Tag: Lloyd Bacon

Footlight Parade (1933)

Footlight Parade (1933). 102 minutes. Directed by Lloyd Bacon. Starring James Cagney (as Chester Kent), Joan Blondell (as Nan Prescott), Ruby Keeler (as Bea Thorn), Dick Powell (as Scott Blair), Frank McHugh (as Francis), Ruth Donnelly (as Harriet Bowers Gould), Guy Kibbee (as Silas Gould), Hugh Herbert (as Charlie Bowers), Claire Dodd (as Vivian Rich), Renee Whitney (as Cynthia Kent), Paul Porcasi (as George Apolinaris), and Barbara Rogers (as Gracie). Musical numbers directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Music by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, and Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal.

It is hard to believe that the pre-Code Footlight Parade is James Cagney’s first musical film. The actor, who became a superstar because of the gangster film The Public Enemy (1931), had actually trained as a singer and dancer on Broadway before making the leap to movies. But Footlight Parade is not merely notable for being Cagney’s debut as a tap-dancing featured player. It is an outstanding work … Read the rest

42nd Street (1933)

42nd Street (1933).  89 minutes.  Directed by Lloyd Bacon.  Musical sequences directed by Busby Berkeley.  Starring Ruby Keeler (as Peggy Sawyer), Warner Baxter (as Julian Marsh), Bebe Daniels (as Dorothy Brock), George Brent (as Pat Denning), Guy Kibbee (as Abner Dillon), Ginger Rogers (as Ann Lowell), and Dick Powell (as Billy Lawler).  Music and lyrics by Harry Warren and Al Dubin.

42nd Street is the first of four movies whose musical sequences Busby Berkeley directed for Warner Bros. from 1933 to 1934.  Prior to 42nd Street, Berkeley had directed theatrical productions and short sequences for Eddie Cantor musicals, but 42nd Street was a different sort of vehicle, both for Berkeley and for Hollywood.  According to Leonard Maltin, by 1933 movie-going audiences, which had been inundated with musicals since the birth of sound film technology a few years earlier, had grown tired of song-and-dance productions.  As a musical that was also a backstage story, 42nd Street offered a fresh … Read the rest