richspenc The other four greats are "42nd st", "Dames", "Gold diggers 33" and "Gold diggers 35". Some people have said that Gold diggers 35 wasn't as good as 33 because they used Gloria Stewart as Dick Powell's love interest and show partner instead of Ruby Keeler, but I thought that both girls are wonderful. Some people may've just looked at that as a disruption in continuity, but I wasn't bothered by that. I love both Ruby and Gloria. "Footlight parade" was great. Each Busby film has a little uniqueness that makes it a bit different from the others. "42nd st " had the fabulous Una Merkel. "Footlight parade " has the tough, comic, energetic James Cagney. Normally remembered from his tough guy gangster roles in "Public enemy", "White heat", and "Angels with dirty faces". He shows some of the same tough character traits here, he is just a little more civilized and less dangerous due to him being a Broadway director instead of a gangster. He is wanting to create some terrific prologues to place in the theaters before the films begin. These would be the final years of any type of live shows before / after films in movie theaters before being permanently discontinued. After that, theaters would always have just a show, or just a film. Joan Blondell is Cagney's (live in) secretary, Guy Kibee is the older aristocratic who funds the money for production, Frank MChue is the whiny, uptight, over worrying assistant director who (comically) keeps whining "it can't be done! It just can't be done!" (I found it funny, but towards the end he was saying it too much, and the other girls seemed to agree with that when they were all in line to use the phone). Ruth Donelly was a cute little love interest of Cagney's. Then there is Billy Barty, who looked like a baby, but was really about 9 years old due to having dwarfism, added some laughs such as in a funny bedroom misunderstanding scene during "Honeymoon hotel" number. Another great part while Cagney walks in with a cat saying how cats would be a great idea for the show, and gives it to Mchue to get the girls to do an excellent cat themed number. Another great part was with Mchue directing the "prosperity unit" with the stage girls in big white dresses dancing and singing, then Hugh Hubert barges in telling Cagney to call off the "prosperity unit" due to him thinking how some states won't approve of the content in the number. Then for the same reason, Hugh calls off the cat number. Cagney then fires him because he thinks Hugh wants to keep finding excuses to drop every number.Then there's the entire part with the wonderful Ruby Keeler. First, Powell hurts Ruby's feelings who was mousey looking with her attire and glasses during the first part of the film. Ruby then talks to Joan, and Joan gives her a makeover and surprises Cagney. Cagney sees Ruby dance and puts her into the show rehearsals (with the funny line of Cagney mocking Mchue's "it just can't be done"). Cagney says with a smile "another good girl gone bad" (which was amusing). Next scene shows Ruby in a cute cat outfit preforming in the number "sitting in a backyard fence". I loved that whole part. Then Powell sees the madeover beautiful Ruby, loves it and tries to kiss her, and Ruby halfway backs away, plays a tease and gives Powell the cutest look with her eyes, I loved it.I found it amusing how the girls got so excited every time the lunch/ dinner bell was rung and excitedly ran to their tables. I guess the writers were referencing the depression. In the early 1930s when money and food were so challenging to get, it kinda was an exciting treat to keep getting those free meals, even when the directors were working those girls so hard. I'm guessing free meals were part of the hard rehearsals training package.I know they're people who note how those musical numbers aren't logical. As for "Like a waterfall" with all the swimming, wouldn't they have had to practice in the water instead of how all their rehearsing throughout the film was on the sound stage? Also, many parts of the numbers would not have been able to have been seen from the audiences at the theater, due to all those overhead shot angles from the film viewers place. However, because the numbers were so amazing and great, we can totally excuse it all from not being practically logical. These films were escapism from the hard realities of the depression and strict logic really wasn't necessary. Next, people would be asking "how can a house fly? or how can a good witch float in a bubble? in "Wizard of oz". "By a waterfall " was wonderful and amazing, and was also what inspired the lovely Esther Williams to star in similar scenes one decade later in the 1940s.

gkeith_1 Great showstoppers. Jimmy hoofing it up a storm, nine years before his boffo "Yankee Doodle Dandy". Ruby Keeler always excellent; superb. Joan Blondell -- spoiler -- gets Jimmy in the end, after she kicks his cheap trashy gold-digger, literally, to the curb, lol. Hugh Herbert with the famous hand-twirling -- always a delight. Jimmy's friend Frank McHugh terribly whiny as the dance director, and his wearing that huge cat's tail is totally hilarious. Cat number just divine, so is waterfall number. Honeymoon number full of pre-code innuendoes, but of course there is the justice of the peace just off the lobby. Berkeley always excellent, plus he is one of the cast. Look for him. 12/10

kirksworks When I was in junior college I took a summer film class and the instructor showed films in the girl's gym every Friday night.  It was free and there was always a big turnout. What was interesting was the selection of films. They were all Hollywood films from the early 30s like "Duck Soup," "20th Century" and "Fury." A sizable part of the crowd didn't have much background in film, and certainly hadn't seen very many older films. This was in the late 60s or early 70s and the new wave of American films was just underway, so audiences were prone to laugh at the old fashioned movies of the past. And indeed they did, but after a few films a surprising thing happened. People started cheering at the end of the films, and even cheering at moments during the films. They were really surprised at how good they were, how adult they were, and how funny they were. By the end of the summer, an amazing learning experience had occurred. At least one audience had grown to understand the value of older movies. One of the films shown was "Footlight Parade which was initially received with guffaws, but ultimately Busby Berkeley won the audience over. He was a visual genius no one has matched, but the film is more than visual extravagance."Footlight Parade" has a very intricate plot unfolding in a face paced story with witty dialogue and physical performances by both James Cagney and Joan Blondell. I couldn't decide who was cuter, Blondell or the very young Ruby Keeler. There was even a comment on the greediness of big business when we discover the owners of the production company have been skimming off the top (basically, taking money from the hard working man - James Cagney and the rest - to line their own pockets).  If that doesn't relate to what is going on today I don't know what does.  The story builds to three song and dance routines, choreographed by Berkeley: "Honeymoon Hotel," "By a Waterfall," and "Shanghai Lil." Each one is spectacular in its own way. "Honeymoon Hotel" was very racy, showing all these couples having affairs with others in the hotel. It's all told in visuals and a very infectious song that alludes to all the sexual chicanery. Really impressive and funny. "By a Waterfall," good God, what can be said about this?!! Simply stated, it has choreographed female swimmers forming patterns in a large pool, but it was just about the most visually phenomenal phantasmagoria ever produced. How it was achieved boggles the mind. When the camera shoots down and shows the swimmers' kaleidoscopic patterns, it was truly remarkable, and when the overhead lights go off and the pool lights underneath go on we get this languid shimmering, silhouetted spectacle that was just beyond ethereal. The last number, "Shanghai Lil," has producer/director Cagney forced to dance when the lead performer is found drunk. This was Hollywood encouraging America to pull itself out of the depression and have faith in Roosevelt's New Deal. It was invigorating to say the least!! We need something like this now!!  James Cagney was just a joy, so energetic and fun. His dancing always impressed me.  He had a very individualistic style. I think I prefer his solo style to Fred Astaire's, and that's saying a lot, but Astaire's paired routines with Ginger Rogers and Rita Hayworth were the best. Joan Blondell had a field day with physical comedy. Her timing was impeccable. This film is so progressive in thought that it's hard to believe Cagney later became a Republican.  The three songs are easy to like. Very old style 1930s numbers indeed they are, but they're extremely catchy, transformed into little jewels of the era by Busby Berkeley's visual panache. Today's Hollywood may have CG dinosaurs, but they don't make 'em like this anymore.

dougdoepke Not so much a musical as a mating call set to music. But then what else could be expected from three back-to-back production numbers from that carnally-obsessed choreographer Busby Berkeley. "Beside the Waterfall" alone has enough 'flowering o's', half-dressed chorines, and suggestive camera angles to make Hugh Hefner blush and send Dr. Freud into terminal overload. Then too, who else but the mad Mr. Berkeley could convert the complicated matter of sex into a mere conjugation of overhead geometry. There's also "Honeymoon Hotel", a celebration of the no-tell motel, with marching phalanxes of hormonally driven couples all named Smith, and led by a demonic cupid looking like an early Billy Barty. The sight of his tiny legs chasing after a fleeing Amazon is enough to drive Harpo Marx to distraction and cause the audience to doubt the laws of physics. While bringing down the curtain is the marching madness of "Shanghai Lil", where Berkeley proves-- in case you ever doubted-- that race, creed, and bad make-up make no difference to a Chinese bordello. It's sort of an early gathering of the UN, where people from all over come together to discuss the world's number one topic. All in all, there's enough sheer pizzaz, flash, and animal energy in these numbers to light up a thousand dark movie houses.Sure, Warner Bros. tries to cover the orgy with the fig leaf of two cheerful innocents played by a sappy Dick Powell and a virginal Ruby Keeler. But it doesn't work, because everyone else gets in on the fun, including that human buzz-saw Jimmy Cagney and everyone's favorite sassy dame Joan Blondell. Director Lloyd Bacon proves too he knows what to do, giving us an eyeful of Blondell endlessly rolling and unrolling her hosiery, while the writers pepper the conversation with suggestive one-liners. Yeah, it's a great movie-- good enough to help bring down the heavy hand of censorship the following year, and put an end to damp dreams like "Beside a Waterfall". But not even the Watchdogs of Public Morality could stop Berkeley's deliriously suggestive pageantry that would live on at even that most repressed of studios, MGM. Sure, Astaire-Rogers may have been more graceful and a whole lot more chaste, no doubt producing more sheer polish-- still and all, don't let this unabashedly pagan celebration pass you by. As they say around the owl cage, it's a real hoot.