on that note, 42nd Street is highly recommended, still!